cubs v cards, round 2
the saga began with series 1, april 30-may 3 and continues here:
SERIES 2: MAY 21-23, at CHICAGO
CONTEXT: since splitting series 1 with the cubs, the cardinals have gone 9-6, winning 4 of 5 series — an early hint of the great consistency that will become the hallmark of their season. they remain 2.5 games out of 1st, in 4th place, but there are stirrings. the main thing stirring for the cubs, meanwhile, is the disabled list — sosa and wood have joined prior and grudzielanek there, and kent mercker will soon join them. for all that, they continue to win — 8-7 since the first meeting with st louis and 23-17 overall (a 92-win pace), in 2d place, a game behind the astros. they are still the team to beat; just gotta get healthy.
SERIES SUMMARY: cubs dominate again despite starting aaa callups sergio mitre and glendon rusch in the first two games of the series. mitre gets pounded in the opener, but once he leaves the mound the cubs smother the cardinal bats — stl goes 9 for 73 with 4 runs scored over the series' remaining 22 innings. but they score 7 during mitre’s five-inning stint, which nets them a win — and the cards are lucky to have it. despite holding the advantage in all three pitching pairings and facing an injury-thinned lineup, the cards gets outscored 11-17 --- and 4-14 when mitre's not pitching.
PIVOTAL GAME: the rubber game pits matt clement against matt morris, who at this juncture is still considered the cards’ ace. thru his 1st 9 starts he’s 4-3 with a 3.70 era, and he already has goosed the cubs once this season, throwing 9 shutout innings at them on may 2. but morris has established a troubling pattern of sucking every other start — game scores below 50 in his 1st 3d 5th 7th and 9th appearances, but above 60 in his 2d 4th 6th and 8th starts. this being his 10th start, morris is due to throw well — and he does, holding the cubs scoreless for six innings . . . . the 2d thru the 7th. but there is a 1st inning, and morris hurls it like sergio mitre: 4 runs on 5 hits (incl 2 doubles and a homer). clement, meanwhile, hurls like mark prior, holding the cards to three hits over eight innings. two of the hits are solo hr, which keeps the score close at 4-3 — but in the 9th joe borowski mows down the heart of the order to clinch the series for chicago.
BY THE NUMBERS:
runs: chi, 17-11
hits: chi, 29-19
hrs: chi, 6-4
rc: chi, 18.5 - 8.4
ops: chi, 853 - 600
der, chi 778 - 716
SEASON TO DATE: after seven games, the cubs have made it abundantly clear that they’re the better team. they have outscored the cardinals 31-21, outhit them 64-45, outhomered them 10-7, and out-ops’d them 785-620; they have outhit st louis six times and tied them once. altho they only lead the series 4-3, the margin will surely increase once the cubs get their players healthy and sort out their problems in the bullpen. as the clubs part ways, the cubs lead the cardinals by 2.5 and the astros by a game; they’re tied for 1st with the reds, 7 games over .500 despite their terrible run of injuries. the cardinals, at 23-21, don’t look they’ll achieve liftoff any time soon — not with morris and woody williams (1-5) struggling, and not with pujols edmonds and renteria all batting in the .270 range. a quarter of the way through the year, the team stands 4th in the league in runs scored and 11th in runs allowed (the cubs rank 5th and 1st, respectively). stl fans, if they’re honest, just hope the cards can stay competitive for the wildcard; the team clearly does not have the firepower to keep up with the cubs.
