MVN - Most Valuable Network

Cubs Break Berkman And Pence’s Hitting Streaks

Cub fans in the Box are, to be nice about it, obnoxious, and unfortunately, Astros pitchers and hitters couldn’t shut them up.

Lance got the sombrero tonight, although he DID check his swing on the last pitch. He sure didn’t look like the guy he’s looked like for the past couple weeks and he left 4 guys on base.

Miggy didn’t look like the 5th best hitter in the NL neither and HE left 5 guys on base. But he stole an all-important 3rd base, so he was in position to score on Carlos’ shallow single to left. That was great.

Bourn does seem to have broken out of his hitting slump (I certainly hope) and he’s gotten his average back up to the Mendoza line in the past 2 days. Tonight he went 2 fer 4 and knocked in one of the Astros 2 runs - against a lefty, yet. And he stole yet another base. I really REALLY hope this is a turnaround. I hate giving up on young players if they aren’t looking like Albert Pujols after a couple weeks. I even read a comment by some person on another site saying something like - Bourn should be hitting like Jacoby Ellsbury.

right

Anyhow, the guys had better get their hitting together.

As for the pitching, Moehler wasn’t too bad - he got clobbered in the 3rd after getting tired from a 11 pitch AB from Aramis Ramirez, then a 6 pitch walk to Fukudome, then he hung a slider to Soto, who hit it 404′ and the Cubs went ahead 3-0 and never relinquished that lead.

Anyway, I was in perfect position across the stadium to see it, and I also have watched the replay in slo-mo 4 times, and that ball DEFINITELY hit just to the right of the yellow line, which means the umps got it wrong and Michael Bourn got it right and it was a regular homer and not an inside the parker. Michael should have acted like it was a live ball unless he saw the ump make the circle - it’s a dumb rookie mistake, I know.

Byrdal as only allowed to pitch one inning, to the 7,8,9 hitters and then Nieve was sent to pitch to Sori, Theriot and D.Lee. Nieve wasn’t exactly nails - 27 pitches, 3 hits, 6 batters, 1 run.

Wesley Wright came on for the 8th, got the first batter out, gave up a single to left to the second, walked the third, then was pulled for Borkowski.

uh-oh

Naturally, he lets one of Wesley’s runners score AND he gives up a 2 run homer in the 9th.

One of the problems with Moehler is that he can’t really go deep into games - and I was impressed that he was actually able to come back for the 5th after throwing 36 pitches in the 4th - AND he got the meat of the lineup out with just 15 pitches.

But unfortunately, the bullpen is not strong. And we all knew that one of these days, the miracle comebacks were gonna stop, or at least become less freaquent AND Carlos Marmol has absolutely shut the Astros DOWN since he went to the pen…

And tomorrow it is Chris Sampson vs Ryan Dempster

Dempster, their shaky closer of last year, has turned into a NAILS starter this year. He’s 5-1 in 9 GS: 57.1 IP - 7 QS, 35 H, 3 HR, 24 BB, 48 K: 2.35 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and a .172 BAA

Berkman has always hit him well - hope he gets his stroke back tomorrow.

And Chris better have a good sinker, because the Cubs have a great hitting lineup…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Astros baseball, Berkman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.