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40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Garrett Cooper
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

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Game 53 Recap: Cubs 2, Dodgers 1

1010-1010

W- Howry (1-2 ), getting to a W/L record against the Dodgers franchise that looks like binary.

L- Park (1-1 ), not getting Z a win, inconsistent strike zones

 

Things to Take from This Game

1. Lowe rolls, Z keeps us in it.

Derek Lowe looked pretty unstopable. After getting Lee to GIDP with the first two hitters on in the first, Lowe didn't look like he was challenged much by the Cubs offense all night. Z didn't have his best stuff, but labored through 8 innings and 130 pitches while only giving up one run. That came in the fourth, the result of a couple singles followed by two walks, the second one bringing in a run. It would have been a miserable way to lose a 1-0 game, but...

 

2. The top of the 8th vs. the bottom of the 9th.

The Dodgers had a chance to add some insurance runs in the 8th, as the Cubs defense lets Zambrano down and he's suddenly nearing 130 pitches with a bullpen that has just begun to warm up. Z gets out of it, however striking out Kemp and keeping the game at 1-0. Compare that to the bottom of the 9th, where Saito has a very, very rare fit of wildness. Like Z, he battles hard with far from his best stuff, but Soto manages a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to tie up the game at one.

 

3. Pulling out a tough win in the 10th

Pinch-hitting, Fontenot lined a double into the left-center gap. Soriano then hit a little blooper down the left field line that just did drop in fair territory. Fontenot scored uncontested, giving a very satisfying result to a hard-fought nail-biter of a game.

The sweeping details, below.

Game Recap

Inning 1 - Top

  • Z begins by going 2-0 on Pierre.
  • and after a 3-1 count, walks on a low and inside fastball to lead off the game
  • 0-2 count to Maza. Who is Maza?!?
  • Z doing a nice job of holding Pierre close, nearly picks him off on two consecutive attempts.
  • Maza grounds one slowly a few feet to the SS side of the 2B bag. Theriot waits for it to come to him, steps on the bag just ahead of Pierre, and throws to first for the DP.
  • Ethier pulls a grounder to DeRosa's left. He makes a nice running dive for it, gets up and throws Ethier out. Nice defensive inning for the middle infield

Inning 1 - Bottom

  • Soriano pulls one through the left side hole for a single.
  • Theriot inside-outs one through the right side hole, also for a single. Soriano to second.
  • Lee taps one back to Lowe, 1-4-3 GIDP. Soriano to third. Nuts.
  • Ramirez walks on a 3-2 pitch just outside.
  • Fukudome hits one on the ground to Hu, who takes it to the 2B bag.

Inning 2 - Top

  • Martin singles to left.
  • Loney hits a grounder to DeRosa, easy 4-6-3.
  • Kemp walks. Z squeezed a bit, not too thrilled
  • Z shatters Dewitt's bat on a check-swing foul. Pretty nasty to watch.
  • Dewitt hits a foul down the left field line. A fan reaches out for it and.... the Cubs left fielder catches it, ending the inning. That's nice.

Inning 2- Bottom

  • Soto hits a sharp liner to left, but it is hit hard enough for Pierre to come in and make a diving catch.
  • DeRosa bounces out to Dewitt.
  • and Johnson bounces to Hu. Easy innning for Lowe.

Inning 3 - Top

  • Hu lines out to Fukudome
  • Lowe grounds out to second
  • Z has Pierre 0-2, and throws a fastball strike on the outside corner. Except it's called a ball. Z comes back two pitches later to K Pierre swinging at a fastball.

