April 11th Game’s Results and Analysis

April 11^th Game’s Results and Analysis

San Francisco Giants 7 - Chicago Cubs 6

Winning Pitcher: Vogelsong (1-1) Losing Pitcher: Feldman (0-2)

Save by Romo (6)

Player of the Game: Pablo Sandoval

The Chicago Cubs let one slip by them in today’s game. The Cubs probably should have won the game today, but they let their 5 run lead slip away by giving the Giants four runs in the top of the 4^th inning and three runs in the 5^th inning. The Cubs did score a run in the 8^th to make it a one run ball game, but couldn’t capitalize in the 9^th when David DeJesus hit a double with one out. The Cubs needed to win this game because they will have some tough matchups in their next few games. The player of the game was Pablo Sandoval who hit a big two RBI double in the 4^th inning that give the Giants confidence to comeback in the game and draw a walk following Sandoval’s double.

Impressive: The most impressive thing in today’s game for the Cubbies was how well they hit and scored off a good pitcher. The Cubs had a total of 12 hits and five of those hits were extra base hits. Anthony Rizzo hit his third homerun this season and each of these homeruns were two run homers with Starlin Castro on base. The Cubs hitters did well, but not great with runners in scoring position by going 4 for 14 when those occasions occurred. Although the Cubbies did do well against off the Giants pitching, they did miss some chances to tie the game when Starlin Castro got stuck at third with one out and when the Cubbies left David DeJesus on second base in the ninth inning.

Surprising: The most surprising thing about today’s game was reliever Hisanori Takahashi walking the Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong when the bases were loaded in the 5^th inning to tie the game. I was shocked when Takahashi walked him because a pitcher should never ever walk a pitcher especially when the bases are loaded. I would rather get beat by the pitcher hitting the baseball instead of walking him. There was one out in the inning as well therefore if he could have gotten Vogelsong out he might have prevented the three runs that the Giants scored on him and the Cubbies could have won today’s game.

Concerning: The thing that I’m most concerned about with the Chicago Cubs is their starting pitchers not being able to prevent the big inning. The Cubs have allowed too many innings where they give up more than 3 runs and if these innings were prevented then the Cubs would have won the majority of their games so far. I know that Feldman wasn’t charged for the runs in the 4^th inning because there was a crucial error made by Starlin Castro with two outs that allowed one run, but Castro didn’t hit Brandon Crawford with a pitch and give up a double to Pablo Sandoval. I’m just concerned that the Cubs just give up too many big innings and that will hurt the Cubbies more than it can benefit them. Another concern of mine is Scott Feldman as a starting pitcher. I know that he wasn’t to blame for today’s loss, but I strongly believe that Feldman doesn’t have an out pitch and every starting pitcher needs a pitch that he can get outs with. You can argue that Feldman’s out pitch is his sinker, but so far this season he doesn’t have control of that pitch. Until Feldman can command his sinker better he won’t be putting together too many good performances on the mound.   

Preview for the Game on April 11th

Preview for the Game on April 11^th

San Francisco Giants (6-3) at Chicago Cubs (3-4)

Tomorrow is the first game of a four game series that the Chicago Cubs will have against the San Francisco Giants. The game is at the Friendly Confines at 2:20pm eastern time. The Cubs can take advantage of that fact that they got a day off today, whereas the Giants finished their series against the Colorado Rockies today. The Cubs probable pitcher for tomorrow’s game will be Scott Feldman (0-1), who was supposed to pitch against the Brewers until the game got rained out. Feldman is coming off a poor outing against the Atlanta Braves and will be facing a talented Giants lineup. I believe the best case scenario for Feldman is that he has good command of his pitches and that the wind is blowing in. If the wind is not blowing in tomorrow, Feldman can be vulnerable if his best pitch, his sinker ball, is flat or high in the strike zone. Tomorrow will be a tough matchup for Feldman, as he has to face last’s year National League MVP, Buster Poesy, and World Series MVP, Pablo Sandoval.

Scott Feldman will be facing the tough RHP Ryan Vogelsong (0-1), who has an era of 8.44. Vogelsong is coming off a bad performance against the St. Louis Cardinals, but Vegelsong’s outing wasn’t as bad as his numbers indicate. Vogelsong struggled against a great lineup that is so good that they can make any pitcher look terrible. Vogelsong’s pitches are a four seam fastball in the low-90s, a cutter that he uses to attack left-handed batters, a slider that is his best breaking ball pitch, a misleading change up and a two seam fastball that he uses to attack right-handed batters.

