The Padres Series

The Cubs/Padres series was a delight to watch for fans who enjoy well-pitched, closely contested games that hinge more or less on one or two special efforts or just plain luck. In this series, whether it was because the Padres were pressing with their backs to the wall after a dreadful September, or because it is just about impossible to score runs against good pitching in their ballpark, or because the Cubs pitching right now is just a little bit better or a combination of all these things, it was the Cubs who looked like the contenders, not vice-versa.

Zambrano set the tone on Monday night, and Dempster continued the dominance the following evening. The Cubs managed only six runs in those two games, but they looked to be in complete control. On Wednesday, Wells pitched a really good game. He allowed two earned runs in the loss, and the game might have been closer were it not for the great defense the Padres displayed. Venable actually pulled back home runs by Soriano and Ramirez on spectacular plays.

Wells has not had the greatest sophomore year, but I think he is underrated. He had some awful starts, but so did Dempster. He finished the year with 18 quality starts in 32 tries, which is not half-bad. It is the same number he had in his rookie season in five fewer attempts. He also pitched almost 200 innings. Dempster, the only other pitcher on the staff with a comparable number of starts, 33, had 22 quality outings.

Gorzelanny, I think, and people are free to disagree, is rather overrated. He pitched well-enough in the final game of the series, but he seemed to be just teetering on the brink of disaster most of the way, mainly because he walks too many people and pitches behind in the count. In any case, he pitched well enough to beat the Padres, although he did not pick up the win as the Cubs were forced to dip into the bullpen after six innings of a scoreless tie.

The Cubs bullpen was dominant throughout the series and I cannot recall them allowing a single run. Which brings up an interesting point, and probably one of the keys to Quade's success as contrasted with Piniella's failure. I would argue the Cubs had consistently good starting pitching through most of the year, certainly good enough to win more games than they did. But what Quade has done, whether because some of the kids have improved, or because he has managed to evaluate their particular skills better, or whatever intangibles he brings, he has proved that it is possible to manage a young and relatively weak bullpen successfully, something I have argued for a long while is definitely a thing that can be done. It is a thing that baffled Lou Piniella through most of the year even though he had arguably one of the best finishing tandems in the entire league in the person of Marshall and Marmol.