Inning 3 - Bottom

  • Z K's swinging
  • Soriano bloops one to shallow right, Maza catches it.
  • Theriot grounds to Hu. 7 in a row for Lowe

Inning 4 - Top

  • Maza flies to Johnson
  • Ethier grounds to Lee unassisted
  • Martin grounds to left for a single.
  • Loney singles up the middle. Martin makes a big turn around second, Johnson throws in behind him to second, but Martin makes it back to the bag. 1 and 2 with 2 outs
  • Z loses control of a slider, right into the back of Kemp. Bases loaded.
  • and now it's 2-0 on Dewitt. Uh oh.
  • Z with a bad check-swing to go to a 2-2 count. Fans are on their feet
  • 3-2 count on an outside fastball.
  • Ball 4 on a low and outside fastball. Martin comes in to score. 1-0. All of this with two outs, as Len reminds us.
  • Hu rolls out to DeRosa, ending the inning

Inning 4 - Bottom

  • Lee lofts a big fly ball, just short of the warning track in center.
  • Ramirez walks.
  • Fukudome lines a single into right, Ramirez has to stop at second.
  • Soto pops to Hu.
  • DeRosa with a foul-tip strikeout. Two more LOB.

Inning 5 - Top

  • Lowe bounces out to Theriot.
  • Pierre lines out to Theriot.
  • Maza lines out to Fukudome. Quick inning for Z

Inning 5 - Bottom

  • Johnson flips the bat at a two strike pitch on the corner, almost dumps it down the right field line for a double, just foul
  • and now he dumps a blooper into left, and Pierre comes in to make another diving catch, this one diving more towards his right. Nice catch.
  • Z K's swinging at three straight pitches
  • and Soriano K's swinging at a slider low and outside.

Inning 6 - Top

  • Ethier Walks
  • Martin then bounces into an easy 6-4-3 DP. Yet another clean turn on the DP, so nice to watch.
  • Loney flies out to Fukudome

Inning 6 - Bottom

  • Theriot swings and misses at a slider, striking out.
  • Lee with a slow, shallow roller to Hu, out at first.
  • Ramirez lines out to Ethier, another 1-2-3 inning.

Inning 7 - Top

  • Kemp with a slow roller to Ramirez, who throws high and wide of first. Looks like he would have been safe, regardless. Nice catch by Lee on the throw.
  • Dewitt grounds to Lee, Kemp advancing to 2nd
  • Z tries to pick off Kemp; it's really close, but with ball, Kemp and Derosa all arriving at the same time, the ball rolls away. DeRosa sort of falls over onto Kemp to keep him from advancing.
  • Hu grounds to DeRosa, Kemp to third.
  • Lowe with a soft liner to Fukudome, out of the inning

Inning 7 - Middle

  • Sutcliffe does the stretch, wearing a Cubs hat and jersey. Nice rendition, laughing a bit as he finishes up. Gets a nice hand from the fans, and throws his cap out of the booth and into the stands.

Inning 7 - Bottom

  • Fukudome with a shallow chopper to second. Runs very hard, but is out by a step.
  • Soto grounds one just to the left of Dewitt, for a single. Looks like Dewitt wiffed a bit on the attempt to catch it.
  • And DeRosa hits into a 5-4-3 to end the inning. Lowe is making this look simple.

Inning 8 - Top

  • Pierre grounds out to second. Be sure to mark it off your Juan Pierre Bingo card.
  • Maza K's looking at a slider.
  • Crowd cheering on Z to finish off the inning with a strikeout.
  • Instead, Ethier lines a one-hopper to DeRosa, which eats him up and goes in to right for an error. Didn't have too much time to get in front of it, but still, did play it off to his left side a bit.
  • Z hits 120 pitches for the night as he faces Martin
  • They're scoring Ethier's ball as a hit? wow.
  • Martin grounds one solidly through the left side hole. Runners on 1 and 2
  • Just now we get Howry warming up in the pen.
  • Loney with a bit of a slow roller right at Theriot. He makes a slight bobble, therefore needing to throw to first, and hurries the throw, which one-hops Lee. Lee can't pick it, and the bases are now loaded. Error on Theriot. Wow, this inning got ugly, quickly.
  • LouPa comes out, and doesn't pull Z. Z stays in with 125 pitches thrown, to face Kemp
  • Crowd again cheering on Z at an 0-2 count.
  • 130 pitches....
  • Kemp K's staring at a slider with a bit of hang to it, that nips the inside corner. Phew, phew, phew.

