Dusty Says

When did Mark Prior switched teams and joined the opposition? Even if the Atlanta Braves played a great game, our pitcher practically delivered them the win on their hands. Well, him and Rafael Furcal. The Cubs lost again today, and with that the series.

Prior had been sharp (though with not a lot of control: he walked four batters.) until the seventh inning, when with no outs and the game 1-0, Jeff Francoeur singled. Ryan Langerhans, then, bunted again but this time Mark grabbed the ball and tried to make a forceout at second; apparently, he chose himself to throw there. The throw landed on the shallow outfield allowing Francoeur to get to third. Both runners scored on a Furcal single.

Prior pitched 120+ pitches again, and he looked tired before the single that put the game out of reach at 3-1 (yes, out of reach. You know that we don’t score a lot.); he finished the day at 131 pitches, a little bit too high for a pitcher who’s been mostly dealing with high pitch counts during the last couple of games.

“It just kept flying,” Prior said. The throw to second unnecessarily cost the Cubs another game that was rather close; Jorge Sosa (9-2) pitched effective six innings.

You may or may not have noticed that this weblog has been showing more advertisements as of late. I promise I will never set up popups on the site, though those banners below were just necessary; the weblog needs traffic and traffic needs advertisements. I hope you don’t mind them, as they’re very discrete and won’t affect the loading time of our site.

To make up for the advertisements, I will install new plugins for the weblog.

Mark Prior allowed three runs or less for the 18th time in 21 starts. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty)

According to CBS,
Ronny Cedeno was called up from the minors and was in the clubhouse but was not activated.

Now, the question becomes: who goes down? The obvious would be to DL Nomar Garciaparra, but the same article stated that he doesn’t want to be disabled and that the Cubs aren’t planning on doing so.

Thus, someone needs to go down. More on the subject when it becomes official.

I always seem to be in a better mood after a nice win. As a fan of Chicago sports I hate to be saying this but:

THE CLEVELAND INDIANS ARE ONLY 7 GAMES BACK AND THE TWINS ARE RIGHT BEHIND AT 9.5 GAMES BACK, AND YOU KNOW WHAT I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER

I don’t dislike the White Sox as a team, I just hold a little grudge for all those fans who were hoping in 2003 that the Cubs would fail in a spectacular manner, and the Cubs obliged. If the Sox somehow don’t make the playoffs this year it will be THE MOST REMARKABLE COLLAPSE IN SPORTS HISTORY!

I have said all along this year that the White Sox were playing well above their heads, more so than the Washington Nationals. The Sox were benefitting from a group of pitchers all pitching way over their heads for a long stretch of time, and some timely hitting. They are finally regressing and boy are they regressing pretty fast.

More than the likely the White Sox will make the playoffs,they have a 92% chance of making it. No one really expects them to go very far, not even Sox fans as a result of their dramatic crash back to Earth. That is why I am hoping that they find a way to miss the playoffs in spectacular fashion and then 1969 will be moved to second place as the worst collapse in Chicago Baseball History. Also it should be fun to watch Ozzie Guillen’s head explode when trying to explain the collapse to the press.

The Cubs blew out an opponent. Wonder how many games passed before our last broad-margin win? Well, I shall inform you.

Thirty seven, since the Cubs won this one in Wrigley Field, 11 to 1.

Back to tonight’s game, JeroWilliams finally pitched a good game at Wrigley field and led the team to win 10-1 against the Atlanta Braves; the opposition fought and really tried to get back in the game but solid outings by the bullpen shut them in two innings of work.

JeroWilliams (4-6) allowed one run and three hits in 7 2/3 innings, his longest outing this season. The lone run against was a towering shot to the bleachers by Andruw Jones, his fortieth.

The Cubs looked good, and though they left many men on base, managed to score ten runs, four of those driven in by a Jeromy Beernitz grandslam, his first as a Cub. Michael Barrett also drove in multiple runs, two, with a bases loaded double in the ninth.

Atlanta Braves starter John Thomson (3-4) had his second bad start in a row and allowed five runs on seven hits. He walked three and struck out two.

And so the Cubs start winning again.

Also, I’d like to link to Lingering Bursitis, one of the most entertaining, well written Cubs weblogs — great work, guys. You obviously put on a lot of effort and enthusiasm into it.

Jeromy Beernitz is greeted at home after his eighth career grand slam. (Jeff Roberson/AP)

Game Preview for August the Twentythird
Atlanta Braves (71-54) at Chicago Cubs (60-65).

Broadcast:
Turner

Lineups:

Pitchers

John Thompson, recently rehabbed, will take the mound for the Atlanta Braves; he’s been really incosistent, and is 0-1 with a 8.20 ERA in his last four starts.

Righty JeroWilliams is scheduled to open for the Cubs. He’s got an extra week of rest though he took bullpen sessions because his game was skipped due to an off day.

Game notes and streaks

The Cubs have lost six out of the last nine against the Atlanta Braves // OF Francoeur is batting .386 (17-for-44) in 12 road games

Groundball, grounded out to second, groundout.

Try doing that a fifteen times. Chances say that you’re gonna lose.

Well, that’s how many times Tim Hudson had groundouts to retire the Cubs; he pitched a complete game, his first in months, and led the red hot Braves team to win 4-2 against a flawed Cubs, Monday night.

Carlos Zambrano sans inning four was as good as always, striking out ten batters, walking none and throwing a normal 100+ pitches in eight innings. Kerry Wood, though, seemed lost against a very focused Chipper Jones (he’s actually the key to this Braves team — the spark of the lineup; he hit two homeruns and drove in all four runs of his team) and ended up taking the loss, in the ninth inning of tonight’s game.

Hudson pitched nine innings on seven hits, one hit batsman (a pretty wild one, to Matt Lawton on the leg) and five strikeouts. He walked just one batter. That one batter, Derrek Lee, hit his thirty seventh homerun of the season and tied Ernie Banks’ record mark in a season by a Cubs first baseman.

Carlos Zambrano didn’t allow a baserunner in any inning but the fourth. (Jeff Roberson/AP)