Untitled

I've been sitting here racking my brains trying to come up with a cute or clever or game-related title for today's post and I just can't.

I will tell you that when this year's schedule came out, this weekend was one that immediately jumped out at me as "potential road trip", since I have not been to a game in Anaheim since the stadium was still known as "The Big A", back in 1975, and I have many friends in the LA area.

That was before Brian announced that he and Kristy were getting married today, and I'll be attending later on this afternoon, so that scotched that idea.

Instead I spent yesterday taking my kids bowling, of all things -- Rachel had a birthday party at the bowling alley (and right after we got there, they turned on the laser lights and turned the lights off and the pins turned day-glo colors -- I guess that's what they have to do now to get Gen X into bowling), and Mark and I stayed to bowl one line (he scored 71, I had 120, not bad considering I haven't picked up a bowling ball in about 20 years).

Naturally, I can't watch the end of many West Coast games because yes, even on Saturdays I have to get up for work, and today being no exception, I missed the end of the rather dull 3-2 Cub loss to the Angels at Anaheim, a very simple case of Greg Maddux pitching well but John Lackey throwing just a bit better, in front of a sellout crowd of 43,764 that included a loud contingent of Cub fans.

The Cubs, of course, play Anaheim several times every spring training, but this is the first regular-season interleague series between the two clubs. In fact, after next weekend when the A's visit Wrigley Field, the Cubs will have played every AL team once... except for the Red Sox.

It was also Dusty Baker's first visit to the newly-renamed "Angel Stadium of Anaheim" (and that's so boring, I almost prefer the old corporate "Edison Field" name) since his 2002 Giants lost the World Series there, on October 27, 2002, with guess who on the mound?

That's right, the very same John Lackey who came into last night's game with an ERA of 5.95 (and 0-4 with a 7.66 ERA in his previous five starts), lowered to 5.30 with his 7-inning, two-run performance. Greg Maddux was nearly as good, but allowed one more run. I note the following from the game story:

[In the fourth inning] Jose Guillen [tripled] off the wall in center... Corey Patterson had a play on the ball, but appeared to think he was closer to the fence than he was. He leaped high enough, but the ball hit the fence a foot from his glove.

I had fallen asleep by the time this play happened, so I cannot comment on it.

Got an e-mail from Jessica, who despite the fact that she lives in New York, did stay up to watch the end of the game, with the subject line "You were RIGHT to sleep through the end", saying:

To paraphrase Maddux, it doesn't matter that he pitched good, the bottom line is we lost the game. Not his best start but more than good enough to win against a pitcher with Lackey's stats. Apparently if you are in a slump (Oswalt, Lackey and others) and or your E.R.A is well past six (half of the D'backs & Pirates rotations), JUST PLAY THE CUBS AND YOU WILL LOOK LIKE CY YOUNG

Great now CARDINALS go into first.

Keep in mind that Jessica is probably the world's biggest Greg Maddux fan and she gets more nervous than usual when he's on the mound.

The loss dropped the Cubs into fifth place, percentage points behind the Brewers. But remember, it is only the second week of June. There are 102 games left to be played. I keep reminding people who are too young to remember, that Cub teams themselves had leads even bigger than the deficit they are now facing, and blew those leads (and a year ago after 60 games, the eventual World Champion Marlins were 27-33), and that the Cubs have three key players still on the DL. Tom Goodwin was activated yesterday, with David Kelton sent back to Iowa, but did not play. I was in favor of DH'ing Michael Barrett, with Paul Bako starting, but Dusty opted for Todd Hollandsworth.

Hollandsworth had two hits and an RBI, but this had the effect of replacing Barrett in the lineup with Jose Macias, which is never a good idea (despite the fact that Macias drove in the other run).

Sammy Sosa's return is now only six games away. Patience.