Game Notes For Thursday Finale w/SD
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Len
Iowa extended their season-high winning streak to seven games with a 5-2 victory over Portland.
RF Micah Hoffpauir drove in all five of Iowa’s runs, going 2-for-4 with a double and a three-run homer. He is 5-for-9 (.556) with a double, two homers, and nine RBI in his last two games.
Tennessee dropped a nail-biter, 3-2 in 13 innings to Huntsville..
Brevard County evened the series at one-game apiece with their 3-0 blanking of the Daytona Cubs.
RHP Marco Carillo handcuffed the Manatees through six, bringing a no-hitter into the seventh, but with one out in the seventh, Lorenzo Cain singled to right field. Carillo shut down the next two batters to end the threat.
RF James Adducci went 2-for-4, recording his 19th multi-hit affair of the season.
Peoria’s game with Quad Cities was postponed due to rain … the game will be made up as part of a doubleheader today.
Are the Cubs for real? What is the story with the Wrigley Field turnaround this year? Who sang a rough 7th inning stretch? What does opulent mean? Learn the answers to these and many other penetrating questions in this week's Len and Bob's Podcast. As always, our all-access Pod service can be downloaded to your iPod or mp3 player in the audio format, or you can watch our favorite pair via the video version. If you would like, you can watch the podcast on your computer right at your desk.
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The Iowa Cubs swept a doubleheader beating Portland 3-0 and 3-2 .
Starter Rich Hill tossed 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, walking four, and fanning eight … he owns a 1-1 mark with a 1.69 (2 ER/10.2 IP) in two starts with Iowa.
Tennessee lost to Huntsville 7-2 to fall to 15-22 on the year..
RF Ryan Harvey and 1B Jake Fox plated Tennessee’s lone runs on a pair of RBI-singles in the third … Harvey’s 15 RBI on the season, rank tied for the team lead with Tyler Colvin.
Clinton beat Peoria 12-4.
One of the things we'll spend a lot of time talking about today is the conditions here at Wrigley Field. It's cold and the wind is howling in from the north, really coming hard. This ballpark plays so many different ways - I've said many times when the wind is the other way and howling out, the best thing a pitcher can do is roll it up there. Today, unless it's a low liner, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to take a ball out to left. My old buddy, Mike Krukow, threw a bunch of games here for the Cubs and as the opposition and has always harped that you have to pitch to the conditions and alter what you do to suit the weather when it's like this. If that's the case, Sean Gallagher should be coming inside to the right-handers today. Let's hope he has a good start.
Bob
While we wait out the rain, the Cubs have changed their lineup for today. Both starting pitchers, Carlos Zambrano and Randy Johnson have been scratched. Edgar Gonzales is pitching the for D-Backs, Sean Gallagher toes the bump for the Cubs.
Reed Johnson - LF
Ryan Theriot - SS
Derrek Lee - 1B
Aramis Ramirez - 3B
Kosuke Fukudome - RF
Geovany Soto - C
Mark DeRosa - 2B
Felix Pie - CF
Sean Gallagher - P
When you take a look at the Diamondbacks, it's pretty easy to see they do all things well. It’s close to a juggernaut right now with this team and they are really young as well. With Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Micah Owings and Randy Johnsonhave a few aces on this staff. One thing about Haren is that he is profiting the 1st time around the National League this year - we saw that with Ted Lilly last year.
One good thing is Cubs have played much better at home, especially hitting the tar out of the ball. Hopefully that home field advantage we've been looking for is here to stay and shows up this weekend.
Bob
The Cubs are in the thick of it now as they start a big 10-game homestand today against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team with the best record in the majors.
Quick news update...LH Scott Eyre is back from the DL and LH Sean Marshall has been sent to AAA Iowa, where he'll join the starting rotation. Rich Hill, Kevin Hart and Marshall all are starting now at AAA with Sean Gallagher here in the Cubs bullpen, so if more tweaks need to be made to the rotation, the Cubs do have some options. Jon Lieber is scheduled to make his next start on Tuesday vs. San Diego.
