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.

Marlins 3 Cubs 2, F/12

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Box score.  It was Aramis vs. Hermida for most of the day today.  Hermida homered again (twice) for the Fish in the 3rd and the 8th, providing the Marlins’ offense, and Aramis had 2 RBI for the Cubs.

However, the Cubs can’t score a single run at home in 9 straight innings and lose by one in 12.

Harden was a great pick-up (even if he has been the world’s toughest luck loser lately).  He has struck out 10 batters in each of his three starts with the Cubs, and given up just 2 total runs in those games.  He went just 5 innings today, giving up 2 hits, 3 walks, 1 ER, and striking out 10.  Sean Marshall came in to relieve in the 6th, and pitched 3 innings, giving up 1 run, with 5 Ks.  He also knocked a single through the right side.  I understand the desire to be cautious (Harden threw just 87 pitches) given Harden’s injury history, but given the struggles of the Cubs’ bullpen lately and the loss of some close games, I’m not quite convinced of the efficiency of that move.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Also, starting pitching is an absolute must in the short playoff series, and if the Cubs keep up the good baseball until the NLDS, they will have Zambrano, Dempster, and Harden to kick off that best-of-five series.

Cotts pitched the first out of the 9th giving up a single.  Marmol relieved him and finished out a scoreless 9th.  Marmol stayed in and completed a scoreless 10th.  Reed Johnson (who entered as a pinch hitter) made a great diving catch in center, saving a likely double, for the second out.  Gaudin came in and pitched a perfect 11th, and continued in the 12th.  Johnson made yet another great play, throwing out Andino trying to stretch a double, yet the Marlins get the go-ahead run on back-to-back doubles.

There was a bit of a delay early in this game as home plate umpire Gerry Davis was hit in the throat protector with a pitch off the glove of Florida catcher John Baker, and left the game.  The rest of the game was worked with a three-man umpiring crew.  This left Livid Lou only three umpires to argue with after a very close play at first in the 9th.  DeRosa grounded to short, and dove head-first into first, and was called out by Rob Drake.  Even after ten replays, it was hard to tell if the call was right, but DeRosa was likely out.  First-base coach Matt Sinatro immediately slammed his helmet down and was tossed.  Lou came out to argue as well, and was tossed shortly thereafter.  Rob Drake also made a couple of questionable check-swing calls in this game, and was the same umpire Theriot was furious with after a caught-stealing call in yesterday’s game.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

The Cubs caught a break yesterday as, even though they dropped a game, so did both Milwaukee and St. Louis.  Houston is at Milwaukee at 6:05 ET, and St. Louis is at NYM at 7:10 ET tonight.

Aramis Watch: HOME RUN!  He knocks one 2/3 of the way up the left field bleachers, with the wind blowing in.  His first in over two weeks.  Also added on a RBI single.  I hereby declare the slump over!

At least for the next couple of hours, Milwaukee is 1/2 a game back, and St. Louis 3 1/2 back.

Marlins 3 Cubs 2

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Box score.  Cubs early runs come off Soto and Johnson solo shots in the 2nd and 5th.  Cubs almost tacked on another in the 5th, but Soriano was thrown out at home, trying to score from second on a Lee single.  Ultimately it wasn’t enough, as the Cubs bat in the 9th down by one, but cannot score.  The Cubs move to 60-43.

Jeff Samardzija made his MLB debut in relief in the top of the 7th, just called up from the Iowa Cubs.  His fastball was consistently in the 95-97 MPH range in the 7th, with some wicked late movement.  He was more under control, and a bit slower, 92 or so, in the 8th.  He worked 2 innings, gave up one run, struck out two, gave up a weak single up the middle to Hanley, a double to Cantu, and threw a wild pitch on a pitchout.  He threw 31 pitches in all.

Howry gave up the Marlins’ go-ahead third run in the top of the 9th, on a solo homer to Hermida, which made it onto Sheffield.  Howry took the loss.