Inning 8 - Bottom

  • Jonathan Broxton, who is a Very Large Man, in to pitch.
  • Broxton blows a 98 mph fastball past Johnson
  • Hoffpauir in to hit for Z.
  • No good comes of swinging at 99 mph fastballs at the letters. Hoffpauir K's
  • Or 96 mph fastballs at the letters. It probably was more hitable than the 83 mph knee-buckling slider on the corner, but either way, Soriano K's.

Inning 9 - Top

  • Ascanio makes his Wrigley Field debut.
  • Dewitt bloops to Theriot.
  • Hu flies out to Johnson
  • Mark Sweeney hits for Broxton. 0 for his last 15, he walks.
  • Eyre warming up
  • Pierre K's looking at a bit of a hanging curve.

Inning 9 - Bottom

  • Saito in to pitch.
  • Saito walks Theriot to lead off the ninth.
  • Now 2-0 on Lee. Very rare for Saito to have any sort of control problems.
  • 3-2 on Lee
  • Theriot runs, and Saito throws a fastball that drifts into the inner-corner of the plate. Lee yanks it deep but foul down the left field line
  • On a breaking pitch, Lee flies out to left. Tough battle.
  • Saito hangs a 2-2 slider to Ramirez, who fouls it back.
  • Saito certainly doesn't have his good stuff. A fastball way high goes to 3-2 count.
  • Next pitch, Saito throws a fastball over Martin's head, to the backstop. Bounces right back, so Theriot can only go to second as Ramirez walks.
  • Fukudome vs. Saito
  • Cedeno runs for Ramirez
  • Huge chants of Foo Koo Doh May
  • 2-0 count
  • Fukudome hits a tough hopper to Loney's right, who makes a nice play on it. He tosses to Saito at first, and on a very close play, Fukudome is called safe. It's an odd play, as the throw is behind Saito and he has to stretch his glove arm back a ways to grab it. As he does, his foot just does barely miss the corner of the bag. Bases loaded for Soto, one out
  • 2-0 on Soto
  • 3-1 on Soto.
  • Soto swings through a fastball, 3-2
  • Soto flies just short of the warning track in right. Theriot scores, Cedeno to third, 1-1 game.
  • Fukudome takes second, uncontested
  • As Len points out, with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and a tie game and a runner on third, Fukudome should just stand on second base and not move
  • A fastball gets away from Saito, up and in on DeRosa. Just does get out of the way
  • 3-1 on DeRosa. Waves at a slider, 3-2.
  • Saito cranking up the fastball to the low 90s, DeRosa fouling it off
  • Finally, DeRosa gets jammed a bit, flies out to Right. Throws his bat to the ground in frustration.

Inning 10 - Top

  • DeRosa to third, Cedeno to second, Howry in
  • Maza with a grounder up the middle. Howry had been going away and making Maza look bad, but Brenly observes that the Cubs help Maza out by going inside on him.
  • Howry K's Ethier on a fastball on the outside corner.
  • Martin pops to shallow center.
  • Loney K's swinging at an inside fastball

Inning 10 - Bottom

  • Chan Ho Park relieves Saito. Heh. On a night where Fernando Tatis is playing for the Mets, and with Scot Elarton also called up. I'm amused.
  • Johnson flies to left
  • Fontenot pinch hits for Howry.
  • Fontenot slices a double into the left-center gap.
  • Soriano reaches for a low and away breaking ball, and flips the bat at it, blooping it down the left field line. It lands just fair, between the bullpen plate and mound. Fontenot scores uncontested, and the team runs to congratulate Soriano between first and the pitcher's mound. Cubs win, 2-1.

Parachat Recap

Inning 1

  • Three Cheers for Sutcliffe
  • WGN's new logo: we don't like it.
  • Your Daily Moment of Bush Chest-Bumping an Officer.
  • Humberto Cota: Busted.
  • How do you walk Pierre?
  • Whirlyball.
  • "non-cartoon based insurance." Does anyone buy it?
  • We are not fans of Brett Myers. (Duh.)

