Chicago Cubs 6, San Francisco Giants 5—Mike Fontenot Plays the Hero

Reprinted with permission from Cubbie Nation - Notes From the Front Office

Mike Fontenot hit the game-winning home run in the eighth, and Carlos Marmol proved to be the luckiest man in the park Wednesday night, as the Cubs outlasted the Giants 6-5 in San Francisco.

The win allowed them to keep pace with the St. Louis Cardinals—who got some luck of their own, winning with a walk-off homer—and the Milwaukee Brewers, who dropped the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3.

There was a moment in the eighth inning that I hope those that watched the game caught. It was just after Fontenot hit what proved to be the game-winning homer. Television shots showed him celebrating in the dugout with teammates; laughing and looking very comfortable and at ease.

Eric Patterson—pinch-hitting for Carlos Marmol—fouled out to third on the first or second pitch to end the inning, with the next TV shots showing him disgruntled and looking sourly back at the umpire.

The at-bats, the personas, the approaches at the plate; almost everything displayed why Mike Fontenot is enjoying his second full season in the majors, and Eric Patterson is still trying to get out of Iowa.

It shouldn't have been this close though. After working six innings of two-run ball, it looked like Ryan Dempster would be in line for his first road win this season.

The Cubs would score two in the top of the seventh on a two-run Geovany Soto double to take the 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the inning. However, Marmol, who has been getting real ugly, came in and surrendered a Ray Durham three-run shot to tie the game. This was after getting two very quick outs.

Whatever is going on with Marmol doesn't look to be physical, which is a bit scary, envisioning a young reliever losing a touch of confidence. I think we're going to need him for the Cardinal series this weekend, but if he can't get right quickly, I would hope that Lou Piniella starts letting him work out of less-stressful roles for a bit.

Bob Howry has been much better of late, and it may be time to start leveraging that hot arm a bit more. We'll see. In the meantime, he did prove it's better to be lucky than good, getting the win for what was an inning of very bad work.

Well, the late night swing is over for awhile, as Thursday's game is a 6:05 pm start. I would have preferred to post regarding Tuesday night's 2-1 loss to the Giants; but honestly, I feel asleep. Such is life on the West Coast swings. Now, let's go take this series.

Actually one last thing. The webmaster for takkle.com e-mailed me the other day about their site. It's a social networking site, geared toward high school sports. It's got great content, and a very good design. If you've any interest in high school baseball—or sports in general—I think you'll find it worth a look.