We waited ten months to see Matt Garza take the mound for the Chicago Cubs, and he didn’t disappoint in his return. He pitched five shutout innings, didn’t allow a hit until the fifth and struck out five batters. He even had a two-run double in the second inning, which, for awhile, looked like the only runs the Cubs might need all night. What was it like to be back on the mound?

I don’t think Shawn Camp will smile like this in the vicinity of Matt Garza anytime soon.

“I felt great out there,” Garza told reporters. “I had some butterflies and the first couple of innings flew by. I had to kind of stop myself at one point and just slow down, but it was fun. It was a long, long time and it’s nice to not only come back but pitch well. You don’t want to spend that much time working to get back and then pitch poorly.”

Dale Sveum was happy to see such a good performance from Garza as well.

“He was really good,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “He had a really good slider. His command, for it being his first time back, was outstanding. Even when he missed, he didn’t miss by much. His velocity was good, too, consistently at 93-94 (mph). He was just outstanding.”

The only bad thing was that Garza couldn’t stretch his 85-90 pitch count farther into the game. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn’t take long to undo Garza’s good work.

In the sixth inning, Rule 5 pitcher Hector Rondon gave up a leadoff double to Neil Walker, who later scored when lefty James Russell walked Pedro Alvarez with the bases loaded. Moments later, pinch-hitter Travis Snider crushed Shawn Camp’s changeup for a grand slam.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Garza Great, Bullpen, Not So Much”

You may have heard a little something about Matt Garza’s return to the mound tonight. It will be his first start since July 21 of last year. What you haven’t heard is that was my birthday, so you folks have two months left to buy my birthday present. But back to Matt Garza for now. He’d like you to know that he’s excited about tonight‘s hopefully triumphant return.

“This actually means something, and I can’t wait,” he said. “It’s been 10 months in the making, so I’m excited to get back out there.”

How did he make it through 10 months without playing baseball?

“It was tough, but I had my family and my wife and kids the whole time to help me through it,” Garza said. “It was a grind, mentally. Physically, I could do anything, but the mental part was the tough part. It was one setback after another, and it was, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ I’m just happy I’m here at the end of it and can’t wait ’til Tuesday.”

If nothing else, it will be great to see him on the top step pulling for the rest of the team. Garza will be on an 85-90 pitch limit, so I’m thinking we’ll get five or six innings out of him. What are the chances we’ll get to see him make a wild throw to first in that time?

Evil Cubs nemesis Wandy Rodriguez will take the mound for the Pirates tonight. He’s 4-2 on the year with a 3.25 ERA. Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Return Of The Matt”

We all know the struggles that Edwin Jackson has been through so far in his first year with the Chicago Cubs. He’s been particularly bad at Wrigley Field so far this season. Despite picking up the loss in yesterday’s game, he pitched reasonably well, allowing three earned runs in 6.2 innings. But he’s still a disappointment to Bruce Levine. Let’s check out his story with the headline “Jackson’s Struggles at Wrigley Continue”.

Edwin Jackson, who signed a four-year, $54 million contract with the Cubs last winter, continued to struggle at Wrigley Field on Friday despite turning in his longest performance of the season.

Jackson pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in 2013 before being lifted after allowing a go-ahead single to Mets starter and winner Matt Harvey as New York held on for a 3-2 win. Jackson is 1-6 in eight starts in Wrigley with an ERA above 8.00.

So he had a quality start, his longest outing of the year and only gave up three runs. I’m not sure how he continued to struggle, other than that the picked up the loss. And that could have been different, were it not for a bad decision by third base coach David Bell.

The Cubs had the potential tying run on second base with one out in the eighth inning when David DeJesus hit a line drive single to former Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd in right.Darwin Barney hesitated a bit and then took off around third base with Bell’s blessings toward home plate. Byrd’s throw was a perfect strike to catcher John Buck, who tagged Barney out three feet from the plate.

”Obviously it is disappointing. It turned out it wasn’t a very close play,” Bell said. “I just watched the replay again and it wasn’t close. As a third base coach you always want to make the right decision. and that clearly wasn’t the right decision.”