It's a cool, overcast afternoon on the North Side. The wind is blowing in from the N or NE, but balls were jumping out of the park in BP, so let's just say it's a thin wind (quoting my partner BB on that great description).
Have a great weekend!
Len
The Iowa Cubs beat Tacoma 14-2 yesterday.
Starter Kevin Hart looked solid in his second start of the year for the I-Cubs, throwing 3.2 innings of scoreless ball, allowing just two hits while walking none and striking out six.
CF Andres Torres went 1-for-4 with two walks and a run scored, extending his hitting streak to 23 games (32-for-86, .372) … his current hitting streak ranks fourth longest in I-Cub history.
Tennessee beat the Chattanooga Lookouts 6-4.
C Steve Clevenger went 2-for-5, hitting his first homer of the year, a three-run shot in the third inning to put the Smokies ahead, 5-1.
Daytona lost 3-2 to Sarasota.
RF Jim Adduci went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored, raising his average to .349, good for second in the Florida State League … he also ranks second in the league in hits (45), walks (21) and on-base percentage (.444).
Clinton beat Peoria 7-3.
3B Marquez Smith went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI on his third home run of the year, a solo shot with two out in the ninth.
Friday, May 9: Mark Grace
Saturday, May 10: Chicago Sky - Sylvia Fowles, Chas Melvin & Quianna Chaney
Sunday, May 11: Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys QB
Monday, May 12: Cast of “Jersey Boys”
Tuesday, May 13: Duran Duran members Simon LeBon & John Taylor
Wednesday, May 14: Chicago Fire - Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chad Barrett & Chris Rolfe
Thursday, May 15: TBD
Friday, May 16: Lance Briggs, Bears Linebacker
Saturday, May 17: Hunter Hillenmeyer, Bears Linebacker
Sunday, May 18: TBD
One of the things that has been overlooked a bit during the Cubs recent struggles has been the letdown on defense. As a manager, you hope your defense is a constant that shows up each and every game and for the stretch where the Cubs were hot, that was a key component to the wins. It hasn't been the case recently and let's hope the team returns to error-free ball tonight.
Bob
Big series starting tonight in Cincinnati. The Cubs have lost 3
straight sets and just haven't looked like the same team over the past
week and a half that we saw in the first 3 weeks of the season. Now,
it's a long, long season and teams go through ups and downs. And
right now, the Cubs are sorting through some stuff: the rotation is
still not clicking as a whole with Rich Hill getting demoted and Jason
Marquis showing some inconsistency. Alfonso Soriano is still working
off some rust after his DL stint. But the offense still leads the
majors in runs and the team's overall record is just fine. I look at
it this way--if you can be above .500 and feel like you haven't
clicked on all cylinders, that's a good sign (the theory being once
you put it all together, you can go on an extended hot streak). You
just want to see those "holes" get plugged up fairly quickly so they
don't become huge problems that ultimately send you on a tailspin. On
a smaller scale, this series is important because after these 3 games,
the Cubs will play maybe the best team in the majors so far this year,
the Arizona Diamondbacks, at home. You'd like to have a little
momentum going into the weekend.
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A reminder that a special encore presentation of "Cubs Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of WGN-TV and the Cubs" will air this Saturday night, May 3 at 7pm on WGN-TV and the Superstation.
If you missed it, here's your chance to see the show. If you enjoyed it the first time, we hope you will feel like reliving the memories again.
*The Cubs have the second-best record in baseball at 17-10, trailing only Arizona (20-8).
*April concluded with three Cubs - Derrek Lee (23), Aramis Ramirez (22), and Geovany Soto (20) - reaching the 20-RBI before May 1 for the first time in team history. Previously, no more than 1 player had reached that mark.
*Soto's 20 RBI in April is a Cubs rookie record.
*Carlos Zambrano enters today's outing with 4-0 with a 1.34 ERA in his last five starts at Wrigley Field.
*The Cubs are 11-5 at Wrigley Field this season.
*The Cubs have drawn 5 or more walks in 5 straight games.
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