Cubs 11 Brewers 4, Cubs sweep!
Getty Photo/Jonathan Daniel
Box score. The Cubs take the fourth and final game of this road series, sweep the second-place Brewers, and cruise to their fifth in a row. The Cubs outscore the Brewers 31-11 in the series. This is the Cubs’ first 4-game road sweep since 2004 in Houston.
Edmonds homers in the 3rd, a solo shot, then follows it up with a grand slam in the 4th. Soriano added on another solo shot in the 8th, his 18th, as does Fukudome, his 8th. Them north side boys is on fire. It’s fantastic to see everybody producing. It seems like every night a different guy steps up and gets things rolling.
More solid pitching for Harden, and finally some run support. He goes 7, strikes out 9, and gives up 6 hits, no walks, and a single run. He threw 105 pitches, and earns his first win with the Cubs. Howry pitched the 8th: 1 BB, 1 K, 0 H, 0 R. Eyre is back in game action after a stint on the DL, and pitches the start of the 9th: 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER. Marshall finishes it: 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 K.
Brewers’ reliever Eric Gagné gets tossed in the 9th after throwing at Edmonds on a 3-0 count. Gagné missed Edmonds, because Gagné sucks. Edmonds is the bigger man, and takes his base. The umpires issue official warnings to both teams afterward. The very next pitch, from Seth McClung, is very high and tight to Soto, but the umpires take no action. Soto proceeds to double off McClung, and Fontenot doubles right after, driving in Edmonds and Soto.
Prince Fielder also gets tossed, in the bottom of the 9th, for barking at the umpire about an earlier pitch call after popping out, and shattering his bat on the ground.
With this win, the Cubs are now 5 up on the Brewers, and 4.5 up on the Cardinals (until their game with the Braves this evening).
Cubs 7 Brewers 2
AP Photo/Darren Hauck
Box score. The Cubs take the third game of this series from the Brewers and their fourth in a row, in dominant fashion (Cubbie swagger son). They’ll look for the sweep tomorrow, a day game at 1:05 CT (TV: WGN).
More strong offense from the blazing Cubs: 14 hits, 8 walks, a double, a triple, and 7 runs. Like yesterday, the Cubs manage to get it done with no home runs. Soriano is 3-4, Theriot 3-3 with 3 RBI and a steal, and Johnson 3-5.
Another day of great starting pitching. Dempster goes 7, giving up 5 hits and a walk, 9 Ks, and 1 ER. Again, the Cubs send their starter back out in the 8th, after having already thrown 111 pitches. However, after Dempster warms up, Lou pulls him and goes to the bullpen to start the inning. Gaudin pitches a perfect 8th with a K. Cotts pitches the 9th: 1 K, 1 H (a HR to Prince Fielder), 1 ER. Dempster is now 3-0 versus the Brewers this season.
AP Photo/Darren Hauck
NL Central standings:
Chicago 64-44 -- Milwaukee 60-48 4 GB St. Louis 61-49 4 GB
NL wild card standings:
Milwaukee 60-48 -- St. Louis 61-49 -- New York 58-50 2.0 GB Florida 57-51 3.0 GB Los Angeles 54-53 5.5 GB
The Cubs have 54 regular season games remaining: 7 against the Brewers, 9 against the Cardinals, 28 at home, 26 on the road, and their remaining opponents’ winning percentage is .500.
Cubs 7 Brewers 1
Getty Photo/Jonathan Daniel
Box score. 45,069 on hand to see the Cubs explode for 5 in the 6th, in one of the most satisfying innings of the season on the road, against the rival Brewers. The Cubs capture their third straight win. In the game, Aramis racks up three doubles and a single, Fukudome doubles and tripes, Theriot triples, and the Brewers’ defense certainly doesn’t hurt the Cubs. Also, Soriano and Theriot each steal a base. Cubbies end up with 15 hits, a walk, and 7 runs.
Big Z was great, striking out 9 in 8 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 walks, and no runs. He also helps his cause with a single and an RBI. The guy can rake. I’m not quite sure why they sent Zambrano back out in the 8th. He had thrown 103 pitches through 7, and the lead was 6 runs. He ends up throwing 118. It might be nice to give the bullpen some, like, practice, with a big lead. They need it.
Getty Photo/Jonathan Daniel
Samardzija did come in and pitch the 9th: 1 K, 1 BB, 1 H, 1 ER.
Kerry Wood update: still on the DL, but was eligible to return tonight. Seems like he’ll be back soon.
Len and Bob lost their audio feed for a couple of minutes in this game. All you could hear was the fans and the sounds of the actual game. It was amazing. It’s not that I dislike Len and Bob, I actually like them quite a bit, it was just a huge relief not to hear constant (often inane) talking, and to be able to think about the game for yourself. They should really offer a commentary-free broadcast of every game.
