Game 28 - Cubs vs. Milwaukee

Game 28
Monday, July 29, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Randy, Kevin & Julie

It feels like forever since I’ve been to a game. I guess it’s been 17 days, which kind of is a long time for me. So I was looking forward to a nice night at the park and playing the Brewers, who are worse than the Cubs, so we should have a pretty good chance. According to Paul Sullivan (who is leaving the Cubs beat – boo!!):
The Cubs had the fourth-best record in the NL since May 26, trailing only the Dodgers, Cardinals and Pirates. And there are those 20 blown saves that can't be erased.

Samardzija was on the mound, and Wigs was hearing on the radio that even though he has a long-term contract, his name was still swirling around with the trade rumors. He ended up with a no-hitter through 4, giving up a hit to Caleb Gindl with 2 outs in the Top of the 5th . Serves us right cuz we were commenting on how short this guy was (he’s the new right fielder). Randy called him Ron Cey – the Penguin. Hahahaha. Randy thought it was the 4th game in a row where our starting pitcher made it to the 5th without giving up a hit. Close – here is what Paul Sullivan had to say:

Samardzija kept up the Cubs' dominant starting pitching that began over the weekend in San Francisco.
Chris Rusin allowed no runs over seven innings on Saturday and Travis Wood allowed no earned runs over seven on Sunday. Monday marked the first time the Cubs had three straight starters with at least seven innings and no earned runs allowed since Bill Hands, Milt Pappas and Juan Pizarro did it on Aug. 3-5, 1971.

Interesting. The game was moving along pretty well (I guess no hits will do that…), and we were all hopeful to make it home at a reasonable hour. Well, 5th inning started to slow things down. Samardz was pretty solid and pitched 7 innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 7. The Cubs wasted plenty of opportunities, stranding 9 guys. They are hitting .107 (9 for 84) with runners in scoring position since the All Star break. Yikes.

Scoreless into the 9th inning and by this time, the game was really dragging. I went from “Yea, I haven’t been to a game in forever!” to “OMG, I have 6 straight days of Cubs games this week” in a matter of 3 hours and 5 minutes. Strop came in during the 9th and quickly proceeded to give up a run and then our friend the Penguin bunted to load the bases after throw to 3rd pulled Valbuena off the bag. Grindl was 2-3 on the night. Bianchi (who has a weird pronunciation of this name – I thought it was “Bee-on-kee”, but on the radio this morning it was “Bee-yankee”) doubled home 2 runs and Rickie Weeks doubled in 2 more before we got out of the inning. 5-zip bottom of the 9th. This is so Cubs. A pretty close, tight game gets blown wide open in the top of the 9th spoiling a nice outing by Samardz. I guess better then vs. top of the 1st…

Cubs did nothing in the 9th – well Darwin walked, and then Castillo grounded into double play, followed by PH Borbon flying out to center.

Funny game event: After the bottom of the first inning, the left field doors opened and the ground crew came running out to re-do the lines between home and first. Never saw that before!

Trade deadline approaching quickly, so we’ll see what the rest of this week brings!!!

Recap:

Cubs Lose 5-0
My season record: Visitors 18, Cubs 10
Parking update: No update…