We can all exhale now

After the trade deadline passed yesterday, we all needed a good exhale. Unfortunately for us, Ryan Dempster cursed the Cubs upon leaving town and they were nearly no-hit last night. Unfortunately for Ryan, his power in the black arts isn’t quite what he hoped it would be. What was this curse?

After the news of his move to the AL came out, Dempster briefly meet with Chicago media members. When asked how he would have pitched if he had not been traded, he deadpanned: “I think I would have thrown a no-hitter tonight.”

Thankfully, the return of Adrian Cardenas allowed him to break up the no-hitter with only 4 outs remaining. After the game Cardenas remembered an earlier game he had against Burnett.

“I faced him before; I won’t forget that game,” Cardenas said. “It’s the game I made two errors at third base. A.J. Burnett pitched that game. But I remembered him and I remembered how he was pitching throughout the game.”

And he remembered the kindness of one Ryan Dempster to him that day.

“I wish I was able to say goodbye to Dempster,” Cardenas said. “He was one of the best teammates I ever played with. He actually pitched the game I made two errors in and I remember him encouraging me after I made a good play after the error where anybody could have shown me up, especially somebody like him with his years and he never ever did that. I just respected me from Day 1. He was just a great person.”

While I’m sure all of that is true, we’re just glad he’s gone now and the saga is over.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Trades, Call-Ups and Near No-Hitters”

You may remember last time Ryan Dempster pitched. It was his 35th birthday and he allowed exactly zero runs in eight innings. Then, in the ninth, Carlos Marmol allowed three, and the Cubs went on to lose to the Reds in 10 innings. This also happened to be the game that earned Carlos his demotion from the closer role.

In Dempster’s four starts this season, he’s allowed three runs in 28.1 innings. He’s apparently doing his best to show the world how worthless a stat the Win is, as he’s still stuck on zero despite the 0.95 ERA. I suppose he’s hoping the offense and bullpen chip in to help him get off the schneid.

Opposing the 35-year-old Dempster tonight for the Braves is 22-year-old righty Randall Delgado. Delgado (2-3, 5.14) went eight innings against the Phillies in his last start, allowing two runs. Delgado has 26 strikeouts and 12 walks in 28 innings this season. So there’s potential for the Cubs to get some runners on base, but also a strong potential to watch a Cub strike out with runners on base.  A scouting report from last year says he sits in the low 90s with his fastball but can top out at 96.

Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Dempster Tries Again, 7:05 Central”

Don’t look now, kids, but someone is playing real, big-boy baseball! And it’s not Carlos Marmol. More on that in a minute:

LaHair and Stewart hit consecutive homers, Geovany Soto launched a two-run shot in the eighth and Carlos Marmol survived a shaky inning to back Jeff Samardzija, lifting the Cubs to a 5-1 victory over the Braves on a foggy Monday night.

And what of our raven-haired, pitcher with the flowing tresses:

Samardzija (4-1) is the other feel-good story on the Cubs’ roster. He struck out seven and gave up five hits over seven innings. The only hiccup came with two outs in the Braves’ second when Jason Heyward homered into the first row of the right-field bleachers.

“Samardzija was really, really good,” Atlanta’s Chipper Jones said. “I had only faced him out of the bullpen, but he’s got some staying power. Two heaters — a two-seamer and a four-seamer. He cuts it sometimes. Command has always been kind of shaky for him. It looks like he’s got the command thing down or at least he did tonight. He was really tough.”

Samardzija throwing strikes, Starlin making heads-up plays at short, LaHair hitting for power .  . what could possibly go wrong?

Marmol had an interesting eighth. He walked the first two batters, which prompted a negative reaction from the crowd of 36,307, but was able to retire the Braves’ 3-4-5 hitters and escape. As he came off the mound, Marmol pumped his chest with his fist and yelled. How did he stay focused after the walks?

“Not listen to the fans,” Marmol said, smiling. “You know what? [Hearing the boos] made me go. I knew I needed to do better and throw strikes.”

Right. Because this is all OUR fault.

» Continue reading “Cubs Tuesday Headlines: Big Boy Baseball!”

Before we get to yesterday’s game, we’ll get to what happened before yesterday’s game. With Matt Garza unable to pitch due to the flu, Travis Wood had to be called up from Iowa. The Cubs needed to do something to clear a roster space for him, so they DFA’d Blake DeWitt. Dale Sveum tried to sound genuine in his parting remarks for Blake.

“Hopefully he clears waivers and stays with us,” manager Dale Sveum said. “It’s unfortunate, because of the flu bug it costs somebody his job. But hopefully he stays in the organization.”

Hopefully he’ll stay in the organization but never make it back to Chicago. As for yesterday’s game, the Cubs got a not-horrible start from Travis Wood.

“It felt good,” Wood said. “Pitches were working. I had some unfortunate walks that I don’t like and left a pitch up that Rivera ended up hitting out of the park but I kept them close, we battled back and ended up winning the game.”

Unfortunately for Wood he’s likely to end up back in Iowa today as an extra position player (likely Adrian Cardenas) will be needed. Dale, what did you see out of young Travis?

“He just had a little bit better command,” manager Dale Sveum said of Wood’s turnaround after the Rivera long ball. “He was getting ahead easier after that. I just think he settled into the game and it might have relaxed him a little bit. They had three runs but he threw the heck out of the ball after that and got some pretty weak contact.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Dodgers OutCub Cubs”