I think it is too early to say whether this win could prove a turning point. I mean, the last of the 9th was a great inning in what otherwise might have been another frustrating loss.
First for the good bits. Joe Mather gets the credit for a nice game-winning hit, but the inning was set up by Bryan LaHair's wonderful AB where he fouled off six two-strike pitches and saw 12 before he walked. Relief pitchers like Motte are not used to throwing that many pitches in an inning.
Really relief pitchers are not actually good pitchers in general. They have one or maybe two plus pitches and if they don't get quick outs, they usually get frustrated and tired, which is what happened to Motte last night. The lesson for the Cubs is one we have preached more than once. Good things happen when you work the count.
Lost in the late inning heroics is yet another lineup in which Dale Sveum seemed to channel the demonic ghost of Mike Quade. How many times have we seen this lineup of doom. Baker at 1st, Soriano batting cleanup, etc. At least the front office had made a move to break up the K brothers (Soriano, Soto, Byrd) that right-handed trio of automatic outs over the weekend.
Anyway, that platoon lineup is guaranteed to produce few if any runs and to allow the opposing pitcher to go deep into the game throwing relatively few pitches. Sveum vowed at the beginning of the year that there would be no idiotic platoons. Of course, all we have seen thus far from Sveum is more idiotic platoons. For some reason, the Cubs failed to notice that lefties were batting over .500 against the Cardinals starter Garcia, so we loaded up with righties with the exception of David DeJesus, who genuinely does not hit lefties all that well these days.
Excuse the rant, but another thing I don't get is that managers always seem to think that left-handed batters have to prove they can hit left-handed pitching before they become everyday players, whereas right-handed batters are subject to no such restrictions. Is it because many mangers when they played the game hit right-handed? Is it because managers by and large are baseball lifers and, by definition, are presumed to be dumb?
Who knows? Anyway, just a tip here, the percentages work both ways, guys, so wise up. In the case of left-handed hitters, too often, because of the built-in prejudice that seems to be at the heart of the baseball lifers perceptions of reality, young players frequently never get the chance to demonstrate any versatility on this score. I would say that LaHair should get a shot at playing every day. His major league numbers against lefties are not all that great, but the statistical sample is insignificant. I couldn't find any splits for LaHair's minor league career, but he seems to have played every day and his numbers were pretty impressive.
Just for information, the other two Cubs regular left-handed hitters are David DeJesus and Ian Stewart. Stewart's numbers are not that great in terms of average or home runs in general, but he seems to perform equally well (or badly) against any pitching. DeJesus was a rather balanced hitter statistically throughout his career, but over the last three seasons his numbers have declined precipitously against left-handers, so you might make a good case for platooning him should you be able to find an adequate right-handed hitter to put in right-field who could catch.
That player is probably Reed Johnson, who throughout his career has been a platoon-type player even though teams have not always employed him as such. Johnson, however, was an odd signing for the Cubs as he is getting pretty long in the tooth and obviously does not figure in the team's long term plans.
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