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Fukudome is trying hard to mix things up and get it going back at home.  Notice the “Geovany Soto” stamp on his bat in the photo.  Kosuke was excellent in right field in the game, with a few good catches, and one fantastic catch, jumping up against the ivy.

Milwaukee is temporarily a 1/2 game back, and they will host the Astros at 7:05 tonight.  St. Louis is temporarily 3 1/2 back, and play the Mets in NY at 6:10.  Here’s a look at the current wild card standings in the NL:

Milwaukee     59-43   --
St. Louis     57-47  3.0
Philadelphia  54-48  5.0
Florida       54-49  5.5
Cincinnati    50-53  9.5
Los Angeles   49-52  9.5

Marlins 3 Cubs 6

AP Photo/Jerry Lai

Ford’s in his flivver.  All’s well with the world.  —Brave New World

Box score.  The Cubs return to Wrigley, 41,482 in attendance, and all cylinders are firing.  The Cubs start a fresh winning streak, which has that wonderful new-car smell.  Doubles from Johnson, Ramirez, Big Z, and Soriano; homers from Cedeno and Blanco; 8 hits and 4 walks as a team; and an excellent outing on the mound for Big Z, going 7 strong innings, giving up 6 hits, no walks, and 2 ER, and striking out 6.  DeRosa also had a nice diving catch in right, with the bases loaded and 1 out in the top of the 8th, to likely save at least a couple runs in the inning.

Soto and Fukudome got the night off, which is odd, given Fukudome looked pretty good in last night’s game, and has incredible numbers at Wrigley.  Nevertheless.

The Marlins first two runs came off a Hanley Ramirez homer in the 3rd, and the other off a Gonzalez sac fly in the 8th.

The Brewers came back to nip the Cards today, 4-3.  That means the Brewers remain one back, and Cards drop to 4 back.  Back to day baseball tomorrow, with a 1:20 CT start (TV: WGN).

Fish fry

Home again home again, jiggety-jig.  –Mother Goose

Indeed.  It’s four against the Marlins (Actual W-L: 53-47, Pythagorean W-L: 48-52) at Wrigley, starting tomorrow.  7:05, 1:20, 12:05, and 1:20 Central are the respective start times.  This is our first encounter with the Fish this year.  What’s good for the Goose is good for a gander at some match-ups:

• Thu. July 24th, Zambrano (2.98 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) vs. Olsen (3.84, 1.29)
• Fri. July 25th, Dempster (3.05, 1.16) vs. Johnson (3.86, 1.37, 11 2/3 IP)
• Sat. July 26th, Harden (2.12, 1.11) vs. Volstad (2.16, 1.14, 16 2/3 IP)
• Sun. July 27th, Marquis (4.44, 1.41) vs. VandenHurk (6.10, 1.94, 10 1/3 IP)

Speaking of Henricus “Rick” VandenHurk, he’s the only current major leaguer from the Netherlands (Eindhoven to be precise) and one of only seven Nederlanders ever in MLB.  Notable among those, possible future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, who hails from Zeist.  VandenHurk is also quite high on the list of “most capital letters in a MLB player’s last name.”  But I digress.

Statistical summation:

    G   AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO   BA    OBP   SLG   SB
CHC 100 3482  520  968 201 13 111  491 393  736  .278  .355  .439  53
FLA 100 3432  480  870 174 16 141  463 310  838  .253  .320  .437  49

    G    ERA   W   L  SV  GS  GF   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO
CHC 100  3.87  58  42 29 100  99  898.3  836  418  386 102  337  739
FLA 100  4.58  53  47 20 100 100  895.3  895  505  456 107  393  678

The Cubs really should take 3 or 4 here.  After this series, we head to Milwaukee (one game back) for four games, in what will definitely be the most significant series thus far.  After that, it’s home for nine against other Central foes, including the Cards (three games back).

The Cubs have 61 (regular season) games remaining: 10 against the Brewers and 9 against the Cardinals, 32 home games and 29 away games, and the rest of our opponents have a collective .509 winning percentage.