Tomorrow’s game is the ESPN game, Dempster vs. Parra, at 7pm CT.
Cubs 63-44 -- Brewers 60-47 3.0 GB Cardinals 60-49 4.0 GB
The billion dollar men
Five groups have made the Tribune Co.’s cut to continue bidding on the Cubs and Wrigley Field. All groups remaining have bid at least $1 billion. The heads of the approved groups are:
Mark Cuban. Billionaire entrepreneur, often-controversial owner of the Dallas Mavericks, founder of HDNet. Attended University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University. Keeps a wonderful blog here. Was once on Dancing with the Stars. He got eighth. Personally, I am all for Cuban becoming the owner. He is clearly smart, and would no doubt be passionate and knowledgeable. Also, he is by far the easiest to obtain information on, so it is easiest to picture his ownership. He supposedly matches all fines levied on him by the NBA with a matching charitable donation.
Tom Ricketts. Chief executive of investment bank Incapital, AB and MBA from the University of Chicago. Greatest accomplishment? “Starting Incapital from scratch, and being back in the market as a major underwriter of bonds in a very short period of time. What Incapital’s done on a relatively small budget is unprecedented. Small investment banks don’t underwrite $40 billion in debt and open European offices. It’s unique, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.” Fascinating.
Michael Tokarz. Chairman of business development company MVC Capital, BA and MBA from the University of Illinois. Joining Tokarz’s group is a group led by New York City taxi mogul Andrew Murstein, Sports Properties Acquisitions Corp. SPA includes Hank Aaron and Jack Kemp. Also part of Tokarz’s group is “private equity investor and Republican operative” Fred Malek, who in the past has bid on the Nationals and owned a piece of the Rangers.
Hersch Klaff. Real estate investor in Chicago, born in South Africa, “in 1982, his first big deal was arranging (with partners), to buy the old Marshall Fields men’s building in downtown Chicago and redevelop it into a multi-tenant retail, office and medical complex.”
Leo Hindery. Media investor, runs New York-based InterMedia Partners, used to run the Yankee’s YES network. He was presidential candidate John Edwards’s Senior Economic Policy Advisor 2006 to 2008, supposedly there was talk of him becoming the head of the Democratic National Committee in 2004, and he is currently an advisor to Barack Obama.
The stated goal of the Tribune Co. is to maximize revenues from the sale. Reports from Comcast SportsNet say that Cuban’s bid was highest, at $1.3 billion. There are also tax issues, which may eventually determine the winning bidder, aside from the size of the bids. Here is coverage in the Sun-Times as well as as Crain’s.
Sadly, dreams of a Bill Murray ownership don’t seem likely to be realized. But seriously, how cool would it be if this guy owned the Cubs?
Those guys at Fenway
Dennis Drinkwater (Boston.com)
I’ve been watching a lot of the All-Red Sox Network (ESPN) lately, and I’ve always wondered who those two guys always sitting right behind home plate at Fenway are. One dude sits directly behind home plate, and the other dude sits a bit to the right, and looks quite a bit like my girlfriend’s father. So I did some digging.
Mr. Directly Behind Home is Dennis Drinkwater, the president of Giant Glass. Mr. Off To The Right is Jeremy Kapstein, a former baseball super-agent and now “Senior Advisor/Baseball Projects” for the Red Sox.
Jeremy Kapstein (AP)
I get a real kick out of these guys, especially Kapstein. I can remember about one time he ever applauded anything that happened in the game. I’ve never seen him eat a hot dog. I remember once he drank some water. He never flinches when balls are fouled back. A real pro. I remember after Manny Ramirez’s walk-off home run in last year’s ALDS, right when Manny made contact, Kapstein immediately got up and darted for the exit. Gotta beat the rush.
Speaking of Manny’s walk-off, you can see Drinkwater’s face in the background here, and you can see Kapstein heading for the exit here (in the suit, back turned).
These guys are a somewhat different breed of fan than Pink Hat Guy, the guy often behind home plate at Wrigley. I could only find this (not great) photo. No one argues more vehemently with the umpires than him, and you can often actually hear him on the television broadcasts. In fact, it might do him some good to calm down a bit. But hey, he loves the Cubs, I love the Cubs, there you go… His real name: Jim Anixter, president of wire and cable company A-Z Industries. Reportedly he has launched a couple of unsucessful bids to buy the Cubs.
Cubs 6 Brewers 4
AP Photo/Darren Hauck
Box score. It’s official… Alfonso is back. A double in the first, and a home run in the third, and a stolen base. The Cubs win something of a wild one in Milwaukee, and are now two up on the Brewers, and four on the Cardinals.
