Cubs Lose Series, Soriano
Sunday, August 5th, 2007Well, it’s been awhile since my last blog, but I wish I wasn’t coming back on a losing note. The Cubs ended up losing the series to the New York Mets with today’s 8-3 loss, they also lost Soriano when he strained his quad rounding second base. Kerry Wood also made his first appearance out of the bullpen in over a year. Tom Glavine received his 300th career win today at Wrigley, it was his second attempt at the feat that only 22 other pitchers have accomplished, only 4 other lefties. The Cubs are off to a seven game road trip tomorrow to face the Houston Astro’s for 3 games and the Colorado Rockies for 4 games.
The injury to Soriano could keep him out of the lineup 4-5 weeks. Pulling a quad is not a very pleasant experience, you could tell when Soriano was grimacing after turning up the speed. With the NL central and NL wild card races heating up, it’s a tough time to lose Soriano to injury. Soriano has been cooling down at the plate lately so maybe this could be a good time for Jaque Jones and/or Mike Fontenot to turn on their A games. The Cubs have been able to maintain winning records when their big guys have been out; remember when Derrick Lee sat out for 5 games and Aramis Ramirez was out on and off? Don’t expect the team to fall apart now that Soriano is out for an extended amount of time. Just a thought, maybe someone else can prove they can hit better than Soriano out of the lead-off spot. Not that Lou would give anyone else the opportunity upon Soriano’s return, but lets see what happens.
It was great to see Kerry Wood back in a Chicago Cubs uniform and pitching well. According to ESPN’s radar guns, Wood was throwing his fastball between 93 and 95 MPH. We also got a chance to see his curveball that we’ve missed for so long. Wood did strike out Reyes on a beautiful pitch to end the 7th inning. I’m sure every Cubs fan will join me in saying “Welcome back, Kerry!”
What an exciting game it was today; Barry Bonds hit career home runs number 752 and 753, driving in 6 runs, and the Cubs still won! The Cubs offense has put up 21 runs in their last two games. Ted Lilly ended up getting the ‘W’ today, going 5 innings and giving up 6 hits. Our middle relief did not look very good today, giving up 5 runs of their own. Earlier in the year, these kind of games would have been lost. Our offense has been putting on a clinic for all of their opponents, its great to see the offense carrying the early relievers and getting the starting pitchers victories.