Dempster pitched well the first time through the order. After that he started getting the ball up and his lack of command caught up with him in the fifth when he got behind nearly every hitter, walked two guys, and ultimately served up a grand slam to Neil Walker on a 3-2 pitch.
From my observations of Dempster, when he loses command he rarely gets it back and he starts throwing gopher balls. He should never have been allowed to start the seventh inning. There is a big difference between a 4-2 and a 6-2 lead, and the last home run pretty much put the game out of reach.
That having been said, the kid Castro put on quite a show defensively. It is a good thing he did, as the score might easily have been 10-3. Pena looked good at first base and between them they kept the team in the game.
The Pirates, on the other hand, played awful baseball defensively. They were charged with only one error, which led to the Cubs first run, but they messed up several double plays and muffed a handful or pop flies. They made every effort to give the Cubs the game, but to no avail. The Cubs were determined not to take it.
To me the big lesson from the game is the lineup, which I have criticized all through spring training. These guys are going to have a hard time scoring against right-handed pitching no matter how many men they get on base.
Today they had something like 14 base-runners between 11 hits, 2 walks, and an error. The leadoff hitter Fukudome reached three times on two hits and a walk and the #2 hitter Castro had three hits, but they scored only twice between them. Byrd stranded four runners and Ramirez, despite getting two hits, left five.
Against righties, the Cubs need to break up the string of right-handed hitters and they need to get Colvin's bat in the lineup to replace either Soriano or Byrd on a regular basis. I can tolerate Byrd in the three hole against lefties, but he is a rally killer any other time.
Kind of sad to see Quade's post-game interview. He looked and sounded like Lou Piniella already. Hey, it really is only one game, though these guys look so bad against the Pirates, a truly worthless collection of mopes with the exception of Walker and McCutchen, it really makes you wonder.
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