Sweet Swingin' Soriano Gives Cubs 6-5 Win Over Brewers

I was going crazy after Soriano hit that HR. I think he’s poised to have a monster season. I’m excited!

It certainly looked ugly for most of the game as you noted Al. Couldn’t stay through the late innings, so it was good to see they persevered. Now let’s take the rubber game today and get ready for the damp home opener tomorrow!

that had Cotts pitch again (meh), and still had our #3 and #4 hitters going through a famine of hits.

Does she read BCB also, or did someone decide that this morning everyone has to talk about Sori’s “sweet” swing?

Angry at Zambrano, wondering where our offense was, and tired since it was about 2am. I woke up to exactly what I wanted – heroics. Win today and we take the series and the road trip!

Both Kosuke and Soriano are attacking the ball early in the count, often on the first pitch. It’s almost like the word around the league is “Get yourself ahead in the count, because they’ll lay off everything or swing at anything after that.” Nice to see the Cubs, at least some of them, have adjusted their approach.

He needs to be better. I love what I’m seeing from Heilman though, he’s been great. On Fukudome, don’t forget, he was just as good at the beginning of last year, so I’m not sold on him just yet. Happy Easter to all, let’s take the series tonight!

Al & others reading this might want a chuckle this am. Read Yahoo’s box score from the Cubs/ Brewers game. In the 8th inning A. Ramirez homered to the catcher. Who is the proofreader? Dang that catcher is quick! He ran all the way out to left field to try and catch the ball, LOL

haha it would be sweet to see fonzie edge pujols for that mvp award

the game thread was pretty good last night. I especially enjoyed this comment:

Soriano puts the fear of a hurricane in me when a strike is thrown to him.

I would say he actually did not have very good stuff last night. In the first four innings, his pitches seemed flat and his location was a bit off. Thus, hitters were able to foul off his out pitches and run deep counts. It seemed that Z finally had good stuff in that last couple of innings as his arm tired and his pitches started to break sharper.

It was a gutsy performance by Z to be able to go 6 and keep his team in the game when he clearly did not have his best stuff. A less mature Z would have lost his focus last night as the batters kept fouling off his pitches. I was proud of Z for hanging in there on a night where his stuff was clearly B-/C+ stuff.

This is the kind of Z we will need if we are going to get 18-20 wins from him in 2009. A very encouraging night as it relates to Z.

I thought Piniella wanted to kill him, sending Rothschild out to get him instead of doing it himself. There was a lot of tension inthe dugout during that inning.

So that’s why they hired the guy…

As for me, what I thought were “flu-like symptoms” were actually flu-like symptoms. Had to go lie down in the 6th, and listen to P&R instead of watching. Last time I listened to a Cubs game on WGN was in 2006, and I was yapping with my brother in the car, so I must have missed all of Ronnie’s background muttering – that stuff’s hilarious!

As always, I was glad to hear Rami keeping us in the game after the Brewers proved they could hit with men on after we proved the opposite. I would have been even happier to hear Sori’s game-winner, but for a power failure and subsequent battery drain before the 9th.

Not great, but good stuff nonetheless, and lest we forget, the Cubs are perfect on national TV this year…

 Call up Shark? Every team is looking for bullpen help. Cubs are going to have to deal with the bullpen ( at least for now) from within. Maybe later in the season trade(s) can be made, but for now we all are going to have to deal with what we got.

tell D. Lee the season has started.

The more I see of Lou the less I like him. I think Gregg was a downgrade at closer for the Cubs, but if you are committed to him wouldn’t the right decision be to run him right out there again last night? I’d be 100% behind Lou deciding to believe in him instead what appears to be the panicky knee jerk reaction. The better way would be to let Gregg redeem himself last night and then use Marmol today because Gregg went 2 days in a row v. “The guy’s in my doghouse.”

It’s no wonder this team chokes with Lou managing, maybe Santoswoddenleg posts are much closer to reality then we know?