The Chicago Cubs batters will have to face a challenging opponent in tomorrow’s game because I can promise you that Vogelsong will keep the Giants in the game because he usually pitches a quality start (which is when the starting pitcher goes 6 innings and gives up three earned runs or fewer). Nate Schierholtz should have the best advantage against Vogelsong because he has seen the most of Vogelsong compared to any other Cubbie because Schierholtz was a teammate of Vogelsong when Nate was a Giant. I’m assuming that because the Cubs got an off day because of the weather that Welington Castillo and Alberto Gonzalez will be in the lineup in tomorrow’s game. The Cubs hitters have a chance to do well in tomorrow’s game because Vogelsong could struggle if the wind is blowing out and the Cubs need to exploit that if they get the chance. The hitters are going to need to put some runs up on the scoreboard because I’m not sure if Feldman is going to have the greatest outing in tomorrow’s game.

My prediction for tomorrow’s game is that the Cubs pull out an upset with a score of 5 to 4. I believe that Feldman will struggle again with his command and will walk too many batters, but the offense will bail him out and give him his first victory as a Cubbie. My predicted player of the game is Nate Schierholtz because this is a revenge game for Nate because the Giants traded him last year to the Phillies and the Giants never played him as an everyday player. Therefore, I’m taking that Nate will have a big game and show the Giants what they are missing out on.

The Postponement of Tonight’s Game

Tonight’s Game

The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers game was postponed for another date because of the rain that Chicago got tonight. The game will be made up on July 30^th, which will end up being a doubleheader between the Cubs and the Brewers. This postponement will be giving the Milwaukee Brewers a big break because they should have several players back from the DL by then and the Brewers will probably have solved their problems with their bullpen by then as well.

The Cubs will have Scott Feldman as the starting pitcher for tomorrow’s game against the San Francisco Giants. This means that Carlos Villanueva will pitch on Friday for the Cubbies, Jeff Samardzija will get the start on Saturday and Edwin Jackson will get his second start of this week on Sunday, instead of Saturday.  The postponement also means that the Cubs will only play 6 games instead of 7 this week and that they end up tying the Brew Crew in their first series. 

Preview for the Game on April 10th

Preview for the Game on April 10^th

Milwaukee Brewers (2-5) at Chicago Cubs (3-4)

The Chicago Cubs next game will be the rubber match against the Milwaukee Brewers. The game will be played at the beautiful Wrigley Field at 8:05pm eastern time. The Cubs will be trying to win their second series of the year and trying to give themselves confidence for their four game series against the former World Series Champs, the San Francisco Giants. The probable pitcher for the Cubbies tomorrow will be Scott Feldman, which will be his first start in Wrigley and first time ever playing in Wrigley Field. Feldman is coming off a horrible start against the Atlanta Braves, even though the Braves do have one of the best lineups in baseball. If Feldman wants to get a win against the Brewers tomorrow, he is going to need to have good command on his pitches, especially his best pitch, the sinker. Feldman is hoping that the wind is blowing in and if the wind isn’t then it could be another bad outing for him.

The pitcher that Feldman will be facing is the savvy right-handed Kyle Lohse. I watched Lohse last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks and believe me he looked great. Lohse got a no decision in that contest, but it wasn’t too surprising because he didn’t get a lot of innings of practice during spring training because he didn’t sign with the Brewers until late in spring training. The pitches that Lohse has are a four-seam fastball that is the low-90s, a slider that he will use to backdoor left-handed batters, a curve, a cutter that he uses to jam batters and a changeup that is by far his best pitch. Kyle Lohse isn’t an overpowering pitcher, but he will go inside on batters and has excellent command on all of his pitches.

The Cubs hitters will be facing a tough pitcher tomorrow, therefore I believe they need to work the counts on him to make his pitch total go up so that they can get a crack at the Brewers struggling bullpen as soon as possible. I think that the Cubs will be giving Welington Castillo a break tomorrow, which means Dioner Navarro should be in the lineup. Also I figure that the Cubbies will get Scott Hairston in lineup and play him in left field. I believe the Cubs hitters will have a difficult time against Lohse, but if the Cubs are close in the later innings they can win the game by taking advantage of the bullpen of the Brew Crew.

My prediction of the game is the Brewers will pullout a victory because they should get an impressive outing from Kyle Lohse. Lohse will get his first win with the Brewers with a score of 5-3. I just think that Feldman will have another bad outing and will be too wild to be effective. I’m predicting that Kyle Lohse will be the player of the game and goes 7 to 8 great innings against the Cubbies. Although, Lohse will pitch great, he will struggle against Starlin Castro because I think Castro suits up well against Lohse and his off speed pitches.

