A Really Bad Game All Around

Hard to imagine, but this game through six was a sloppily played scoreless pitcher's duel. Randy Wells, mostly due to sloppy play behind him and a couple of mistakes of his own, threw a lot of pitches and was constantly in trouble. The Phillies also helped out with some atrocious base-running. The Cubs, on the other hand, were able to create some scoring chances based on plate patience and some good ABs, but to no avail, due primarily to Lou's uncanny ability to place certain outs in key positions in the order, so that Hamel always seemed to be facing Wells or Theriot or Soriano when he got into a jam.

I have to confess my favorite moment of the game through six was seeing Soriano hit a lazy high flyball to CF and pause to admire it as if it were a home run. You have to watch this guy day in and day out to really appreciate what a lousy, clueless player he really is. If you go out to the park and see him in the outfield, take a few moments to see him intentionally avoiding even the most remote chance of taking a difficult chance, loping over lazily to get in front of Byrd or Colvin when they are running like maniacs after deep hits when he should be either making the play or backing them up. But the lazy fly was even more of a statement than the DP in his previous AB with no outs and runners at first and second or his strikeout in the 8th inning.

Watching the Phils is a bit like watching the Cubs in their worst stretches. Lots of dumb base-running. Oddly enough the turning points were a fairly lucky piece of base-running by Castro that allowed him to get to third base and later score on Theriot's squeeze bunt. But the Phillies got one back in the ninth when Schneider tried to score from second on a shallow single and should have been out but for Soto dropping the throw from Colvin.

I guess you can only go to the well so many times. Marmol was terribly wild and pretty much gave away the game. He's had these kinds of episodes before and somehow more often than not he can pitch out of them, but today he could not. My own observation is that if Marmol does not straighten himself out early on though, things just get worse, which was the case today in spades. One hopes this does not wreck his confidence.

Just as an aside, you often wonder if Soto can actually catch anything on a bounce, even pitches in the dirt. You also wonder if the Cubs can make that play ever with the pitcher covering first or is it just Lee making weird feeds and weirder decisions. Don't these guys ever practice, or maybe Zambrano was right. Who knows? Just unbelievable you could allow an infield hit to Raul Ibanez.

Well, what can you say, back to reality, back to mediocrity.