The Cubs opened last night’s game in Pittsburgh with eight straight hits to tie a major league record. The start was a good omen as the baby bears went on to defeat the nasty old Pirates 9-4. Ryan Dempster got the victory, going 6.1 shaky, but effective innings. Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto, and Kosuke Fukudome all contributed two RBI apiece. Jeff Baker didn’t have any RBI, but he did go 3-for-4 on the evening.
Milton Bradley left the game after the first inning complaining of tightness in his legs. He was already scheduled to sit out Wednesday’s game, and is expected to be ready for this weekend’s series against Cincinnati.
Carlos Zambrano (7-6) will take the hill this afternoon against former Cub Kevin Hart (4-5).
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I got some bad information. I reported previously that Alfonso Soriano would have surgery and miss the rest of the season. That’s only partly true. According to Gordon Wittenmyer at the Sun-Times, Soriano is just resting his knee right now and is expected to be back in the Cubs line-up by the end of the month. However, at this point the knee is too sore for Soriano to run on it. Apparently, the surgery will take place in the off-season. Sorry for the bad info.
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Here’s what happened in the Wildcard race yesterday:
- Colorado beat Cincinnati 3-1
- San Francisco lost to San Diego 4-3
- Florida beat the Mets 4-2
- Atlanta beat Houston 2-1
The Cubs remain 8.0 games behind the Rockies with 25 games remaining in the season.
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Do the Cubs need to just tweak the team for next year or make major changes to be competitive in 2010? Derrek Lee believes that the Cubs have the makings of a very good team right now. The only changes needed, according to Lee, are for guys to stay healthy, and for some of the players to turn around what have become some of the worst years in their careers.
Paul Sullivan at the Chicago Tribune backs up DLee’s opinion. He suggests that the Cubs are in good shape because they are returning four-fifths of the NL’s fifth best rotation in 2010. He also sees good things happening when Ramirez and Soriano are both healthy.
The one change Sullivan suggests is signing a free agent second baseman, like Chone Figgins. He believes that Figgins speed and bat at the top of the order may just be what the doctor ordered. I haven’t given this enough thought to agree or disagree, but I would hate to go into next year with the same basic team and expect a different result. I’ll give this more thought and have more to say after the season. (It’s a teaser, like “Who shot J.R.).
