MVN - Most Valuable Network

Cubs Sweep Diamondbacks

Coming into their series against the Diamondbacks, widely considered to be the best team in baseball, the Cubs had lost their last four series, two against the woeful Nationals and Reds. So, Arizona should easily win at least two of the three games, right? Wrong.

The Cubs had a very surprising weekend sweep of the D’Backs after winning today’s game 6-4.

It wasn’t exactly the pitchers duel we expected, as both Randy Johnson and Carlos Zambrano were scratched as a result of a late start because of rain in Chicago. I can understand Johnson not going with his back problems, but I thought Zambrano could still start.

Nevertheless, it became Edgar Gonzalez against Sean Gallagher. Gonzalez pitched pretty well, going five and giving up just two runs, one being a solo homer to Derek Lee. Gallagher was looking very good through four, giving up just one run, but exploded in the fifth, loading the bases with one out. Chad Fox then came in and promptly walked the first two batters. Overall, Gallagher gave up four runs in his first start.

This shouldn’t affect his status with the Cubs. He’ll continue to be the long-relief man, and if Jon Lieber struggles, he could still go into the rotation.

In the seventh and eighth innings, Arizona’s bullpen once again blew the game with Juan Cruz giving up two runs to tie the game and Tony Pena giving up a two-run jack to Reed Johnson. What a pick-up Johnson has been for the Cubs, by the way.

The Cubs bullpen got the job done after that, with Kerry Wood getting his seventh save. It looks like that cloudy stretch he was going through is over, and Cub fans can breath easy again. At least their situation isn’t as bad as the Cardinals and Brewers in the ninth inning.

Wow, a huge turn in momentum for the Cubs, to sweep a team like the Diamondbacks. They’ve been great at home, and maybe thats a trend that will continue all year.

For Arizona, they just have to put this weekend behind them. They played well enough to win all three games, but lost in the late innings, two times because of their bullpen. This is the kind of thing that could hurt them, in my opinion, because of how young they are. Bob Melvin has to keep them focused and motivated so that they keep on playing well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.