April 9th Game’s Results and Analysis

April 9^th Game’s Results and Analysis

Chicago Cubs 6 – Milwaukee Brewers 3

Winning Pitcher: Marmol (1-1) Losing Pitcher: Axford (0-2)

Save by Fujikawa (2)

Player of the Game: Nate Schierholtz, Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo

Tonight’s game is a prime example of why baseball is my favorite sport. The Chicago Cubs made the game a thriller tonight by winning a comeback and giving their fans the first chance to listen to “Go Cubs Go” at Wrigley Field. It was a great game for the Cubbies in which they fought hard in the game and came out with what I would say was their best win of the year. There are three players of the game today because the Cubs needed all of those players in order to win the game. Nate Schierholtz is one of those players because he got a leadoff double in the bottom of the 8^th and scored the winning run off a sac fly by Scott Hairston. Starlin Castro is considered to be one of the players of the game because he got a crucial RBI in the game and made a hell of defensive play in the top of the 8^th that prevented a run that could have given the Brewers the lead. The last player of the game was Anthony Rizzo because he had a huge RBI in the bottom of 7^th off a left-handed pitcher that tied the game for the Cubs.

Impressive: The Cubs comeback was the most impressive part of the game in my mind. They just exploded on the Brewers bullpen and showed that they can come back and win games. The way that the Cubs fought back in the game was impressive and I knew sooner or later that they were going to be successful when they needed to make timely hits. Another thing that was impressive in today’s game was the starting pitcher, Travis Wood’s outing. Wood put together another great performance for the Cubbies. Travis Wood went 6.1 innings, gave up 3 runs, but 2 of them were earned runs and struck out six in the game. The game started off rough for Wood, especially the second inning, which was the inning that the Brewers scored all of their runs. Wood threw good pitches in that inning, but his defense made some errors that cost him some runs. Instead of continuing in the seemingly bad way, Wood settled down and limited the Brewers chances to score and gave the Cubbies a chance to win, which the Cubs came through on.

Surprising: Brent Lillibridge has surprised me so far this season. I was excited when I found out the Cubs had signed him in the off-season because he impressed me when I saw that he played for the Yankees and the White Sox. Lillibridge still hasn’t gotten a hit yet as a Cubbie and doesn’t look good at the plate. I know it’s early and Lillibridge isn’t going to have a great batting average at this point, but I thought he would have put in better performances at least.

Concerning: I would have been concerned with all the errors in the game that the Cubs had, but I’m blaming the weather for those errors. I think that the wind carried some throws away from the players and the cold weather prevented players from getting a good grip to throw the ball accurately. Instead of been concerned with the errors, I am concerned with Alfonso Soriano. Soriano looks like he’s not getting a good read off pitchers and hasn’t really had any impressive hits yet. Alfonso is supposed to be the leader of the Cubbies, but he hasn’t shown this yet this season. Also, I’m worried about his fielding because he just doesn’t make the right cuts to the ball in left field. I know as soon as it gets warm out his bat will get hot, but what is the point of the Cubs playing Soriano? He isn’t the best disciplined hitter, he’s worse than an average defender and he is on the wrong side of 30 years old. I think it would be best for the Cubs and Soriano if the Cubs could find a trade that would send him to a World Series contender in the American League so that he has a chance to get his first ring and play as the DH.

Preview for the Game on April 9th

Preview for the Game on April 9^th

Milwaukee Brewers (2-4) at Chicago Cubs (2-4)

The Chicago Cubs can get revenge for their tough loss from today in tomorrow’s game against the Brewers. The game will be the first night game at Wrigley this year with a start time of 8:05pm eastern time. The Cubs will be sending Travis Wood to the mound tomorrow night, who is (1-0) and is coming off an outstanding outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wood will need to be effective with his cutter tomorrow because Milwaukee’s hottest hitter and their leadoff man, Norichika Aoki, is a lefty batter and the cutter is Wood’s best pitch against lefties. Travis Wood went 6 scoreless innings against the Pirates and only allowed one hit and two walks and he should have the stuff and confidence to take advantage of the Brew Crew’s early injuries. There isn’t any reason to doubt Wood’s ability to get a win tomorrow.

The probable pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers is the young hard-throwing RHP Wily Peralta. Peralta is a very talented young pitcher, but like every other young talented pitcher Peralta can occasionally overthrow his pitches which causes him to lose command on his pitches. Peralta got hit hard and had a hard time against the Colorado Rockies in his opening start last week, but the Cubs shouldn’t be expecting that poor of an outing against them. The pitches in Peralta’s repertoire are a four seam fastball that is in the mid-90s, a two seam fastball that is around the mid-90s as well, a slider that can be nasty at times, and a changeup that he rarely uses. Peralta is really just a two pitch pitcher mainly focusing on his fastball and slider.

