Because nine innings isn't enough
If a team wins and there’s no one there to see it, did that win really happen? When Felix Pie hit the eventual game-winning two-run single, there was about seven people sitting behind the backstop. Considering the attendance was just over 9,700 at the beginning of the game, I’m going to guess there was about 450 people left in the entire park to watch it till the end. I mean, I’ve heard more noise made during junior high girls’ basketball games for goodness sake.
Nevertheless, you don’t need a large audience to win ballgames, just timely hitting six innings after regulation. Oh, and excellent pitching.
Ryan Dempster’s stuff looked dirty for a second consecutive start and that makes Cubs fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Seven inning, zero runs and five strikeouts looks good to just about anyone but a pirates fan. Unfortunately neither Carlos Marmol nor Kerry Wood could go an inning without allowing one run each. But both have looked solid so far this season and it’s not the end of the world, especially since the Cubs won. Better these kinks happen now rather than in September.
It’s rare a team scores more runs during the extra innings than in the first nine, but the Cubs managed to do that, outscoring themselves 4-2. Better late than never, I guess. Felix Pie is still hitting just .200 and I’d rather have Reed Johnson starting in centerfield at the moment, but it was a fantastic time for him to get his only hit of the game. And Aramis Ramirez led the team with three hits while driving in two runs of his own.
But the most suprising statistic comes courtesy of Derreck Lee. His bat went ice cold last night and he put up a goose egg on the stat sheet. At least he walked twice. But the worst part was that he left eight runners on base. Eight runners! The Pirates, on the other hand, left 12 runners on base as a team. So thanks a lot Derreck Lee. If it wasn’t for you this game would’ve been at least two hours shorter and those 250 Pirates fans could’ve gone home at a reasonable hour.
