One day after Ted Lilly threw a gem to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ryan Dempster threw a one of his own. Alfonso Soriano chipped in four hits and scored two runs in the Cubs' 7-2 win over Arizona.
Ryan Dempster threw a season high 118 pitches in over six innings, giving up two runs and getting a no decision. Still, he kept the Cubs offense in the game long enough for the Cubs to win it.
Soriano raised his average over the Mendoza Line and seems to be breaking out of his early-season slump.
Scott Eyre also made his first appearance of the season today while picking up the win.
Diamondbacks phenom Matt Scherzer went six innings while only giving up one run, but the Cubs broke the game wide open against pitcher Chad Qualls.
The Cubs batted around in the seventh inning, with the final two runs coming on Kosuke Fukudome's second home run of the season.
After a 2-4 road trip, the Cubs have taken the first two games of this series against the Diamondbacks. This is the first time the Cubs have seen the Diamondbacks since Arizona swept Chicago in the Division Series last season.
The Cubs will face Randy Johnson in the final game. The Big Unit will go up against Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano.
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5 months ago
Nice recap Katelyn. I'm still concerned about the way Soriano is running , though the 4 hits were certainly welcome. Let's sweep these guys tomorrow, we owe them after the playoffs last year.
5 months ago
Maybe that 7th inning helped the Cubs' bats break out of the funk they've been in the last few weeks. Had to listen to the Santo-less WGN radio broadcast today, but it was still exciting.
from 5 months ago
I had to watch the progress of the game on my phone while at work today--I would have welcomed radio, with or without Santo :P
5 months ago
More to the point, Dempster's pitch count was (as Bob said in his article) far too high for 6 innings--after 2, he was already at 43 or 48 (can't remember offhand, but it was in the 40's), and to be honest, he shouldn't have pitched the 6th, and especially not after the bases ended up loaded. I'm all for letting the bullpen get some rest, but not potentially at the cost of a loss, and especially not against Arizona--I'm a firm believer that a sweep here will give the Cubbies some much needed momentum (and revenge) that'll get their asses in gear. Then again, when it comes to baseball, I've been accused of being overly optimistic.
5 months ago
I agree about Soriano's running condition. Coming around third base yesterday he was not running close to full speed. A quad injury does not heal easily. Hopefully he can turn things around
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