The Cubs blasted the Cardinals today, and I got to watch a whole bunch of disappointed Cardinals fans’ faces in the process (about which, more later – or, if you missed it on Twitter, you can see a sampling here: #CardinalsBar). And all on the day the Cardinals had their World Series celebration.
The Cubs’ bats came alive early, and the greatest damage came courtesy of a three-run shot by Ian Stewart (his first since 2010), and a grand slam by Bryan LaHair. Every Cub but Geovany Soto had a hit, and Starlin Castro reached base four times. David DeJesus was a beast in right field, and Alfonso Soriano made another I’m-kind-of-diving-but-also-kind-of-just-laying-down catch. The bullpen was just about perfect (including a two-strikeout 9th from Carlos Marmol).
The only sour point was Jeff Samardzija, who labored all day with command issues (couldn’t get many of his pitches to do what he wanted them to do), and it caught up with him in the fifth inning when he gave up five runs on hit after hit after hit.
But, all in all, it was a good day.