If there’s any positive it could be that if Lee is still hitting .100 in June then Lou won’t hesitate to bench him.

great comeback win

and Theriot on Friday, if you watch the replay, he was also with his back to 2B so he would have needed to reel around and throw a perfect strike to Font, so I agree, go to Home and see what happens

Went to the game last night and sat in 224, great seats to enjoy the game but lousy perspective on the strikezone. I went with a few Cub fan friends and we enjoy tailgating before the game.

Anyhow… last night’s game was good to win but in reality, it was one swing from being VERY similar to Friday’s loss. From an offensive standpoint, the Cubs should have gone into the late innings with a decent sized lead. Bush gave the team fits the first go ‘round but the second time through they started getting some decent swings and the third time through they were pounding him. A big at-bat came in the 6th… with Fukudome on 3rd and no outs Lee scalded a ball that was snared by the third baseman. Fukudome never ended up scoring but if that ball gets through Lee is on 2nd and the Cubs could have scored several runs. Lee did what he needed to do there but lined out, however in the second half of this game the Cubs had ample opportunities to score and failed to, and as much as people want to chide Aaron Miles for his at bat on Friday, saying it should’ve been Hoffpauir (and raking Lou through the coals), Hoffpauir failed in the same capacity yesterday.

I do want to take a second to discuss Milton Bradley’s approach at the plate. Its great to see him take a lot of pitches early in the count. He’s working the opponent and getting great 3-0, 3-1 counts. The problem is what he’s doing in those counts… absolutely nothing. I can’t tell if he doesn’t want to take walks or what, but frankly he seems to have a great eye until he’s up in the count, then he’s hitting a lazy pop-up to the right fielder. Maybe this is overly critical but Bradley has frustrated me the last few games. Pitchers are going to learn that if they fall behind him, they can nibble around the zone and he’ll offer.

The pen was truely frustrating yesterday and I postulated with my group, after Cotts and Guzman that one of them may be gone come the home opener at Wrigley. Perhaps the Cubs winning may have revealed Lou’s itch to make a change but we know when things bad happen and players do not produce, Lou does not stand for it. I still would not be surprised to see Cotts sent packing, even if it means no lefty on the team for now.

Anyhow, it was a fun win to watch, but for 8 innings the Cubs did not seem to care that the game was going on. Hopefully this game will lite a fire under them but for most of the game it was looking like yet another game that the Cubs were going to lose that they could have handily won.

Even if individual games (like Friday) are frustrating, the important thing is to keep winning each series…

It’s too early to come up with a conclusion now, but I’d give it another week before trying to shake up the lineup. I would think about trying to switch Milton and Aramis in the lineup first thinking that it might help Lee feel comfortable again batting in front of Ramirez.

Yesterday was frustrating because we cannot throw a damn strike. The bullpen has to throw the ball in the strikezone. Don’t be afraid of strikes Cubs bullpen.

I think this point needs emphasis. Micah came up last night with 0 outs and the bases loaded. This was pinch-hitting 101 and he failed. I sat there during the mound visit and knew what the pitching coach was saying – “You don’t need to throw anything in the strike zone to get him out.” Maybe I’ll be wrong like I was wrong about Fontenot last year, but it sure seems to me like Micah’s not cut out for pinch-hitting.

is covering Theriot’s ass on that double play. If Theriot gets that ball and immediately shuffles it to 2B… I think they get the double play. Because Theriot dithered and hesitated, he felt like he had to go home.

Sigh. I know. I need to let it go.

when he was unable to get anyone out

sad seeing Kerry Wood pitch for the Indians now..

and Kerry Wood dealing, 3 strikeouts in a perfect ninth, sigh…

to throws before game, 60 percent strength. Says shoulder feels normal, says he can play Mon, start Wed.

After reading the debate on Hoff as a PH, I got to thinking…

When young players are inserted as PHers, they should choke up on the bat and concentrate on making contact. Then, after having success and getting the knack of pinch-hitting, go back to holding the bat at the bottom of the barrel.