The Cubs hitters will get their second crack at Milwaukee’s struggling starting pitching staff in tomorrow’s game. If the Cubs hitters can use Peralta’s mistakes against him, they can score enough runs to give Travis Wood run support. I believe that Welington Castillo will keep his bat hot tomorrow and will have a solid game against Wily Peralta. I’m suspect that Alberto Gonzalez will be back in the lineup at second base and Brent Lillibridge will get a day off. The Cubbies hitters need to have patience against Peralta and not chase his tricky slider. If the Cubs fall behind tomorrow, they should have the confidence that they can make a comeback because the Brewers bullpen has been ineffective in this early season.

My prediction for the game is the Chicago Cubs will pull out a victory against the Brewers with a score of 6 to 2. I know I have I taken the Cubbies in the last five games, but sooner or later I’m going to be right and I hope I’m right about tomorrow’s game because I don’t see them winning on Wednesday against the Brewers starting pitcher Kyle Lohse. My predicted player of the game tomorrow is Anthony Rizzo because I think he is best suited for Peralta’s fastball. I also predict that Wood will go seven strong innings with 8 strikeouts and only give up one earned run.   

April 8th Game’s Results and Analysis

April 8^th Game’s Results and Analysis

Milwaukee Brewers 7 - Chicago Cubs 4

Winning Pitcher: Estrada (1-0) Losing Pitcher: Jackson (0-2)

Save by Henderson (1)

Player of the Game: Norichika Aoki

The Chicago Cubs lost a tough and an eventful game in the Cubbies home opener. The game started off terribly for the Cubs, in which starting pitcher Edwin Jackson gave up 4 of his 5 earned runs in the top of the first. The Brewers scored again in the second inning to make the score 5 to 0, but in the top of the second Welington Castillo hit a two run homer which was his first of the year. Those were the only two runs scored against the starting pitcher for the Brewers, Marco Estrada. Estrada put together an impressive outing by going 7 innings with 6 K’s. Norichika Aoki was the player of the game today because he went 3 for 4 with a double and two walks; he was just a tough out and has looked great this season. The Brewers scored two runs later on reliever Shawn Camp to make the score of the game 7 to 2, although the Cubbies did make it interesting in 9^th by scoring 2 runs, but couldn't capitalize with the bases loaded.

Impressive: Although Edwin Jackson had difficulty in the first two innings, he calmed down and finished strong, which allowed Jackson to go 6 innings with 6 strikeouts with 5 earned runs. However, his last four innings pitched were impressive and if he can pitch more innings like those then he will have a great season for the Cubbies. I believe Edwin Jackson was just too amped up for his first start as a Cub at Wrigley Field and he will have a better performance this weekend when he pitches against the San Francisco Giants. Another thing that impressed me was how the Cubs had a little comeback in the 9^th inning and if you read my blog about yesterday’s game you would realize that that was my main concern of yesterday’s game. The Cubbies scored only two in the bottom of the 9^th, but Starlin Castro’s fly out would have been a walk off homer if the wind was still blowing out like it was in the first few innings. Today showed me that the Cubs have potential to make comebacks if need be and make games competitive.

Surprising: There were two things that surprised me in the game today, one being Shawn Camp’s pitching performance and the other is the Cubs struggle against Marco Estrada. Shawn Camp came in the 7^th inning with the score of 5 to 2 Brewers and Camp struggled to get outs which cost him 2 runs. The most surprising thing about Camp’s outing was that he gave up a double to the pitcher Marco Estrada that scored a run. Talking about Estrada, the Cubs hitters had some difficult hitting him in today’s game. I found this to be surprising because Estrada isn’t the most prolific pitcher in majors and he only throws three pitches. I just thought the Cubs hitters could have taken advantage of the wind blowing out and facing an average starting pitcher, however Estrada did get some calls from the Ump behind the plate.

Concerning: I know that I was impressed with the Cubs hitters little comeback in the 9^th, but they had chances before the 9^th to score some runs. The Cubbies left Starlin Castro stranded at third two times in this game and each time there was only one out in the inning. The Cubs hitters also left Schierholtz stranded at second after he hit his double in the bottom of the 4^th inning. Although I’m concerned about the lack of timing hits from the Cubs hitters, I still believe the hitters will find their groove soon and that will cause them to have some clutch hits.