Soriano Errs and Redeems; Fox Returns; & Hill Walks
The play-by-play of bottom of the 7th inning of the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cardinals tonight says that Albert Pujols "singled to left" and later Yadier Molina "ground-rule doubled to left." But that's not what happened. With Bob Howry, who could use some good defense behind him, on the mound, Alfonso Soriano made errors on both plays, which were playable pop flies. But they were not called errors because Soriano failed to even get his glove under the ball. Apparently, the worse an outfielder plays a fly ball, the better the chance that the play will be called a hit. Baseball has too many scorekeepers who do not call errors, errors. That is something that needs to be rectified forthwith.
But what a great game baseball is. As bad as Soriano had looked in his first two games back from the disabled list, in the field and at the plate, he redeemed himself (and the Cubs) in the 9th inning by hitting a two-run home run -- a line shot to left -- off of Cardinals' closer Jason Isringhausen.
And what a good story the return of Chad Fox is: he had not pitched in a game since April 25, 2005 (during which he injured his arm again), was out of baseball, decided to give it another go, and found himself pitching in a tie game in the 10th inning. And he shut the Cardinals down. For one inning. Lou Piniella then sent him out for a second inning, something Fox had not done in a big league game since April 21, 2004. That second inning did not end so well: a Skip Schumaker home run, just the 5th of his 172 game career.
Speaking of tough games, it was another tough one for Rich Hill. Piniella decided to not allow him to work through his four first inning walks, pulling him with two outs in the inning, a run in, and the bases still loaded. Hill has now walked 18 batters in 19.2 innings this year; 20.2% of the batters he has faced compared to just 7.8% last year. He has also lost the confidence of his manager. It seems likely that we will soon see Jon Lieber, who threw 3.2 shutout innings in relief tonight and has a 1.86 ERA on the year, in the starting rotation. Hill could go to Iowa, with one of Sean Gallagher, Neal Cotts, or Jose Ascanio being recalled.
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Ugh
We went out to see the Kane County Cougars tonight, and when I got back in the car and turned on the radio, it was 3-1 Cards. I thought, at least Hill pitched well. Little did I know!
When Soriano hit that homer, I thought for sure the Cubs would pull it out. It was just too good of a story. I didn't even know about the phantom errors; Pat and Ron said something about Soriano redeeming himself but that's all, and that could have just as easily applied to Soriano's adventures in the outfield yesterday. But in baseball, as in life, the good stories don't always work out.
The Soriano signing looks worse by the day, incidentally. I don't even say this because he's struggling. It just seems like the Cubs are a completely different offense than they were at this time last year, and Soriano simply doesn't fit in with the approach he has. He's especially ill-suited for the leadoff spot, but even dropped further in the lineup, he still sticks out as their only regular player who has no interest in working a count. Even Ronny Cedeno appears to have figured out how to do this.
I don't even blame him, really. He was signed to play the way he knows how, and it's not his fault that the Cubs have decided (or maybe it's even happened by accident) to change course in the span of a single year. But there's no doubt that he's a bad fit now, which is a (very!) positive development taken as a whole. It just leaves the team in a very awkward situation.
Personally, I see some parallels to the Bulls' realizing that Ben Wallace wasn't working out like they hoped. Maybe that's just me.
RE: Ugh
The Ben Wallace analogy is a good, though depressing, one.
A lot of people were worried about what Soriano's production would be at the back end of his contract. Someone even wrote that this may "end up being the worst free agent signing of all time." Thankfully, it appears that the Cubs are going to be able to avoid that distinction.
It is disconcerting how bad things look right now, though it's still early this year. Ronny Cedeno does have a 1059 OPS, after all.