Inning 2

  • The Sanctity of Marriage, Southern-style
  • How to cook pork.
  • Parachat interfering with relationships
  • Rotoworld's biases
  • Bad '08 offenses.
  • Honorary Catholics
  • Honorary Jews
  • Tom Cruise's anti-fire witchcraft
  • Switching Folger's crystals with crystal meth.

Inning 3

  • Good years and bad years to watch the Cubs on acid.
  • Man's worst nightmare. ~wince~
  • Can you trust TCR? (Yes. Trust me, you can.)
  • Pistons or Red Wings, who gets better ratings in Detroit tonight? (Who cares about Detroit?)

Inning 4

Inning 5

Inning 6

  • Rickrolling has jumped the shark.
  • Accidental pasting.

Inning 7

Inning 8

  • Old women love Pat Hughes
  • DeRosa's error
  • Why wasn't anyone warming up?
  • Why is LouPa leaving Z in?
  • Anxiously watching Z struggle through the inning.
  • Teen-witch dark-comedy/drama TV series at the turn of the century
  • Ooohing and Ahhing at Broxton's stuff.

Inning 9

  • Evaluating Ascanio's stuff.
  • The Braves' extreme Home/Road split
  • Turner Field in August.
  • Dairy Queen Commercials
  • Herpes Commercials
  • RALLY BEES!
  • Desperately cheering on the Cubs.
  • PONIES!?
  • RALLY ARABIC!
  • "It's like the Civil War, only minus Abe Lincoln and add Ronny Cedeno" - bizmarquis.
  • More cheering
  • Accusations that I'm using parachat to sabotage the Cubs rally.

Inning 10

  • Crunch recycles a "hey, look at my bizarre you tube video I found" link, IN THE SAME GAME. Pretty lame, Crunch.
  • Is Crunch getting sent to the Parachat AAA team? If so, who do we call up?
  • We still don't like the new WGN logo
  • Johann arrives. We notice.
  • Manute Bol's stint as a minor league hockey player.
  • Whipple loves the Manute Bol Meme
  • and this picture.
  • RALLY ARABIC!!!!!!
  • Craziness in parachat as Cubs win.

Recap record goes to 7-3.

 

Tags

Comments

"1. Lowe rolls, Z keeps us in it. Derek Lowe looked pretty unstopable. After getting Lee to GIDP with the first two hitters on in the first, Lowe didn't look like he was challenged much by the Cubs offense all night. Z didn't have his best stuff, but labored through 8 innings and 130 pitches while only giving up one run. That came in the fourth, the result of a couple singles followed by two walks, the second one bringing in a run. It would have been a miserable way to lose a 1-0 game, but..." So giving up 1 run in 8 innings is just keeping us in it? Are you nuts! Granted he didn't have his best stuff, his sinker was working and got out of jams with, what, 3 dps? Sure Lowe was 'better' but I'll take 8 innings of that labor every outing.

quite a little season we have going here. 22-8...wow. i flew back to chicago for monday/tuesday games....needless to say my wardrobe was not prepared for either extreme. i'm moving back to chicago in about three weeks, shaping up to be quite a summer. is this heaven? if marquis gets a quality start tomorrow, then i say yes.

Looks like Ascanio has moved ahead of Wuertz on Lou's list. If Wuertz, Howry and Ascanio can get rolling, good news all around -- and fewer innings for Marmol.

um....it's three in a row, not 4. memorial day was a day game, so tues-weds-thurs nights before fri-sat-sun days. pretty standard.

Loved the Soto AB in the 9th. He seems to be pretty much a pull hitter, but, with the game on the line in the 9th and 2 strikes, he drives one to right-cener to bring in the tying run. Very impressive. Unfortunately, with Bruce now playing for Cincy, he may not be the ROY lock we thought.

