Prior to Leaving for Iowa
Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez homered, and Mark Prior got his final 2007 ST start before being optioned to AAA Iowa, as the Cubs and Rockies battled to a ten-inning 4-4 tie in front of a capacity crowd of 12,716 at Dwight Patterson Field at HoHoKam Park today in Mesa.
box score
Since the interest in Mark Prior's outings seems to exceed the interest Cubs fans have in most other Cubs pitchers, before I do anything else, I am going to post the pitch-by-pitch play-by-play for the three innings Prior worked.
MARK PRIOR VS COLORADO ROCKIES 3/28 at HOHOKAM PARK
TOP OF 1st INNING:
Willy Taveras batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (swinging)
Pitch 2: Strike 2 (foul bunt)
Pitch 3: Ball 1
Pitch 4: Ball 2
Pitch 5: Ground single to left, between SS and 3B.
Kaz Matsui batting
Pitch 1: Ball 1
Pitch 2: Strike 1 (swinging)
Pitch 3: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 4: Line drive to CF, misplayed by Alfonso Soriano for error, Taveras scores, Matsui to 2nd base.
COMMENT: This was a line drive that Soriano should have played conservatively, allowing it to bounce in front of him for a single, with Taveras advancing to second. Instead, Soriano made a foolish dive-attempt where the ball bounced off his glove as he was hitting the ground, and the ball then bounced past him. This is not the type of chance a centerfielder should take with nobody out and a runner on base.
Garret Atkins batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 3: Ball 1
Pitch 4: Ball 2
Pitch 5: Strike 3 (called)
Atkins strikes out.
One out.
Todd Helton batting
Pitch 1: Ball 1
Pitch 2: Ball 2
Pitch 3: Ball 3 (Wild Pitch - curve bounced into dirt, Matsui advances to 3rd)
Pitch 4: Ball 4
Helton walks, runners now on 1st and 3rd.
Matt Holliday batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Pop up to short left-center, Floyd catches ball, Matsui tags up and scores, Floyd tries to make backhanded flip to Izturis after making catch, ball goes past Izturis, Helton advances to 2nd base. E-7 charged.
Two outs.
COMMENT: This ball was popped into shallow left-center and NEVER should have been a sac fly. Soriano should have just taken charge and made the catch, but instead allowed Floyd (who has trouble starting and stopping) to make the catch, but then of course Floyd couldn't stop and make a throw to the plate, so he tried to flip the ball to Izturis, but the throw was off-target and went past Izturis into LF. Keystone Kops stuff.
Steve Finley batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Ball 1
Pitch 3: Fly out to CF
Three outs
1ST INNING SUMMARY: Two runs (both unearned), one hit, two errors, one left.
MARK PRIOR PITCHES: 23
13 strikes
10 balls
============================
TOP OF 2nd INNING
Troy Tulowitzki batting
Pitch 1: Ball 1
Pitch 2: Lazy fly ball hit to warning track in right-center, ball drops between Soriano and Jones for double.
COMMENT: Once again, Soriano seemed tentative and looked for Jones to make the catch, while Jones (understandably) expected Soriano to catch the ball since Soriano was closer.
Chris Iannetta batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Strike 2 (called)
Pitch 3: One hop chopper to 3B, Ramirez throws out batter at 1st base, Tulowitzki holds at second base.
One out.
Aaron Cook batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (foul bunt)
Pitch 2: Strike 2 (called)
Pitch 3: Ball 1
Pitch 4: Bunt popped up, caught by Prior in front of the mound
Two outs
Willy Taveras batting
Pitch 1: Ball 1
Pitch 2: Strike 1 (foul)
Pitch 3: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 4: Line drive to LF, Floyd comes into make catch, misses ball for two-base error, Tulowitzski scores, Tavarez on second base.
COMMENT: This was an easy line drive to left where Floyd had trouble starting from a standing stop, and just couldn't get to the ball fast enough to make an easy catch, and so once he did get to the ball, it was a much more difficult play, and he missed the catch, as the ball rolled to the LF fence before being retrieved by Soriano.
Kaz Matsui batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Ball 1
Pitch 3: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 4: Ball 2
Pitch 5: Foul
Pitch 6: Strike 3 (swinging)
Three outs
COMMENT: Strike 3 to Matsui was thrown as hard as Prior can throw the ball, and it had some giddyup on it, too, although I do not know the MPH reading.
