Things started rather ominous right off the bat as the Cubs left Theriot and Rami stranded in the top of the 1st. The bottom of the frame proved even more foreboding when a Ted Lily balk (the second Cubs balk in as many days) sent Cesar Izturis over to second, setting the table for none other than Albert Pujols. After his inevitable RBI drive, you could almost hear the collective groan all over the North-side, that is unless you were listening to the game on 720, which in that case all you could hear were the anguished grumblings of old #10. But the Cards had to settle with one, and in the top of the 2nd the Cubs got the breaks they've been on the receiving end of all season-- you know, the breaks that winning teams get?
After back-to-back singles by Kosuke and DeRo, Felix "Da Housecat" Pie--making his first start in many a moon after returning to the big league club for September call-ups--came through with a big single to center to plate Dome. (On a side note, how many of you continue to secretly hope for Felix to pan out? He has all the tools). At this point we had the makings of a return-to-form huge inning from the Big Blue Train. And we got a baby version. Sort of.
Ted Lilly was called on to lay down a bunt, only he didn't deaden the ball and the throw was made to third where DeRosa was initially ruled out. This was immediately rescinded however. Why you ask? Because third baseman Felipe Lopez forgot there was a force on and had his foot off the bag! And Lopez wasn't done there. Sori came up next and hit a chopper right to the Cards third baseman, only this time Felipe proceeded to launch the ball directly into the outfield, scoring both DeRo and Pie. After a groundout by Theriot, D-Lee came to the plate. This led to yet another bouncing grounder with RISP, only Ted Lilly decided to set off for the dish (he said in the post-game he saw the ball take a large hop and figured he had a good chance to score). Turns out he saw it wrong. Yadier Molina was waiting at home, ball-in-mitt, when "The Bulldog" decided to lower his shoulder in a big way. Rather than slow up and suffer a demoralizing sympathy tag, rather than resort to some ridiculous attempt at a somersaulting, Nastia Liukin trick slide, Lilly threw every ounce of his 6-1, 190lb. frame directly into the heavily padded Molina. And... he was out. But he did knock Molina on his ass, who subsequently had to leave the game (Not that I wish injury on my opponents, Cardinal or no, but come on. It was just a bruise). I believe this was a gutsy, self-sacrificing rallying cry that perhaps will be looked back upon as the shot in the arm the floundering Setember version of the '08 Cubs had been looking for. A summons to duty! A call to arms!
Or maybe it'll just end up on a blooper reel, I don't know.
Regardless, hats off to Lilly. Gamer status: cemented. Here's the clip.
He had this to say on the WGN postgame:
"The ball beat me there and I tried to score. My only option, really, was to try and knock the ball loose."
Ted you sly son-of-a-bitch! Gotta love it.
Rami followed this up by earning his umpteenth clutch hitting merit badge, singling to left with two outs to score Sori in what would eventually stand as the winning run. A gold star for you A-Ram. Who cares if the bulk of the baseball world continues to overlook you? I'm not going to complain about the several incidents this year where Derrek has been intentionally passed in order to face a guy batting .310 with RISP and .394 in "Late and Close" situations. Ridiculous...
Anyways, the Cubs would "settle" for four in what may not have been an inning on par with some of the monsters that have preceded it this season, but I'm not going to sit here and complain about a four run 2nd. So what if we had a little help...
Other than another accurate throw by Sori in the bottom of the 3rd to nail Izturis at the plate (sooner or later the league has to start respecting his arm... right?) the game was fairly drab. The two teams combined for a total of only six hits from the bottom of the 2nd through the top of the 9th. The Cubs bats went to sleep while Ted's arm maintained a comfortable 4-1 lead, continually stifling the Cards offense. The highlight of the outing came in the bottom of the 6th with consecutive strikeouts of Pujols and Ludwick which ended the inning in emphatic fashion. Quite simply, Theodore Roosevelt Lilly III was magnificent this evening, changing speeds, moving up, down, in, and out as he often does so well. When this guy is on, there's not many dudes out there who know how to pitch like he does. The old adage about pitching instead of throwing certainly applies in his case.
Then came the bottom of the 9th, where Lou decided to let Kerry get his work in despite Lilly having thrown only 90 pitches and retiring the last eleven batters he had faced. This was a tough situation, and had it ultimately not worked out it would have assuredly been a source for plenty of controversy. I can't say I fault Lou's logic on this one. Though it may seem this year that Piniella has a subconscious intention to prevent his starters from ever earning a CG, I think his reasoning was understandable. I'd like to believe we can all agree at this point that Woody needs work to stay sharp. We've seen proof of it. Not to mention he needed to put on his redeem pants and boost the ole' morale after Sunday's debacle (even though that outing was marred by a plethora of team mistakes, the crown jewel being Cedeno's questionable glovework). Regardless, this decision could have gone either way.
After decisively striking out Felipe Lopez to start, Woody then served up a flat fastball which Pujols crushed to deep right. At this point I almost don't get mad when Fat Albert does his thing. You sorta just have to tip your cap, have a swig of whatever drink you're nursing, and acknowledge that barring injury, Pujols may eventually be recognized as one of the best pure hitters the game ever saw. The guy is unbelievable. Ryan Ludwick on the other hand... sorry, I'm not sold. Congrats to him for putting together a great year, but he certainly doesn't strike any fear into the nether-regions of my soul.
Maybe he should. The righty-hitting, lefty-throwing 30 year old phenom launched one out to right center and suddenly, it was a one run game with two outs to go (For important two out RBI: see Ramirez, Aramis). Though my insides did immediately seize up, I had a feeling that this game was to be ours. You know that feeling. I'm sure you've felt the opposite as well (see slump, September). Sometimes you just know.
And so it was. Woody went on to strike out Aaron Miles and got Josh Phelps to fly out to center. Ball game.
In retrospect, this was a win, and a much-needed win at that. But all is not settled. Again our bats managed to string some damage together early only to sputter toward the finish line. We got some breaks, which is a good omen, but this team is still not quite back on track. A gem by Harden coupled with a solid offensive breakout could go a long way toward correcting that however. Sleep well Big Blue Train. Doze soundly Cub faithful. Tomorrow, we march forth.
Giddy Up.
-JDP
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