Well, just when I had pronounced the Cubs pitching the principal reason for their recent success, they proceed to go out and lose three of the next four, all the result of really bad pitching. I suppose in a back-handed way, it demonstrates my point.
Anyway, Dempster had nothing in the final game against the Giants, and Gorzelanny had pretty much the same luck against the Cardinals on Friday. Dempster, who has been a consistent starter through most of the season has thrown up three or four atrocious outings toward the end of the year. Maybe he is just running out of gas. Along with Zambrano and Wells, I would have to regard him as a lock in the starting rotation unless the Cubs do something really stupid in the off-season.
Gorzelanny, I'm not so sure about. To me he is and always will be a #5 kind of guy. He throws too many balls and, as a consequence, he will rarely get you into the seventh inning. Granted he was coming off a long layoff, and he will probably get another start before the season ends, but I could easily see him failing to make the rotation next year, and I could easily see the Cubs dealing him in the off-season as well.
Coleman pitched the only decent game in this stretch. The more I see of Coleman, the more I think he may have a future. He is not a flashy pitcher, more a professional type in the style of Wells, but he has good stuff, he pitches, and he throws strikes.
Samardzija's outing on Sunday proves in my book that this guy has no future. I actually went out to the park to honor the last home game of the year and frankly I wish I had not. I sat right behind home plate, and believe me, Samardzija had nothing and except for the pitch he grooved to Pujols in the first inning, he showed once again his aversion to throwing strikes of any kind. The game was agony, not only because it was maybe 50 degrees in the stands with the wind blowing constantly in your face, but also because just watching this guy pitch was unbearable. He was lucky to make it into the fifth inning, when he completely lost it, leaving with the score 8-0. It might as easily have been 12 or 13-0.
The Cubs did make it interesting, surprisingly so based on their complete lack of attention through the first five innings whilst they were being no-hit by Jeff Westbrook of all people. Perhaps roused from their slumbers by the belated departure of their starting pitcher, they made a game of it, ultimately falling 8-7. They had a chance to tie or go ahead in the bottom of the eighth against the Cards closer Ryan Franklin, but, for reasons known only to him, Xavier Nady chose to pop up harmlessly on the first pitch after Franklin had walked two of the three previous batters. So it goes.
I think the picture above shows Brad Snyder hitting a single to drive in a run, though I'm not entirely sure about the snapshot.
No comments:
Post a Comment