As it turns out, Byrd, once again, was the wyrd.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Headlines/Game Thread: Marlon Byrd Foils Cubs”

Our dearly beloved Chicago Cubs will seek to continue their new-found winning ways tonight. With a win against the Colorado Rockies, they will have won two consecutive series for the first time in 10 years. Of course, now that I’ve stated the possibility of a win, I’ve stacked the deck against the Cubs and we’ll likely see the greatest pitching performance of the year from the Rockies’ starter, Jon Garland.

You might remember Jon Garland from his stint on the south side, or before that, as the guy the Cubs traded to the White Sox for Matt Karchner. I was going to make a joke about how old he is, but looked up his age and he’s a year younger than me. He’s bounced around the last few years, and I can’t find anything about him pitching anywhere last season. So far for 2013 he’s allowed 22 earned runs in 41 innings over the span of seven starts. Opposing batters are hitting .304 against him, totaling 48 hits allowed. Maybe the Cubs can add on to their Major League-leading 90 doubles and score some runs against the not-so-young Mr. Garland.

Tonight on the mound for the Cubs, we’ll see the flowing locks of Jeff Samardzija whipping about in the breeze. Young Mr. Spellcheck is looking to rebound from a horrible start in DC last Friday. In case you’d forgotten, he allowed seven runs (five earned) in five innings that night. He’s allowed 42 hits and 20 earned runs in 48.2 innings over eight starts. He’s also leading the league with six wild pitches.

Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Matt Karchner Lives In Our Hearts And Minds”

The Chicago Cubs won a road series against a good team this weekend, but the big news came late last night. Ken Rosenthal reported that the Cubs and first baseman Anthony Rizzo have come to an agreement on a contract extension. Take it away, Ken.

The Cubs have reached agreement with Rizzo on a seven-year, $41 million contract through 2019, according to major-league sources. The deal also includes two $14.5 million club options, sources said.

Thus, the total value over nine years could be $68 million; Rizzo would not receive a $2 million buyout if both options are exercised. Escalators could further increase the size of the package to $73 million, sources said.

Rizzo, who has just over a year of major-league service, is earning $498,000 this season. His new deal will include an immediate increase for 2013 while covering all four of his arbitration years — Rizzo was on track for Super Two status — and his first free-agent year.

That means the Cubs have Rizzo and Starlin Castro locked up through 2019. Will a Jeff Samardzija extension be next? Whatever happens with Spellcheck, we can be happy knowing that Castro and Rizzo will be around for awhile. We can also be happy that the Cubs managed to take two out of three from the Nationals this weekend. Yesterday’s game featured another good start from Scott Feldman.

After allowing an RBI double in the first, Feldman settled down and was dominant the rest of the way, opening the door for the Cubs to pull out 2-1 victory. Feldman allowed just one run on five hits with six strikeouts and three walks over six innings. He did not earn a decision for the first time in six starts this season, but lowered his ERA from 2.70 to 2.53

“[Gonzalez] was throwing really well and he had really good stuff today,” Feldman said. “It was just a battle and we were able to squeeze across a couple of runs there at the end and come away with a series win. It was good team win and hopefully we get some momentum rolling back home.”

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Monday Headlines: Get Ready For Seven Years Of RizzOMG”

You saw that right, folks. With Edwin Jackson starting for the Chicago Cubs, they beat Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals yesterday, 8-2. Despite two TOOTBLANS in the fifth inning, the Cubs managed to score four unearned runs off the Nationals wunderkind. Strasburg’s demise was aided by a two-run double by Jackson. 

With two outs in the Cubs fifth, Welington Castillo reached on a throwing error by Ryan Zimmerman. Darwin Barney then walked, and both he and Castillo scored on Jackson’s double, his first hit in 12 at-bats this year.

“That was probably the difference in the whole ballgame,” Sveum said of Jackson’s hit. “If Strasburg punches him out there, it’s a whole different ballgame. Those kind of guys settle in and it’s a shutout and you’re battling the rest of the game.”

How did Jackson hit it?

“It was 3-2 [in the count], I was looking for something I could hit hard,” Jackson said. “He’s throwing 96, 97, 98 [mph], and I’d been missing the whole game, and I told myself to relax and find something I could make contact with.

“You saw how he made me look the first [at-bat],” Jackson said of a strikeout in the third. “Fastball, fastball, than, whoo, slider and kind of froze me. I felt when it was 3-2, he was going to try to come at me — he doesn’t want to walk a pitcher — and I got a pitch I could drive.”

