I said all morning that the Cubs should have just postponed this game, considering the miserable weather and the fact that it resulted in a 9-0 loss to the Brewers that wasn't as close as the score indicated.
But it stopped raining about 1:00, and it appeared the Cubs had a couple of hours' worth of dry weather, so in order to save not having to refund 39,229 tickets (at the average price these days, that's probably on the order of $1.3 million or so), they decided to play.
Having stayed at home, read the Sunday papers and finished the Tribune magazine crossword, I headed on over to the park just after 1:00. It was just Mike, Brian and me today, and, none of us wanting to arrive early, our left field perch was taken. So we sat down near some other folks we know who sit near the concession stand in CF -- this resulted in sitting in front of someone who unleashed inning-long streams of obscenities at Carlos Zambrano when he imploded in the fifth inning.
Really, the game was over by the top of the second. Ronny Cedeno got picked off first base, and because he handled the rundown well and forced a bad throw, managed to scramble back. The throw went far enough that Cedeno might have taken second, but he was facing the wrong way and never saw it. That was good, but a couple of pitches later he got picked off again, this time tagged out.
I'm not sure if that was rookie mistake or just a lefthander (Chris Capuano) with an outstanding move to first base, but whatever the case, it took the stuffing out of a possible Cub rally, and when Cub-killer Carlos Lee (WHY didn't the Cubs go after him after the 2004 season??) smacked a homer into the LF bleachers, that was pretty much it. Incidentally, Lee's HR, his 10th, set a new Brewers team record for HR in April, surpassing the nine of Rob Deer (1987) and Geoff Jenkins (2000 and 2001).
Oh, sure, Z stumbled through four innings only allowing one further run, even catching Bill Hall in a baserunning mistake of his own, tagging him out at third base when he and Capuano both occupied the base on a ball knocked down by Todd Walker, but then the disastrous fifth -- double, triple, double, walk, walk, double, and another walk before Dusty mercifully pulled the plug after 103 pitches.
I think Z just loses focus and I don't know why. We were joking that maybe they should have brought out a bat that he could have broken over his knee. He had good stuff and good command and his pitches were moving in the first four innings. It's hard to say how that could have suddenly been lost.
Meanwhile, Capuano was untouchable. He allowed only five harmless singles, three of them in the 8th and 9th when the game was far out of reach, and notched his first career CG and shutout. I was telling Mike about how I had a discussion with a friend -- now BCB reader jazzman56 -- about how the Diamondbacks got the better of the Richie Sexson deal, since none of the baby Backs who went to Milwaukee in that trade had a name at the time.
He specifically mentioned Capuano as the key to the deal, and he was right. Capuano is one of the top lefties in the game today, and the Brewers got other value in the deal, including Lyle Overbay, who they dealt to Toronto for another starter, Dave Bush (who started Friday), and third baseman Corey Koskie -- and the Diamondbacks got almost zero value from Sexson, who got hurt and then left as a free agent.
The Brewers do have a solid lineup -- Lee notwithstanding, Rickie Weeks had two hits, so did Jenkins, and Bill Hall, who plays all over the infield, hit a monstrous home run off Scott Eyre that nearly hit the same building that Glenallen Hill hit six years ago, probably going 480+ feet.
That homer should never have been hit. Why? Because it started pouring in the sixth inning.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again, and of course it'll fall on deaf ears: WHY is baseball played in conditions like that? The score was 7-0. The game was official. The Cubs showed NO sign of being able to come back against Capuano. It should have been called at that point. I'd like to see any baseball umpire, manager, player or management type justify why the last three innings of today's game were played, risking serious injury to a player. Mike & I agreed, it'll take a career-ending injury to a superstar player in conditions like that, to make any substantial changes in the way weather like today's is approached.
It's one thing if the rain's falling in the fourth inning and the score is close and they want to make it an official game -- but 7-0 in the 7th? C'mon.
It was two innings after that when a guy I'd seen sitting in front of me all game turned around and I recognized Rob, one of our morning show producers at ABC-7. He said his wife had spotted my ABC-7 cap (now 0-1 in the Cap Standings) and he turned around and recognized me. I guess my big blue and white ABC-7 umbrella was a dead giveaway, too.
The weather's not supposed to be much better tomorrow, and they can't wait very long because of the day game Tuesday, which is also getaway day. Given the state of the pitching staff, a postponement really, REALLY wouldn't be a bad idea.
Finally, one more note about the new PA speakers in the bleachers:
THEY ARE STILL TOO LOUD!
At times, the benches were vibrating. PLEASE turn them down!
Thank you.