Cubs End Interminable Homestand With Another Dragged-Out Defeat

Some numbers from a just-completed 10-game Cubs homestand that seemed like it was about 20 games long:

• 95 innings played (five extra innings in three extra-inning games)
• 34 hours, 34 minutes of game time (average game length 3:43)
• Three hours, 37 minutes of rain delay (all on Monday, September 17)
• 47 Cubs runs, 52 opposition runs, leading to...
• Three Cubs wins and seven Cubs defeats

Sunday's was one of the latter category, 6-3 at the hands of the Cardinals, and it dragged and dragged and dragged. I love baseball, but as I've said, crisply played, quick games are way, way more fun to watch than these daily marches through bullpens, benches and defeats.

The Cubs honored Kerry Wood before the game -- I guess the reason was to benefit his foundation, as the proceeds from the 50/50 raffle held during the game went to the Wood Foundation. It was about $4,000, worthwhile, I suppose. I'm a huge Kerry Wood fan, as you know, but this seemed somewhat superfluous four months after his retirement. We got a nice poster of him in action.

Speaking of action... well, there was some in Sunday's game, mostly for the Cardinals, although it went... really... slowly. Justin Germano had a Justin Germano-like game. That is to say, he wasn't really bad, except for one inning when he hit Jon Jay on an 0-2 pitch and then gave up four straight hits. He just wasn't very good, either. His ERA for the game was 6.35, which, probably not coincidentally, is exactly what his ERA as a starter was coming into this game.

There have been just 12 pitcher-seasons in Cubs history where a pitcher has thrown at least as many innings as Germano now has (59⅔) and an ERA of at least 6.35. You might want to avert your eyes, because this list ain't pretty:

Casey Coleman, 2011, 84⅓ innings, 6.40
Glendon Rusch, 2006, 66⅓ innings, 7.46
Kyle Farnsworth, 2000, 77 innings, 6.43
Ruben Quevedo, 2000, 88 innings, 7.47
Dan Serafini, 1999, 62⅓ innings, 6.93
Jim Bullinger, 1996, 129⅓ innings, 6.54
Mike Morgan, 1994, 80⅔ innings, 6.69
Danny Jackson, 1991, 70⅔ innings, 6.75
Jose Nunez, 1990, 60⅔ innings, 6.53
George Frazier, 1985, 76 innings, 6.39
Ray Burris, 1974, 75 innings, 6.60
Ernie Broglio, 1966, 62.1 innings, 6.35

And Chris Volstad isn't too far behind, with a 6.22 ERA in 101⅓ innings, with one start remaining. Bullinger, shown above, is the only pitcher in Cubs history to throw as many or more innings as Volstad in a season with a higher ERA.

Really, there's not much to be said about this game. Despite coming back to within one run twice Sunday, once on Alfonso Soriano's 31st homer of the year (that set a career high in RBI for him, 105; he also had two singles, boosting his BA to .263), the Cubs never seemed in the game on a sunny but chilly afternoon when, again, probably half of the fans in the stands at Wrigley were wearing Cardinals red. And though the announced crowd was 33,354, far fewer actually showed up; the rest were either at Soldier Field watching another Chicago team beat another St. Louis team, or somewhere watching that game on television.

Speaking of which, I'll have another attendance look tomorrow, on the off day, with some interesting numbers from the just-completed homestand. Also, I'm curious as to what you all think the Cubs will do with their remaining nine games, so I've attached a poll to the end of this post. Happy voting!