Jeff Samardzija was ON tonight. All of his pitches were working, he repeatedly made Reds batters look foolish, he was efficient, and he dominated a good offensive lineup in a good offensive park. It was just good, man.
The offense put a ton of guys on base, even if the Cubs couldn’t bring ‘em home (Starlin Castro getting picked off of second and thrown out stealing, both times with two outs and Bryan LaHair at the plate, didn’t help). Ian Stewart and Geovany Soto got off the schneid a bit, and Bryan LaHair remains LaDiculous.™ And Carlos Marmol didn’t blow it! In fact, he went 1-2-3 in the 9th with two Ks! I don’t know why I’m shouting! Actually, yes I do!
But the story was Jeff Samardzija. Let’s see if I can pull this off…
Definitely the craziest part of this game is that Lahawsome has 3 (!) non-hits, walks, or strikeouts. Apparently, after his pop up was caught by Cozart, Lahair pointed and yelled, “Hey! Is he allowed to do that?”
Was at the game tonight right behind the dugout. Wore my new Cubs jersey and I will have to wear it to every game going forward. It’s got a good luck winning streak going. What a great game. Shark pitched awesome. LaHair once again delivers. He should have had 2. The wind stopped blowing out to left just before he hit that second long ball. Soriano was awesome for a change. He played a very good game defensively and had a couple nice hits. Stewart’s home run was a line drive shot. He hit the ball extremely well a couple other at bats. Hopefully he is starting to come around. All in all I think it was probably the best game the Cubs have played thus far. No defensive lapses and enough hitting and HR’s at the right time. I hope Shark keeps pitching like he did tonight. He doesn’t back down from anybody and his fastball is outstanding. He over powered Votto all night. Just blew it by him and the rest of the Reds. Great game!!! I’ll be there again at noon tomorrow.
Also Bruce’s double off Shark was a bowl of Wheetes from a HR.
not even, it was at least a slice of Canadian bacon and possibly one egg over easy short
LaHair has been pitched around twice that I know of. He’s becoming a threat to other teams. If you think he’s the real deal start thinking of him as an All Star. This next month may tell the tale..
You’ve loved this guy since Day One, and I am officially a convert. Good call Cheryl! I hope you are just as right about Wellington Castillo and B-Jax. Bad for my record as a prognosticator, but good for the Cubs. I’ll take that. Still, I’m starting to doubt my analytical skills…maybe we should take another look at that Kurplinsky kid…
Brett (or luke) , Do you guys think that Rizzo could be called up by July 2nd? I’m going to all four games when they come to Atlanta (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th.) and i’d love to see Rizzo play. any possibilities of this happening?
two possibles; LaHair gets hurt, or Cubs dump Soriano by that time and place LaHair/Mathers in the platoon OF
Reds got ” Samardzija’d” they just couldn’t spell samardzija the entire time he was in the game
Yay! Marmol didn’t blow the save opportunity, even though he still didn’t pitch the best…
That has to be the best EBS I’ve seen. AWESOME!
How many pitches did Shark throw?
Fenway: He threw 94 pitches, 60 for strikes.
Thanks, Idaho
Agreed on the top notch EBS. Well done sirrr.
Thank you, kindly.
Only thing that would have made it better, was a little 29 on the fin, or some hair flowing off the bottom…
Does anyone remember how in Spring Training, Soriano was crushing the ball and LaHair was struggling with 0 home runs? What a difference a month makes.
no what a difference actual situational pitching makes a difference. Soriano was feasting on fastballs while LaHair was working on his game
True. I am pleased to see that Sori’s approach at the plate *appears* to be better than in previous years. I’ve seen him lay off pitches that in the past he would have swung at. Whether or not that will translate into a higher OBP or AVG remains to be seen.
[...] told you Jeff Samardzija’s performance last night was sublime, you all undoubtedly agreed, and we weren’t the only one who saw it that [...]
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… When Jeff’s on the mound, it’s always Shark Week.
Ahh Brett, its nice that your finally on the Samardzija band wagon.
He’s making it very hard not to be.
Who saw this double-play started by DeWitt?
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21101403&topic_id=29461918&c_id=chc
There’s been some bashing of DW on the site lately (by myself included), so I thought it doesn’t hurt to recognize when the man does things right. That was a pretty hot dive and pitch he made…
Didn’t both Soto and Stewart have a hard-hit out each as well as their hits? These two are the “Atem Ball” twins…..