Carlos Silva won the first eight decisions of his Cub career. He has looked like an entirely different pitcher when compared to his most recent stint in Seattle, where he often struggled to get out of the fifth inning. Now, he is being relied upon to deliver consistent starts and wins for a Cubs team desperately in need of them. Silva tried to do just that last night against the Los Angeles Angels in their first ever trip to Wrigley Field, but came up short losing his second consecutive game to fall to 8-2. He was good for six innings, allowing three runs on six hits before a leg cramp forced him out of the game.
It felt like the Cubs were trying to chase the Angels all night as they fought back from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game, and later nearly came back from five down in the ninth. The furious late comeback was fueled by Tyler Colvin who blasted a three run homer to make it 7-5, and then with two outs Derrek Lee hit his second home run of the game to cut the Halo’s lead to one. Colvin has taken advantage of his increased playing time as that home run was his eighth of the season, and his average is now up to .315 for the year. He hit in the lead off spot last night in favor of Fukudome.
Errors continue to plague the Cubs, as they made three of them last night. The worst part is each one of them was very costly and it shows because four of the seven runs the Cubs allowed were unearned. Jeff Baker made critical back-to-back throwing errors which really helped open the game up in the seventh inning. This sequence never happens and we may very well be looking at a Cubs victory this morning. Just another example of the Cubs doing things to not win games.
The Cubs who are now 30-37, seven back of the division leading Cardinals, will try it again today at 1:05. Ted Lilly (2-5, 2.90) who is coming off of his near no hitter will look for a little more run support today against Jared Weaver (6-3, 3.29).