Four runs in the fifth and another four in the sixth were enough to get Jackson his first win as a Cub.

» Continue reading “Cubs Sunday Headlines: Jackson Beats Strasburg? Jackson Beats Strasburg.”

The Chicago Cubs got another good pitching performance Tuesday night. Travis Wood allowed one run in 6.2 innings, Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless 1.1 and Kevin Gregg threw a 1-2-3 ninth. That combined with a Nate Schierholtz two-run home run was enough for the Cubs to beat the Cardinals, 2-1. Travis Wood has been good this year, but Dale Sveum thinks he’s extra special. 

“He’s the best starter in baseball pretty much,” Sveum said bluntly.

(snip)

“He’s got it, he’s figured it out,” Sveum said. “He can do just about anything he wants with a ball right now.”

That’s high praise, even if a bit hyperbolic. Dale didn’t stop with the gushing.

“That one is the best, because that’s the best right-handed-hitting lineup you’re going to face,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said of Wood’s outing. “The numbers those guys have against left-handed pitching is about as good as it’s going to get. That was very, very impressive again.”

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Cubs Win And Dale Sveum May Be Insane”

Tonight is the first time this season the Chicago Cubs will see the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Cardinals cruise into Wrigley Field in first place in the NL Central. I don’t think we need to be reminded which place in the Central the Cubs occupy. For two magical games, all thoughts of horror emanating from the 2013 season can be erased, if only our beloved Cubs can beat the evil Redbirds. 

One obstacle standing in the way of a Cubs’ win tonight is Cardinal starter, Lance Lynn. In his last three starts he’s pitched seven innings each game, allowing a total of two runs on eight hits. He’s also struck out 22 in those 21 innings, so we should probably expect to see some spectacular swings and misses. If the Cubs can manage to get Lynn out of the game in a timely manner, they might stand a chance against the Cards’ bullpen, which has a 5.33 ERA.

Starting tonight for the Cubs is Travis Wood. You might recall that he’s been a bright spot on the team this year, with a 2.50 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. You might also recall that he threw five perfect innings in his last start, but wound up losing to the Padres. The hitters in the St. Louis lineup have a combined seven career home runs against Wood, so keeping the ball down will be imperative for him tonight.

Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: If You Do Nothing Else This Year, Please Beat The Cardinals”

EMERGENCY UPDATE: Brent Lillibridge waived, Takhashi DFA’d, and Kevin Gregg (aka Groggles) is in the bullpen. Holy hell.

Before we get to the big return of Darwin Barney, I have an issue with Lance Berkman:

After 83 career games played at Wrigley Field, former Astro Lance Berkman is not fond of the Chicago Cubs’ home.

“If they’re looking for a guy to push the button when they blow the place up, I’ll do it,” Berkman said Monday to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Chicago’s one of the worst places in baseball … really for anything,” he said.

Let me set the scene for you: I’m sitting in my hotel room in London, I’ve got BBC news on in the background, when I hear “Chicago Cubs baseball team,” “Tom Ricketts,” and “goat’s head.” That was all it took for me to think “Awwww shit. Someone sent Ricketts a goat’s head.”

So, I can see doing this on a lark (and about a dozen beers) if you’re, like, a butcher or something, and just have the goat’s head laying around. I mean, what else do you do with a goat’s head? But if you’re not a butcher, and you actively had to seek out a goat’s head (or, God forbid, acquire a goat’s head . . naturally), that’s messed up, my frent.

When I took to Twitter to laugh about this, I was met with “‘wait until you hear about Soler.”

So . .  yeah.

This is what we know so far with regards to Soler: There was a bench-clearing dust-up, and then

When everyone returned to the dugout, Soler grabbed a bat and charged the Clearwater dugout and went after Clearwater with the bat. He had to be pulled away and back into the dugout by Javier Baez and Daytona hitting coach Mariano Duncan.

Per Bruce Miles, we’re waiting for Theo to comment on this incident. I think it would be an awesome commentary on the state of the Cubs if he did it while wearing the goat head. Though I admit this is a long shot.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines/Game Thread: Has the whole world gone crazy?”