Thanks for pitching 8 shutout innings when it doesn't matter anymore
But at least we can enjoy some winning baseball to finish out the season, right? That winning baseball included a 2-0 win over the Brewers last night, thanks to good pitching by Ryan Dempster, a solo home run from Derrek Lee, a fancy catch by Sam Fuld and my favorite play of the game, a 6-5-3 double play hit by Prince Fielder into the shift.
There was more. In the seventh, former Cub Casey McGehee led off with a single. With the infield shifted to the right, Prince Fielder grounded one to the right of second base. Shortstop Ryan Theriot grabbed it and flipped to third baseman Aramis Ramirez covering second. Ramirez threw a little wide of first baseman Derrek Lee, who finished the 6-5-3 double play.
"I'm not a shortstop; that's why I almost got killed there," said a smiling Ramirez.
If you didn't watch the game, click here to see the highlight on Cubs.com.
Alfonso Soriano isn't looking forward to his first surgery on Tuesday, though the arthroscopic procedure on his left knee is fairly routine.
"I never have had one before," he said. "They said it's a little one, so I hope I can feel some progress in two or three weeks."
Cubs physician Stephen Gryzlo will perform the surgery, which is being done now so the Cubs can monitor Soriano over the next few weeks before he returns home to the Dominican Republic for the off-season.
As was mentioned yesterday, Carlos Marmol is now the assumed closer for 2010. He's converted 9 straight saves since replacing Kevin Gregg, and hopefully this move will give him confidence going into next year.
''He's done enough and shown enough, and we have confidence in him enough that going into spring training next year it's his job,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''And we'll leave it just at that.''
His September stats, in case you're interested: 7 G, 0-1, 6 SV, 7.1 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 5 H, 11 K, .192 BAA, 2.46 ERA, 1.36 WHIP.
Speaking of pitching in September, the starters have been good. Very good, in fact.
Already the fifth-best starting rotation in the majors, the Cubs' starters are 8-2 with a 1.72 ERA in 13 games in September.
''That's why we watch pitch counts so carefully all year,'' Piniella said, ''so these pitchers have a finishing kick at the end. It's paying off.''
Not that you don't already know this, but they've been good the whole year. And, at least up to this point, better than last year, when their starter ERA was 3.75.
The Cubs won't have a 200-inning starter for the first time since 1994, but despite a few rough spots and five DL stints for the top four starters, the rotation has a 3.69 ERA this season -- better than it had in that 97-win 2008 season, so far.
In yesterday's headlines, I mentioned that Kyosuke Sasaki was back in town. As was suspected, he's here to save Captain Corkscrew from himself:
"He's been spinning a little bit," Lou Piniella said. "How many times have you seen him hit the ball to left field? Not much. When you isolate only one field, that's not good. He needs the whole field to hit with and not become so pull conscious. When you start spinning, that's what you do."
And I know everyone's been waiting for this day, and there's bound to be a heated discussion here on LOHO about these results. Each one of us will be defending our favorite prospect, citing reasons why he should've been named Minor League Player or Pitcher of the year. The official results are in:
]]>Outfielder Kyler Burke and pitcher Casey Coleman are the Cubs' minor-league player and pitcher of the year, respectively. Burke, who played for Class A Peoria, had a .405 on-base percentage, a Midwest League-leading 43 doubles and 15 homers. Coleman, who is pitching in the playoffs for Class AA Tennessee, won 14 games in the regular season and 1 in the postseason.