As Shawn Camp came to the mound in the 9th for his first save attempt of the year, I thought to myself, “You know, there’s gotta be a reason that a guy who’s been such a good reliever for so many years only has 10 saves in his career.”
There is a reason.
The Cubs were up one in the bottom of the 9th when Camp came on, and they were down one an inning later when the game ended. That usually means that you lose. Bummer.
I’m starting to get a sense of Travis Wood as a pitcher. Because he doesn’t have overwhelming stuff, to be successful, he has to hit his spots quite well. Sometimes, he is exceptionally good at that, and, on those nights, he can look like a top 20 starter in the NL. If he’s off by just a little bit from those spots, however, one of two things happen: he gets hammered, or he nibbles, and is forced to throw a ton of pitches. Tonight was a case of the latter, and Wood managed to go just five meh innings.
The Cubs’ bats were on tonight, with Starlin Castro and Ian Stewart among the big ones. The bullpen, however, was uninterested in pitching well, and the Cubs lost their second straight extra-inning game. That also makes a ridiculo-ton of one-run games in a row that they’ve lost, and I believe they’ve now set a franchise record.
But, win or lose, you know the story tonight …