The Cubs out-hit the Phillies, but refuse to Win

This Cubs team is not very good and they always seem to find ways to lose. On a night where Rich Harden was nearly un-hittable (he had a perfect game through 5.1IP) we still could not do enough to win. Harden was spotted an early 2-0 lead when the Cubs scored twice in the third inning off of J.A. Happ. Milton Bradley got things going with a lead-off double, then Derrek Lee walked, and Jake Fox came through with an RBI single. The Cubs would load the bases in the inning but would only get one more run on an Alfonso Soriano Sac-Fly (all he would do in the game). After this point the Cubs hitters basically took the rest of the night off, especially Fat-Ass Geovany Soto who was 0-4 and refuses to take pitches in his at-bats, and can not lay off of face-high fastballs in key situations.

Harden took his perfect game into the 6th, but it all blew up once he got there. After retiring the lead-off guy, he walked the next hitter, and then gave up a 2R-HR to Jimmy Rollins (who happens to be the only Phillies hitter who is hot). Harden looked rattled at this point and was lucky to get out of the 6th inning, let alone the 7th. All in all he had a good start: 7IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB, 6K, in a rarely efficient outing he threw 87 pitches, but had clearly unraveled towards the end. For awhile, I really thought we could see a no-hitter tonight, it was not meant to be.

Fast-Forward to the 8th inning and enter Carlos Marmol, who sure enough blew the game by walking 3 and beaning one, allowing a run to score without allowing a hit, in 2/3 of an inning. Marmol was pitiful, again, and deserved to lose this game. He also deserves to no longer be the set-up man. My advice to Lou Piniella would be to use Angel Guzman (who did pitch two perfect innings in the 9th and 10th) as the set-up guy, and use Marmol only with big leads and earlier in the games. John Grabow also did a nice job getting out of Marmol's jam in the 8th, retiring Raul Ibanez on 3 pitches.

Going into the bottom of the 9th the Cubs trailed by a run, but were in luck because Brad Lidge was on to close (he is terrible) and sure enough he blew the save! Fukudome got things started with a walk and was then sac-bunted to second by Ryan Theriot. Then the unthinkable happened and Bradley came up with a big hit, finally! He had an RBI single to left. This game was just not meant to be for the Cubs, who could not win the game in the 10th or the 11th, Scott Eyre (who should never have been released by Piniella in the first place) absolutely shut them down. Piniella does not have a clue how to manage a bullpen, letting go of Eyre for really no reason other than the fact that Lou did not like him was a huge mistake. It was nice to see Eyre get his redemption tonight.

Lou was forced to bring in closer Kevin Gregg to pitch the 11th where he retired arguably the three best Phillies hitters in a row, all lefties too in: Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Raul Ibanez. Too bad retiring lefties is not Gregg's problem, retiring righties is his weakness. Gregg came out to start the 12th and sure enough gave up a HR to Ben Francisco that barely made the basket in left field. This was directly after Milton Bradley had thought he'd hit the game-winning HR to left-center only to watch it get caught at the wall to end the bottom of the 11th. That near miss seemed to take all the wind out of the Cubs' sails and I had a feeling that the game ended there, mostly because I had such little confidence in guys like Lee, Fox, Soto, and Soriano to win the game in the 12th inning. This was the 11th HR Gregg has allowed this season in only 53.2 IP, unacceptable. His record is 4-4, with 5 blown saves, and a 4.02 ERA. I look forward to the days when Gregg is not a Cub and we do not have to endure this B.S. anymore. He is an awful closer.

The Cubs could not muster a comeback in the bottom of the 12th as Lee flied out weakly, Fox walked, Soto struck out (on a face-high fastball), and Soriano flied out to right (his bat must be slow because he should have been trying to pull the ball). Overall, there were very few things to be happy about from tonight's game. Offensively, Jeff Baker had a great game going 4-5. Bradley had a nice night as well going 2-5, 2B, RBI, R (and nearly hit a walk-off). Lee walked 3 times and Fox also added two hits and did not make any errors at third base. Harden had a good game too, I would take his stat-line anytime, unfortunately the Cubs' hitters got complacent (as usual) once they had a lead and could not tack on any insurance runs (they were 2-8 w/RISP and left 12 men on base). Lou was very agitated in his post game interview and had very little to say about the game. At least the Cardinals lost tonight as well, thank-you Reds!!!

Up Next: The Cubs and Phillies are at it again tomorrow night at 7:20. Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 6.29 ERA) vs Pedro Martinez (0-0, N/A). Martinez is making his first Major League start of the season after spending time recently in the minors after being signed out of retirement. The Cubs last saw him last September while he was with the Mets and beat him. Martinez does not have anything left and ordinarily I would say there is no way they could lose to him, I mean his ERA was over 5 at AAA. But tomorrow the Cubs are starting Samardzija, so all bets are off! Tonight was a pitcher's duel, tomorrow should be a slug-fest, I would not be surprised to see neither pitcher last beyond the 5th, let alone the 4th inning. But who knows? Maybe the Shark will surprise all his nay-sayers out there and step up with a big game? Perhaps that is too much to ask from an over-paid, over-hyped, football player with one pitch, who has never started a Major League game before? My prediction: the Cubs win in a slug-fest. They need to win, or their season will be over before they know what hit them. It would be a shame if the team completely fell apart just as their most hated player (Bradley, who I have stood by all along) started to get hot. Hopefully the Cubs can bounce back tomorrow night! Oh, and I hope Koyie Hill starts in place of Soto.