Boxscore

The Brewers (2-0) won the second game of the season and the series against the Cubs (0-2). Dave Bush tries to finish the sweep against Ryan Dempster.

Boxscore

Yeah, I know this was last night’s game, but I stayed up late to watch it and didn’t have a chance to write about it until now.

God continued to show his love for the Rockies, last night, stewarding them to a 2 to 1 victory over the Cardinals. Obviously, the All-mighty was disgusted by the turn of events in the game on Opening Day, sending in His rains to cancel the game before the Cardinals’ lead would be official. It’s like His Great Omniscience knew the Rockies would fare better the next day.

Tired of the Rockies being God’s team jokes yet? Okay, I’ll lay off it a bit.
🙂

Kyle Lohse pitched great in his first start for his new team. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their former sucky pitcher Kip Wells did almost as well.

Yadier Molina, on pace for 162 home runs this season, provided the sole offense for the redbirds in the fifth, but that lead bullpen lost the lead in the 8th.

Ryan Franklin got the loss, and Taylor Bucholz got the win, with Manny Corpas getting his first save.

The two teams play again right now! Todd Wellemeyer’s going against Aaron Cook. The Cardinals even have a lead already. No word on when the man upstairs will make His appearance.

Boxscore

While the Diamondbacks-Reds game had two top 5 Cy Young finishers squaring off in Aaron Harang and Brandon Webb, the Cubs and Brewers showdown was no slouch, either. And their pitching beat expectations.

Ben Sheets and Carlos Zambrano matched each other’s zeros as both went into the seventh with shutouts. Zambrano’s pitching seemed remarkably free of the meltdowns he’s so famously entertaining for, but he did leave the game for forearm cramps. If it’s not tantrums, it’s cramps. Given that Zambrano admitted to not drinking enough water, perhaps that’s the key to future opponents’ success: secretly slipping Zambrano water. That or just waiting for the Cubs’ bullpen to blow it.

Wood allowed 3 runs in the top of the 9th to give the Brewers the lead. Of course, Eric Gagne, the Brewers’ closer, blew the save, too, giving those 3 runs right back to Kosuke Fukudome, who launched himself into Cubs’ fans good graces with a game-tying 3-run blast. Then Bob Howry, the other reliever previously in the Cubs’ closer sweepstakes, failed to get the job done and allowed the go-ahead run to score in the 10th. David Riske held on for the Brewers in the 9th to pick up the save, with Gagne getting the win.

If the first game is any indication, the top two NL Central teams from last year continue to be evenly matched. The games between these teams should be fun.

Boxscore

Ah, baseball! How I’ve missed thee. Thy glorious green fields. Thy majestic stadiums. Thy–eh, enough of that. Let’s have some fun with a game wrap!

Here is a verbatim transcript of the Reds’ lone scoring effort in their loss to the Diamondbacks to start the 2008 season today.

RHM: Gameday has stopped responding; it’s stuck on Griffey.
CTS: Well, Griffey pissed Dusty off by walking.
CTS: And then, in a surprising turn of events, that clog of the bases resulted in a run somehow when Phillips tripled.
RHM: This is exactly what the game wrap should say.
CTS: It gets better.
CTS: Phillips is clogging up third. But somehow, he scores when Dunn grounds out to short.
CTS: Now EdE’s clogging up first. There are 2 outs and Javy’s up.
CTS: Ah, and Javy ended the inning.
CTS: Strange. 2 runs scored without a single solo homerun.
RHM: Amazing.
RHM: Something just doesn’t add up there.

There wasn’t a whole lot of other action for the Reds outside of the 4th when the above happened. An Encarnacion error and a Harang wild pitch got the Diamondbacks on the board first, giving them a lead they never relinquished. Of course, the two solo home runs that Harang allowed in the 3rd didn’t help the Reds comeback efforts any.

Still, a solid performance from Harang. I’ll expect him to do better as the season wears on, but he’s definitely gotten better at dealing with the unusual sold-out stadium and the opening day pressures. I’d like to see him overtake Mario Soto’s record for thenumber of consecutive opening day starts. I think he’s halfway there.

The game didn’t feel quite right, though. It wasn’t until it was over and I was reading about the Cubs-Brewers game that I realized what it was: the Carlos Zambrano meltdownâ„¢. It just isn’t opening day in Cincinnati without the Big Z throwing a hissy fit on the mound.

The loss puts the Reds in last place in the Central, a game behind the Brewers. The Reds and the Diamondbacks take a much needed day off before game two of the series on Wednesday, when Bronson Arroyo starts against Dan Haren.

Boxscore

The Cubs marched to spring training victory today, beating the Padres 7-3 in Peoria, AZ.

The Cubs were led in their effort by Jason Marquis, the sucky ex-Cardinal who’s having a surprisingly good spring with the Cubs. Marquis is rocking a 1-1 record and a 2.95 ERA this spring. Kerry Wood made his second-consecutive appearance, allowing one hit and striking out two in his one inning of work.

On the other side of the mound was the excellent (in an aggregate sense) ex-Cub who’s having an equally surprising good spring, considering he’s almost 42 and working on season number 22 in the majors, Greg Maddux. Alas, he didn’t have a surprisingly good game, allowing seven runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks in four innings.

Patterson (Eric, not Corey) led things off for the Cubs going 1-for-5 with an RBI. Aramiz Ramirez contributed two RBI. Ryan Theriot brought in three runs, and Marquis himself knocked in a run to bring the total to 7.

Adrian Gonzalez hit in all of the San Diego runs and was the only Padre with more than one hit on the game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.

The win brings the Cubs’ Cactus League record to 11-14. Tomorrow the Cubs go up against Jonathan Sanchez and the Giants at 3:05 p.m.