So Piniella tweaked the lineup to no effect and the Cubs lost again despite a good outing by Randy Wells. I noted yesterday that the lineup adjustments made no sense, and indeed the outcome proved the point. Once again twelve runners left on base, against a really mediocre lefty. So far all the vaunted hitting adjustments from Jaramillo have meant nothing.
People are going to blame the bullpen - and it was pretty bad - but you cannot expect these guys to pitch every day in tie games or one-run games. Good teams usually have two or three arms in the bullpen who can consistently get outs in close games and if you use them over and over again they are going to wear out. When you have to use your marginal pitchers in close games, you are going to lose more often than not.
It is hard to figure out why Wells was pulled after six innings and 93 pitches, but go figure. After the game, Lou said he thought Wells lacked command, and Wells said he thought he had pretty good command. This will probably earn Wells a trip to the woodshed similar to Silva's a week or so back when Piniella said he had a sore shoulder and Silva said there was nothing wrong with him.
Samardzija showed remarkable efficiency today, allowing three runs while throwing only ten pitches, including a walk. A sharp contrast to the usual agony of watching him scratch away at the plate, but with the same result. Hopefully, he will sooner or later get a ticket to Iowa, which, at this stage of his career, is where he belongs.
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