Ivy’s Cubs Game Round-Up For the Last Road Trip of Fail
The suck fest that is the 2012 Chicago Cubs continues, they are coming back home with a 1-6 record on this last road trip and they have an overall record in August of 4-17 with eight games remaining. This record has now put the Cubs ahead of the Rockies for the second worst record in baseball, the worst record is of course held by the Astros who the Cubs will not catch up to because they suck on a level that not even the Cubs can compete in. If you haven’t done so yet, enter our contest, the clock is ticking!
8/17 @ Reds L 3-7
8/18 @ Reds L 3-5 (Makeup from 5/1)
8/18 @ Reds W 9-7
8/19 @ Reds L 4-5
8/20 @ Brewers L 5-9
8/21 @ Brewers L 2-5
8/22 @ Brewers L 2-3
There were some positives in the Reds series, so let’s focus on those for now. The games on Saturday came with a few milestones for the Cubs. Alfonso Soriano reached the 1,000-RBIs mark with a two-run homer, Brett Jackson hit his first career home run, and Brooks Raley pitched well enough and got run support to give him his first Major League win. Raley lasted 5 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on five hits, with the first hit coming in the fourth inning, which was a solo homer from Ryan Ludwick. Brett Jackson entered the game with major struggles. He was hitting just .179 in 11 games since being called up earlier in the month. Believe it or not, the nine runs that the Cubs scored in this win were the most runs they have scored since July 30th.
In the Brewers series, there were also some good moments even though the Cubs got swept right out of Milwaukee. This road trip was one where the Cubs rookies where able to get their firsts. Josh Vitters joined Brett Jackson as he hit his first home run. Chris Rusin also pitched very well, despite the loss. Rusin gave up one hit, an infield single, and one run over five innings. He also tried to help himself when he tripled in his first big league at-bat, but it didn’t matter because his teammates didn’t feel like getting that run across, that seemed to be the story in this Brewers series. In the finale, we finally saw LaHair show some signs of life. He hit his first homer since July 4th. David DeJesus also homered, and Travis Wood pitched seven innings allowing three runs, it wasn’t good enough though.
I found some cool but scary stats, The Cubs were 15-10 in July, which was nice to see, but this month has been the month from hell. They’re batting .213 in their last 22 games, and have been out-scored 114-74, out-homered 29-17 and they have struck out 187 times, including 37 times in the series against Milwaukee. Things change a lot, and what we are seeing now is very different, something that a lot of us have to get used to. A year ago, the Cubs were coming off a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves, Derek Lowe vs. Randy Wells were the starters, Wells was 2-0 with a 3.37 ERA in three starts. The lineup looked a little something like this:
Castro SS, Barney 2B, A. Ramirez 3B, Peña 1B, Colvin RF, Soriano LF, Campana CF, Soto C, Wells P
This year, it’s a different story. The Cubs are coming off a horrible road trip, Randy Wells has been shut down for the season, and the starting lineup for today looks like this:
Mather RF, Vitters 3B, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Castro SS, Castillo C, Jackson CF, Barney 2B, Samardzija P
As you can see, a lot has changed, this team is still early in the reconstruction era, and we’ve already seen a major overhaul, and a major overhaul is exactly what I think we want to be seeing. The bad record in August has a lot to do with the Cubs getting rid of a lot of veteran talent and at the moment the Cubs are in the “let’s see what we have here” mode. Although stats are interesting to see, let’s not focus or judge this season and team based on the record, or whether they’ll lose 100 games. Let’s just watch this youth movement take over, and watch them grow before our very eyes, mistakes and all. There will be some growing pains, frustration, anger, and not that many W’s but the Cubs, I think, are moving in the right direction…finally.
Looking Ahead
The Cubs will start a 10-game home stand today, which will be good because Wrigley Field has definitely been a better place to play in than on the road for the Cubs this season. They will play three games vs. The Rockies, four vs. The Brewers and three vs. The Giants.
Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs
Friday August 24, 2012 @ 1:20 p.m. CT
Drew Pomeranz, LHP (1-7, 4.87 ERA) vs. Jeff Samardzija, RHP (8-11, 4.17 ERA)
Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs
Saturday August 25, 2012 @ 12:05 p.m. CT
Alex White, RHP (2-6, 5.55 ERA) vs. TBA
Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs
Sunday August 26, 2012 @ 1:20 p.m. CT
Jhoulys Chacin, RHP (1-3, 6.16 ERA) vs. Chris Volstad, RHP (0-9, 6.88 ERA)
Thank you so much for reading and as always, Go Cubs!
-Ivy