In 2006, it’s the little things that count to Cubs fans. We all know the Cubs won’t make the playoffs, but it’s nice to see they’re ruining another team’s chances. The Astros are now looking at five teams ahead of them in the Wild Card and they’re now four and a half games down. We won’t be able to drag them down to our level, but misery loves company.
Monday was the first of two shutouts by the Cubs in this series. Carlos Zambrano threw a gem and held the Astros to four hits through eight innings. He did walk seven, which was disconcerting, but he and Ryan Dempster combined for the shutout. Phil Nevin did it all. He drove in three runs on three hits including a homerun.
Yesterday’s game was an all nighter. The Astros and Cubs played out eighteen innings. Ernie Banks always said “let’s play two” and that’s effectively what they did. The Cubs tied it in the ninth on Matt Murton’s solo homerun and then nobody scored until nine innings later when it was Murton who came through again. He singled home Aramis Ramirez and Jaque Jones to make it an 8-6 final. Angel Guzman and Ryan Dempster both threw three shutout innings and Rich Hill picked up the win after pitching the final two frames.
With both teams being tired and with their pens depleted, it almost seemed like the Cubs and Astros agreed to play a “first team that scores wins” game. Michael Barrett came through for the Cubs and hit his fourteenth homerun in the sixth inning for the only run of the game. Ryan O’Malley made his major league debut and he pitched eight shutout innings to pick up a win. Bob Howry finished things off in the ninth to pick up his fourth save of the season.
Next up is three games against the NL Central leading Cardinals. Incidently, the Cubs have owned the Cardinals so it’d be nice to sweep our arch rivals…..again.
