The Cubs beat the Nationals last night 3-1 behind the pitching of Carlos Zambrano and a surpringly effective bullpen. Zambrano went five innings scattering four hits, allowed one run, struck out six and walked four. He was effective, but had he been facing a team other than Washington, the results may have been different.
Beginning in the sixth inning, the bullpen took over and looked sharp. Aaron Heilman pitched the sixth and struck out two, allowing no base runners. Sean Marshall pitched 1.1 innings giving up a hit and striking out a batter. Carlos Marmol pitched to two batters in the eighth striking out one and allowing no base runners. Kevin Gregg picked up the save, striking out two and allowing one hit in his one inning of work.
The Cubs didn’t get much offense. Kosuke Fukudome got the start in CF and batted lead-off. He went 2-4 with a double. Aramis Ramiz hit a homerun in the third inning to account for one of the Cubs runs. The other two runs came courtesy of none other than Carlos Zambrano. His double in the second inning plated two to give the Cubs the lead and the eventual victory (video).
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The news from Washington wasn’t all good. In Thursday night’s game, Alfonso Soriano dislocated the pinky finger on his right hand while sliding into second. He reduced the dislocation (popped it back into place) immediately and played the rest of the game, but the finger swelled up after the game and by Friday, Fonzie was unable to grip a bat. He was given the night off Friday and is likely to miss a couple more games.
I doubt if the injury will send Soriano to the DL, but here’s the sad thing. The Cubs may be a better team with Fonzie out of the lineup. His hitting has been horrible this year (he’s hitting just .234/.301/.412) and the Cubs don’t lose much, if anything, defensively when he’s not playing. Last night, Micah Hoffpauir played left field and made a great catch diving into the stands (go here to see a video of the catch). Sam Fuld, who is hitting .389 in limited action, will likely see more playing time in LF over the next few days.
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Theodore Roosevelt Lilly will miss his next start because of a sore left knee. Lilly was scheduled to start today (Saturday), but is being pushed back in favor of Randy Wells today and Kevin Hart tomorrow. Lilly may get a start in Philadelphia, or if his knee is bad enough, may be placed on the DL.
Apparently, Lilly’s knee has bothered him all this year, but it hasn’t seemed to effect his pitching much . He is 9-6 with an ERA of 3.18.
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According to Carrie Muskat at MLB.com, both Ryan Dempster and Geovany Soto are healing faster than expected. Soto, who is recovering from a right oblique strain, is in Mesa, AZ working with Cubs staff and the organization is encouraged. Earlier reports indicated that the Cubs may go out on the trade market to get another catcher, but Assistant GM Randy Bush says the team is encouraged by his progress and hopeful he’ll be back soon.
Ryan Dempster is throwing off flat ground as he recovers from a fracture of the big toe on his right foot. Dempster is reporting that he is feeling no pain in the toe, although the toe is still a bit swelled. Larry Rothschild indicated that Dempster could be ready to go next week in Philadelphia.
