Recap of Monday Night's Game at Wrigley, By Way of the Twilight Zone
Monday night's game seemed otherworldly from even before the first pitch.
A Wrigley Field home game on a holiday at night? It made scheduling sense, given that the Cubs had to fly all the way east from San Diego following Sunday's game, but it still felt wrong.
Then the lineups were published and owing to a combination of illness, injuries, and an opposing lefthander, we saw Reed Johnson hitting cleanup and an infield of Freel, Theriot, Miles, and Hoffpauir. In other words, the stuff of split squad spring training games.
The game itself was pure freak show: Freddy Sanchez had six hits, Ryan Theriot had three doubles, Ryan Dempster had a dugout tantrum, Ted Lilly was ejected from a game in which he didn't pitch, Pittsburgh's Matt Capps was drilled by a wicked line drive off the bat of Geo Soto, Sean Burnett earned his first career save after 60 Major League appearances, and oh, yeah, the Cubs actually scored some runs.
On the flip side, Neal Cotts was knocked around, and the Cubs lost their eighth game in a row.
So there was something familiar in the air Monday night.
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