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The Choice (and remember, death is not an option): The Cubs’ bullpen or the White Sox’s defense?
Cubs manager Lou Piniella went through four relievers -- Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall and Jose Ascanio -- and got nothing. The first three each gave up a run and the last one gave up the game.
Combined, they blew two leads before blowing it altogether in the bottom of the ninth. Specifically, Heilman and Marmol continue to be the most troublesome. The two pitchers the Cubs believed were the bridge to closer Kevin Gregg couldn’t protect one-run advantages, so Gregg never got into the game.
Marmol blew his chance in the eighth when he surrendered a two-out hit. Granted, it wasn’t a solid hit by Alexei Ramirez, but it was a hit that the Cubs couldn’t afford if they were going to win and have confidence in the guy.
The killer part of the bullpen’s failure was wiping out some unfathomable clutch hitting by the Cubs offense.
For the longest time, the Cubs couldn’t manage so much as a foul ball with runners in scoring position. On Saturday, all they did was hit in the clutch.
Ryan Theriot and Derrek Lee delivered two-out, run-scoring hits in the third to tie it at 2. Then, after the Sox took a 5-3 lead, Alfonso Soriano came through with a two-run double to tie it in the sixth, followed by Theriot again to put the Cubs up a run.
Even more amazing about that Cubs sixth was not just that two-out, run-scoring double by a guy hitting .154 with runners in scoring position, but the offensively challenged Cubs got started with a two-out walk and single by the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters against the Sox’s best pitcher.
And when they weren’t getting hits with runners in scoring position, the Cubs were making productive outs --- Lee’s sacrifice fly and Andres Blanco’s groundout with a drawn-in infield where Ryan Freel beat Paul Konerko’s throw to the plate.
It was going so well that Kosuke Fukudome set up the go-ahead run in the eighth with a single after he failed to get down a sacrifice.
It was not going well enough, however, that Milton Bradley might actually drive in a run, leaving five on base when Piniella put him back in the three-hole after sending him home in the middle of Friday’s game. So, Blowout in the Dugout that I thought might ignite the Cubs lasted about 11 innings over two days.
But while it lasted, the Cubs were as opportunistic as they were clutch, scoring three runs on three Sox errors and a Mark Buehrle balk to come back from two two-run deficits.
Ramirez was charged with three errors, but one was changed to a hit, so the flighty Sox shortstop had to settle for two on the day and five in four games. Gordon Beckham made the other error. Anytime First Sox Fan Barack Obama wants to declare a ceasefire on the left side of the Sox infield, fine by me.
But baseball is redemptive if nothing else, as Ramirez and Beckham drove in the tying and winning runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
So, the Sox offense was better than its defense, while the Cubs hitters couldn’t beat their pitchers. |
