What You May Not Have Seen Last Night, and Open Thread: Cubs vs. Astros, Tuesday, 7/4, 1:05 CT

Since there's a very short turnaround again between last night's 7-2 Cub loss to the Astros, and today's holiday day game, I thought I'd combine the game summary with today's open thread -- primarily because there isn't, again, a whole lot to say about the loss.

It was typical, in other words -- too many walks (seven by Carlos Marmol), and there's no way you're going to avoid giving up runs that way; and too many Cub runners left stranded (seven), including, yet again, runners left in scoring position in the third, fifth, sixth and eighth innings.

Here's what you didn't see if you didn't see the game on TV, or weren't there:

Ronny Cedeno absolutely, positively dragged his shoe across the back edge of second base in the fifth inning. The Yahoo AP recap says that "replays showed that Cedeno's foot missed the bag by several inches", but I'm not sure which replay that writer was watching -- the replays I saw showed that Cedeno definitely got the base. Now, if this play is made, the inning is over and the score is still tied; butterfly effect most likely means that Lance Berkman never comes up with two runners on in the sixth, hitting the HR that put the game out of reach.

And that leads me to the other thing you didn't see if you didn't see the game on TV, and maybe you missed it even if you did; after the Berkman HR, CSN, for some inexplicable reason, showed a closeup replay of Will Ohman in which even someone like me, who can't read lips at all, could tell the unprintable words that Ohman was saying after throwing that pitch.

Those are likely the words that all of us would like to use to describe this unprintable season. Other blogs use those words all the time. I choose not to, even though I'm THINKING them.

Today's Starting Pitchers

M. Prior Cubs vs.  A. Pettitte Astros 0-3 W-L 6-9 9.00 ERA 5.58 15 SO 81 6 BB 38 5 HR 18 vs. Hou -- vs. Cubs

Meanwhile, Pettitte had not defeated the Cubs at all in six previous career starts until three weeks ago at Wrigley Field. In Pettitte's last nine starts, he has allowed five, seven, three, seven, two, one, four, six and five runs respectively.

Guess which one of those nine was the one against the Cubs? I'll bet you don't even have to look it up.

It's a holiday. Enjoy. For nostalgia's sake, check out this memorable Cub 4th of July game from 1991, when they blew an 8-2 lead against the Pirates, but won when Mark Grace led off the bottom of the 11th inning with a HR, his second of the game and sixth of the '91 season (he hit only eight all that year). Also worth mentioning from that game: Barry Bonds homered off Greg Maddux, and the appearance of Laddie Renfroe, a 29-year-old non-prospect who pitched in only four games in his major league career.

Discuss amongst yourselves.