Opening Day

The Cubs lost a tough game to the Pirates this afternoon.  Not a whole lot you can say about it.  Neither team has the ability to score runs, so it was just a question of which relief pitcher would make a big mistake first.  In this case it was Villanueva.

Samardzija was much more dominant than Liriano, but it was pretty much for naught.  This does bring up some interesting observations about how the Cubs managed the game.  I rather think Renteria played this very defensively, more or less so he would not be criticized.  I really hope this is not an omen of things to come.

There were a lot of safe choices made that, in the end, turned out badly for the Cubs.  First off was removing Samardzija after seven innings.  He had thrown 89 pitches, which, to my mind, means he had another inning in the tank.  This means that instead of using three pitchers to get through the last two innings, you would only have needed one, a significant thing given the weakness of the Cubs bullpen.  In that case,Villanueva, a spot starter and not a late inning guy, would never have been in the game.

Not to belabor the criticism of handling the bullpen, but facing the bottom of the Pirates order in the tenth, and the first two hitters being left-handed, the move is to bring in Wright.  This turns Walker, the only guy who can really hurt you, to the right side of the plate, where he is a much weaker hitter and has virtually no power.  That or bring in Veras with the idea of getting into the eleventh with the heart of your order coming to bat.

Some further observations, to wit, what's with all the bunting?  There has been enough written to demonstrate how stupid the sacrifice bunt is, but apparently Renteria has not read it.  OK, the pitcher with men on first and second and no outs, maybe, even though it is early in the game.  Of course, the pitcher has to execute the bunt.  In this case, it turned into a double play.

The other two bunts, though, made no sense whatsoever.  Fast runner, Bonafacio, at first and no outs with Lake at bat.  What's the point of that?  And the worst yet, having Castillo bunt after the Valbuena walk.

Renteria clearly likes the platoon thing and the lefty-righty and vice-versa match-up.  OK, I suppose, but none of them worked out to much of an advantage on the offensive side and the move to bat Sweeney, who has never had a clutch hit in his life, for Barney, a tough out late in the game, was inexcusable.  You have to think that substituting a good left-handed hitter makes sense but that substituting a mediocre left-handed hitter is dumb.

Now that I have warmed up about the manager's style, I have got to wonder who filled out the lineup card.  Castro batting third?  Castro hit with men on base four times.  He collected a walk and three groundouts, all early in the count and two of them weak rollers on outside pitches he tried to pull.  The groundout with Bonafacio at third was just an awful at bat.  In that situation, you look for a pitch you can hit in the air, but the problem with Castro in a RBI spot is just his complete lack of situational hitting capacity.

You wonder why these guy lose a hundred games every year.  Losing games like this is part of the answer.