Lilly was solid through 5, but then looked all too Lilly-esque in the 6th, giving up back-to-back homers to Hardy and Braun, and then a double to Hart, surrendering the lead.
Luckily, the Cubs managed to retake the lead on a Weeks throwing error in the 7th, and scored again on a Lee double and DeRosa infield single in the 9th.
The Cubs have three more remaining in this important series with the Brewers. Tomorrow’s game is again at 7:05 CT, on WGN.
We’re taking back the High Life
The Cubs have 57 games remaining in the regular season. Ten of those are against 2nd-place Milwaukee, and four of those start today at Miller Park. This is without question the most important series thus far for the Cubs.
Here’s a look at the matchups:
- Mon. July 28, Lilly (4.49 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) vs. Sabathia (3.30, 1.15)
- Tues. July 29, Zambrano (2.96, 1.24) vs. Sheets (2.87, 1.13)
- Wed. July 30, Dempster (2.99, 1.17) vs. Parra (3.72, 1.48)
- Thu. July 31, Harden (2.10, 1.10) vs. Bush (4.51, 1.18)
And here are the teams’ stat lines this season:
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG SB CS GDP
CHC 105 3660 549 1016 213 13 120 520 413 779 .278 .355 .441 55 25 83
MIL 105 3595 494 919 218 20 137 476 342 766 .256 .326 .442 73 25 59
G ERA W L SV GS GF IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP
CHC 105 3.86 61 44 31 105 104 946.3 877 439 406 111 358 798 44
MIL 105 4.03 60 45 36 105 99 939.0 923 464 420 114 354 713 27
Monday on CSN, Tuesday and Thursday on WGN, and Wednesday is the ESPN game.
Random stats: those were the runs
For fun, here are the fifteen best historical offensive seasons by Cubs players, as measured by a very simple version of Pete Palmer’s linear weights method. The numbers are “batting runs,” measured in runs above average. Ten runs above average corresponds to roughly one win above average added in a season.
For comparison, Geovany Soto is on pace for something like 14 runs above average this year, Derrek Lee for 16 or so, and Aramis Ramirez for something like 17.5.
By this metric, the best three seasons by any player were 136.5 for Bonds in ‘04, 135.9 for Bonds in ‘01, and 135.7 by Ruth in ‘21. Sosa’s great ‘01 season is 22nd all-time. It’s amazing that three of the top 15 seasons came in 1930. That year’s Cubs averaged 6.5 runs per game.
One can also calculate runs above average for pitching and fielding, and I will post these soon. Let’s get a whole bunch of runs above average tomorrow!
(As an aside, the figures for Hack Wilson, Hornsby, Cuyler, and English may deserve an asterisk, as caught stealing data is not available for their seasons. Instead, steals are removed from their calculations. Notably, Kiki Cuyler did have 37 successful steals in ‘30, so his figure is likely even higher. Gabby Hartnett of homer in the gloamin’ fame was also on those ‘30 Cubs.)
Marlins 6 Cubs 9
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
Box score. The elusive offense returns, and the Cubs get homers from Soriano (three-run shot) and Lee (solo shot) and doubles from Theriot, Fontenot, and Aramis, and 9 runs on 12 total hits. The Cubs went down 5-0 early, but manage to battle back and win an important game on a day where both Milwaukee and St. Louis lost. The Cubs will now head to Milwaukee for a key series, up one on the Brewers and up four on the Cardinals.
Marquis was awful, and was doing nothing except grooving fastballs to the free-swinging, MLB home run leading Marlins. The relievers, Gaudin for an inning and Samardzija for two, were perfect, thankfully.
A funny moment in today’s game. Dan Uggla smashed a home run onto Waveland in the 5th, which was caught by resident ballhawk Dave Davidson (who blogs here). Dave was caught on national TV switching the baseball out, and launching a replacement ball back onto the field. This is pretty standard practice for ballhawks. (Ballhawks are those guys with gloves, standing usually on the corner of Waveland and Kenmore, waiting for home runs during BP and the games.) Game home runs are rare, and more so now after the bleacher expansion, and highly prized. Being a former ballhawk for a few months, I can understand. I caught 5 batting practice home runs, and certainly wouldn’t have thrown back a gamer had a I been lucky enough to snag one. Plus, why give the real ball back to an opposing player, if it’s a significant piece of memorabilia, like a player’s first big league home run? Incidentally, Dave is the same guy who caught Barry Bonds’s home run #752 on Sheffield:
Even Hot Dog Guy got some air time. All in all, the broadcast made me homesick for Lakeview.
