bukie

Ben Sheets gave away the game by giving up hits and walks. If only the Brewers had converted every single offensive opportunity, had a gold glove OF in left, and the Cubs swung at those pitches outside the strikezone, the outcome of the game would have been different. The Brewers really beat themselves tonight. If I was 7"11' I could play basketball. They had 1 offensive opportunity. No extra base hits. Braun really only played that 1 ball wrong, and it still woulda been a hit had he let it drop in front of him. The Cubs being patient at the plate is not reflective of the Brewers beating themselves either. Was the sarcasm really not obvious enough? Don't make me bust out the green font. :)

Ben Sheets gave away the game by giving up hits and walks. If only the Brewers had converted every single offensive opportunity, had a gold glove OF in left, and the Cubs swung at those pitches outside the strikezone, the outcome of the game would have been different. The Brewers really beat themselves tonight.

At this point I think they're just postponing all of Hill's starts coming into the week.

What does Rich Hill have to do with anything? Because Bill James failed to predict Rich Hill would stop being able to throw strikes, his entire projection system is faulty?

I think the college he attended doesn't help his general public perception any, either. If, for example, he had been a star wideout at, say, Northwestern, and the Cubs signed him up, there'd be a lot lower risk of the public turning on him.

After last night, I decided to go with Brewers sweep.

Poor Bob Howry. Where did that 3rd most effective fastball go?

See, now this is written in just such a way where I can't tell whether you are being serious or poking fun with a classic "insider" response. :)

If Pythagorus played the games, the Cubs would have an 8 game lead in the division. Unfortunately, he's on the DL right now, so the lead is only 2.

I'm not a fan of acquiring a relief pitcher for any more than monetary assets. Fuentes for Marshall harkens back to the days of Karchner for Garland to me.

Rewatched the highlights with Brewers announcers on MLB.com. If the Brewers announcers are saying "Man, they had Fielder out if Lee hadn't cut off that ball", they had Fielder out if Lee hadn't cut off that ball.

So, who earned it tonight?

Your arguments are the kind of arguments that can be used for every game. If certain things had gone different in every game this season, the Cubs would be undefeated. Yeah, that's the kind of argument that bothers me the most, the "If every bounce had gone our way we could've won, so we beat ourselves." I get on anyone here when they make an argument like that, and I'll get on anyone else that makes the argument for another team. The Cubs clearly outplayed the Brewers tonight, both teams made mistakes, and fortunately the Cubs gave themselves just enough chances to pull one out.

- Hart was arguably out. Fielder may also have been out at home had Lee just let the throw go through. - Broken up by a good slide from Reed Johnson. Even if the throw is good, the play at first is close. - One intentionally. Fukudome and Soto also could've walked had they not swung at crap out of the zone. Goes both ways. Torres was fortunate the inning didn't end worse. - Have you seen Mike Quade? He sent Lee on a line drive single right at a shallow, hard-charging Cameron when he fielded the ball before Lee touched third. Lee is no Vince Coleman. Then, in the 9th, Fontenot has already rounded third before Kapler gets it, Soriano is waving him home, and Quade puts on the brakes. Lou and Rothschild basically delivered a HR to Branyan on a silver platter. Although, yes, you do have Ned Yost. - Hall was right there, but the throw was high. - It took a diving stop just to get a little glove on it. It was knuckling away from him as he moved towards it, as it went right off the end of Fukudome's bat. Only the best two or three fielding 2Bs in the NL get to that, and a top fielding 2B Weeks ain't. - Hall was playing on the line, as he should have been, to prevent a double. No 3B in the league makes a play on that ball. It just happened to be a weak grounder to the perfect spot. Yes, I agree that you don't want to believe the Cubs actually won this game fair and square, and the brewer fans over on brewerfan, along with the brewer announcers have clouded your perspective greatly. The only really game-breaking play was the Weeks throw, and that was at least somewhat induced by Johnson's slide.

Cubs: 6 runs scored, 10 LOB: 6/16 = 37.5% efficiency Brewers: 4 runs scored, 5 LOB: 4/9 = 44.4% efficiency 37.5% < 44.4%. Thus, the Cubs blew more chances than the Brewers, but still won. Make sense now? This is all I am trying to say. You show up here with a backhanded compliment with the caveat that you think the Brewers beat themselves, because they somehow failed to convert 100% of their chances, as if that is somehow abnormal. I respond by stating the Cubs really should've done more with the chances they had. Thus, the game shouldn't have been that close. Thankfully, they pulled it out anyway, but deserved the win. It's not that hard, really.

It was a good game. But it was one that the Cubs clearly deserved to win and earned. It was also one I wouldn't have been surprised had they blown.

You really think the Brewers beat themselves tonight, despite the Cubs having more baserunners, scoring on a lower percentage of opportunities, and failing to convert high-percentage scoring chances in five separate innings, all the while running into outs to prevent more runs? It's not being a tool about it, it's being objective about it. Being a tool about it would be thinking the Cubs somehow didn't win this game tonight, but only benefitted from the Brewers' miscues. I know you've been on in the past about how the Cubs get all the breaks, but that simply didn't happen tonight, despite the rosy beer-goggles some Brewer fans may make use of.

Some mind-bogglers by Cub coaching tonight: - Leaving Howry in to face Branyan when Branyan is (1)a dead-red fastball hitter, (2)has all of his HRs against righties, and (3) has all of his hits against righties. The Cubs did only have three well-rested lefties in the pen, though. - Sending Lee on the sharp single to shallow, hard-charging Mike Cameron in center. Sending the runner when the OF has the ball before the runner reaches third is a bad idea. - Not sending Fontenot on Lee's double in the ninth. Worked out in the end, but even Soriano could tell that Fontenot would've scored.

So...the only other baserunners in the entire game that failed to score for the Brewers were "classic Brewer game"? They got 8 baserunners, and 4 scored, 3 on HRs. Hart wasn't clearly safe, and it was mostly Lee's fault for not letting the ball through, because Fielder would've been out. Torres was lucky to get out with only giving 2 runs up. Fukudome and Soto both K'd during AB where they swung at balls out of the zone. The Cubs had 10 left on base, and left 6 of them in scoring position. No team is going to convert every chance. The Cubs converted a lower % than the Brewers.

Except Bob Howry. Unless just the one HR was better than the expectation.

Inside the park, the only good food is the Chicago dogs. Not the regular hot dogs, you have to go to the special booths around the park. With grilled onions is best. Don't ruin it with ketchup either! Old Style isn't for everyone, but I always enjoy one with the game also.

A few mind bogglers from Yost tonight: - Why leave him in there to face Lee after 120 pitches, especially when Lee's been hitting well and CC's been struggling (for him) all night? Sure, the pen may not be good, but there had to be a better option. - Why double switch out Hart in the 9th? Is Kapler that much better of a defender? Because Torres likely shouldn't have gone two. - Why leave in Gagne to face Ward when you have one lefty and the Cubs have no righty PHs? It worked, but that was playing the long odds there.

The Brewers hardly beat themselves. They blew one defensive play and saved themselves several other runs (of course, a couple were thanks to 3rd base coach Mike Quade). The Cubs had chances all night and barely converted (finally in the 9th). The Brewers had chances in one inning and got the most of it.

This game really shouldn't have been even as close as it was. The Brewers offense was held in check but for one inning, and the Cub offense had chances all night. Eventually the Cubs are going to start converting on their fair share of chances, and the runs will come more frequently.

Edmonds unavailable?