2ND INNING SUMMARY: One run (unearned), one hit, one error, one left
MARK PRIOR PITCHES: 19
14 strikes
5 balls
=======================================
TOP OF 3rd INNING
Garret Atkins batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (foul)
Pitch 2: Ball 1
Pitch 3: Ball 2
Pitch 4: Ball 3
Pitch 5: Ball 4
Atkins walks
Todd Helton batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (called)
Pitch 2: Ball 1
Pitch 3: Pop-up, caught by Ramirez in foul territory
One out
Matt Holliday batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (foul)
Pitch 2: Ball 1
Pitch 3: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 4: Ball 2
Pitch 5: Pop fly into short RF, caught by second-baseman Mark DeRosa.
Two out
Steve Finley batting
Pitch 1: Strike 1 (foul)
Pitch 2: Strike 2 (foul)
Pitch 3: Ball 1 (Wild Pitch - curve ball in dirt skipped past Blanco, Atkins advances to second base)
Pitch 4: Foul
Pitch 5: Strike 3 (swinging)
Three outs
COMMENT: Outstanding change-up thrown by Prior for strike 3
3RD INNING SUMMARY: No runs, no hits, one left
MARK PRIOR PITCHES: 18
10 strikes
8 balls
MARK PRIOR THREE INNING TOTAL:
3 IP
2 H
3 R
0 ER
2 BB
2 K
2 WP
60 total pitches
37 strikes
23 balls
1/5 GB/FB
=======================================
As you can probably tell, the Cubs piss-poor outfield defense really let Mark Prior down today, with Soriano making a couple of bad decisions, and Cliff Floyd just simply not able to make plays, because he has difficulty stopping and starting. Otherwise, Prior pitched very well, and should not have allowed any runs, and probably shouldn't have allowed more than one hit.
So the Cubs trailed 3-0 heading into the bottom of the 3rd, and Aaron Cook was throwing the ball very well for the Rockies, getting ground ball after ground ball. But Alfonso Soriano managed to golf one of Cook's sinkers over the left-centerfield fence for a two-run HR (Blanco had reached base leading off the inning on a two-base error by third baseman Garret Atkins--the ball literally was blasted right between his legs and into the LF corner).
Michael Wuertz replaced Prior to start the 4th inning, and threw the ball much better than he did yesterday when he gave up consecutive home runs to his first two batters. Wuertz went one inning today, throwing 14 pitches, allowing a lead-off walk, but then getting a couple of strikeouts (Iannetta and Tavarez).
Angel Guzman was brought into the game in the 5th, and went three innings (45 pitches 16-15-14, throwing 28 strikes and 17 balls, with a 3/4 GB/FB), facing the Rockies' starting lineup the first time through the order, and then mostly minor leaguers (plus back-up guys like John Mabry and Jamey Carroll) the second time through. Gooz allowed one run (earned) on two hits and one walk, with one K, in his three innings. And he did look sharp.
Meanwhile, the Cubs tied the game in the bottom of the 6th on back-to-back home runs leading off the inning, as Derrek Lee (HR over the RF fence into the Cubs bullpen) and Aramis Ramirez (HR over the Budweiser sign in left-center) took Rockies LOOGY Tom Martin deep. I doubt that a LOOGY like Martin would face D-Lee/A-Ram during the regular season, though, unless it was a "garbage" situation in a blow-out.
Neal Cotts replaced Guzman in the 8th and threw one inning (and a LOT of pitches in that one inning--24 to be exact), but he did not allow any runs or hits, and finished with one BB and one K.
Ryan Dempster pitched the 9th, and retired the Rockies on 20 pitches, walking John Mabry before getting a strikeout and a FC to end the inning. Federico Baez once again was the extra innings "emergency pitcher," working the 10th inning where gave up a two-out double off the CF hitting background that was misplayed into a triple by Soriano (he got too close to the wall, and so the ball bounced back over his head into medium CF) and a walk before retiring the side.
On offense, Soriano and Ramirez were both 2-5 with a HR and a single. Ramirez's HR was his seventh of the Spring, while Soriano's was his 4th and D-Lee's was his 3rd. The Cubs also drew four walks today (Jacque Jones twice, and Cedeno and Lee once each). The Cubs struck out only once all day, and that was PH Robinson Chirinos, who was called up from minor league camp just for the day.
Carlos Zambrano was scheduled to pitch in the AAA game versus the Giants' AAA Fresno affiliate at Fitch Park, and Donald Veal was the starting pitcher in the AA game, but I had to leave before the games started to get to HoHoKam for the first pitch.
The Cubs play their final game in Arizona tomorrow, facing the hometown Diamondbacks, who will be making their one and only 2007 ST appearance at HoHoKam Park. Wade Miller is the scheduled starter for the Cubs.
Tomorrow's game will be starting at 12 noon local time and it will have a nine inning "curfew" (no extra innings), which will give the Cubs an extra hour to beat the traffic and get to Sky Harbor Airport to catch their flight to Las Vegas, where they will be playing the Seattle Mariners in a two-game pre-season exhibition series this weekend.
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