MAY 21
stl 7 10 1
chi 6 11 2
w: carpenter 5-1
l: mitre 2-3
s: isringhausen 8
hr: pujols 11, edmonds 10, barrett 6+7, walker 5, alou 12
MAY 22
stl 1 6 2
chi 7 8 0
w: rusch 2-0
l: williams 1-5
hr: hollandsworth 5
MAY 23
stl 3 3 0
chi 4 10 0
w: clement 6-3
l: morris 4-4
s: borowski 8
SERIES 2: MAY 21-23, at CHICAGO
CONTEXT: since splitting series 1 with the cubs, the cardinals have gone 9-6, winning 4 of 5 series — an early hint of the great consistency that will become the hallmark of their season. they remain 2.5 games out of 1st, in 4th place, but there are stirrings. the main thing stirring for the cubs, meanwhile, is the disabled list — sosa and wood have joined prior and grudzielanek there, and kent mercker will soon join them. for all that, they continue to win — 8-7 since the first meeting with st louis and 23-17 overall (a 92-win pace), in 2d place, a game behind the astros. they are still the team to beat; just gotta get healthy.
SERIES SUMMARY: cubs dominate again despite starting aaa callups sergio mitre and glendon rusch in the first two games of the series. mitre gets pounded in the opener, but once he leaves the mound the cubs smother the cardinal bats — stl goes 9 for 73 with 4 runs scored over the series' remaining 22 innings. but they score 7 during mitre’s five-inning stint, which nets them a win — and the cards are lucky to have it. despite holding the advantage in all three pitching pairings and facing an injury-thinned lineup, the cards gets outscored 11-17 --- and 4-14 when mitre's not pitching.
PIVOTAL GAME: the rubber game pits matt clement against matt morris, who at this juncture is still considered the cards’ ace. thru his 1st 9 starts he’s 4-3 with a 3.70 era, and he already has goosed the cubs once this season, throwing 9 shutout innings at them on may 2. but morris has established a troubling pattern of sucking every other start — game scores below 50 in his 1st 3d 5th 7th and 9th appearances, but above 60 in his 2d 4th 6th and 8th starts. this being his 10th start, morris is due to throw well — and he does, holding the cubs scoreless for six innings . . . . the 2d thru the 7th. but there is a 1st inning, and morris hurls it like sergio mitre: 4 runs on 5 hits (incl 2 doubles and a homer). clement, meanwhile, hurls like mark prior, holding the cards to three hits over eight innings. two of the hits are solo hr, which keeps the score close at 4-3 — but in the 9th joe borowski mows down the heart of the order to clinch the series for chicago.
BY THE NUMBERS:
runs: chi, 17-11
hits: chi, 29-19
hrs: chi, 6-4
rc: chi, 18.5 - 8.4
ops: chi, 853 - 600
der, chi 778 - 716
SEASON TO DATE: after seven games, the cubs have made it abundantly clear that they’re the better team. they have outscored the cardinals 31-21, outhit them 64-45, outhomered them 10-7, and out-ops’d them 785-620; they have outhit st louis six times and tied them once. altho they only lead the series 4-3, the margin will surely increase once the cubs get their players healthy and sort out their problems in the bullpen. as the clubs part ways, the cubs lead the cardinals by 2.5 and the astros by a game; they’re tied for 1st with the reds, 7 games over .500 despite their terrible run of injuries. the cardinals, at 23-21, don’t look they’ll achieve liftoff any time soon — not with morris and woody williams (1-5) struggling, and not with pujols edmonds and renteria all batting in the .270 range. a quarter of the way through the year, the team stands 4th in the league in runs scored and 11th in runs allowed (the cubs rank 5th and 1st, respectively). stl fans, if they’re honest, just hope the cards can stay competitive for the wildcard; the team clearly does not have the firepower to keep up with the cubs.
MAY 21
stl 7 10 1
chi 6 11 2
w: carpenter 5-1
l: mitre 2-3
s: isringhausen 8
hr: pujols 11, edmonds 10, barrett 6+7, walker 5, alou 12
MAY 22
stl 1 6 2
chi 7 8 0
w: rusch 2-0
l: williams 1-5
hr: hollandsworth 5
MAY 23
stl 3 3 0
chi 4 10 0
w: clement 6-3
l: morris 4-4
s: borowski 8
posted by L Boros at 11:34 AM
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