Tonight marks the exact one-third point of the season...Cubs have 32 wins going into tonight -- but, given their home/away split, mulitplying tonight's win total by 3 would be a bit misleading. HR stats should improve with the warmer weather -- it has been a particularly nasty spring to hit at Wrigley. Makes the severe home/away BA splits a bit hard to understand.

I'm told Jeremy Gonzalez, pitcher who was pitching to Sammy when his corked bat exploded, was struck by lightening and killed. He won 11 games for the Cubs in '97, apparently. This is all second-hand, so sorry if the facts are inaccurate. I'm still deciding if joking about this is bad form.

Corey (hitting .180 in May) joins Felix at AAA to "work out some kinks in his swing." Tough move at age 28. Rich Hill can relate.

the top menu bar now has drop-down items on it when you hover over them, instead of having to click on them. The only items with any "children" is "TCR Junk Drawer" for now.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

My phone blew up around noon when the news apparently started making its way around. My only guess is that they're hoping it takes 2-3 years for Beasley/Rose to develop, and by the Kobe will have retired. Then Phil "retires," Collins is fired, Phil rejoins the Bulls and we win another 6. In reality though it's probably just another bad hire.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Did anyone tell Collins that MJ, Pippen and Grant are all gone? Interesing that both MJ and Pax (apparently) have hired their former coach.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

This is pretty interesting. However, since Gallardo is out for the year, and has a tiny MLB hitting track record (Pie "tore up" the minor leagues, too), he's gotta get dropped down. Also, Hernandez is too big to run, thereby destroying Silver's own theory that the good hitting pitchers are usually "athletic". Dropped! So, based on this, Official TCR policy should have Z as 3rd best hitting pitcher in MLB, and Marquis, 4th.

Though not as much. Wrigley Field to host Blackhawks-Red Wings game this winter. Who's going to sing the second-intermission stretch?

[ ]

In reply to by SheffieldCornelia

All things Chicago today: I guess I like the Collins hire, but I suppose I'd rather have someone new like Avery Johnson. My only question is how good of a coach he really is. He had a pretty good transition in Dallas to succeed. We pretty much know what we're getting with Collins. I'm still a hockey (and Hawks) fan, so I'm excited about the game. So long as they get Messmer to sing the National Anthem, they can do whatever else they want with it.

Unless Collins has had a major personality change over the past decade, not such a good hire for the Bulls. He was out of control at the end of his last tenure here, going so far as to bar both Jackson and Winter from the team's pre - game workouts (he was paranoid that they were after his job, apparently). Then there was the playoff game where he went after Mahorn (Detroit), and was subsequently thrown over the scorer's table. The guy was really wacked - out, and his emotional state directly affected the team's attitude at the end. Nothing wrong with being fiery, but he was something else entirely last time around.

"So long as they get Messmer to sing the National Anthem, they can do whatever else they want with it." And bring back Pat Foley in the booth as well.

Collins' tenure here ended about 15 years ago, hardly fair to base much on that. He's had two jobs since then. Granted, he didn't do much during those jobs, but still...

Collins is a good "teaching" coach and that is they needed. He was an above-average coach record wise and GM's only get 2 hires on average (Carwright and Boylan were temps) so Pax wanted a guy he knew could win.

"There have been rumors of him, the extramarital kind, and a spouse of one of the Bull upper management." The story making the rounds those years was that his hotel room was a revolving door of different women, and that he had a substance abuse problem as well. That helps explain why there was no warning of his imminent firing, and why he didn't protest the decision at the time it was made.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    steele MRI on friday.  counsell expects an IL stint.

    no current plans for his rotation replacement.

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Use pitchers when you believe they're good. Don't plan their clock.

    I'm sorry. I'm simply anti-clock/contract management. Play guys when they show real MLB potential talent.

    If Brown hadn't been hurt with the Lat Strain he would've gotten the call, and not Wick.

    Give him a chance. 

    But Wesneski probably gets it

  • crunch (view)

    alzolay...bro...