7/12/08 vs Giants; W 8-7; (57-37)

Chicago....meet Rich Harden. Five and a third innings, TEN STRIKEOUTS, no runs allowed. Harden allowed five hits and walked only three Giants. Impressive outing for the former Oakland A.


His teammates welcomed him well, providing him seven runs in four innings. He left in position for a win, turning things over to another former A, Chad Gaudin. Gaudin simply finished the fifth and then turned it over to the rest of the bullpen.


Kevin Hart didn't do poorly, but allowed two runs in his inning. Cotts and Howry combined for a scoreless eighth, turning the game over to Carlos Marmol with a 7-2 Cub lead. Marmol was horrible, to say the least. He allowed five hits, one potentially could have been an error on him, walked one, and gave up five runs.


Carlos Marmol, you owe Rich Harden dinner and then some. His stat line was superb and he should have been rewarded with a win in his debut. Theriot, you get some blame too. Don't throw the ball from your back with the tying run on third base. Great job keeping it in the infield, stand up and throw the ball back to the pitcher. You're buying drinks.


Luckily for Chicago, the damage...for that inning....was over. The Cubs didn't score in the ninth...good, otherwise Marmol gets the win...so extra innings, here we come. The Cubs had been 6-4 on the season, the Giants 5-3.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Cubs mimicked yesterday's eighth inning. Theriot leads off with a single, advances to second on a bunt, forcing Bochy to decide does he pitch to Lee or Ramirez. He chose to pitch to Lee and got him, allowing him to walk Ramirez. Soto grounded out and we go to the eleventh.

Sean Marshall led off for the Cubs with a single past shortstop. Not too bad a performance for Mr. Marshall. Two perfect innings pitching, one for one at the plate. DeRosa walked to give the Cubs first and second with no one out. Fontenot bunted to the third base side which allowed the Giants to get Marshall at third.

That brought up Reed Johnson. Johnson singled through the right side. Giants rightfielder, Emmanuel Burriss, came up throwing. His throw was on time, but on the first base side. By the time Bengie Molina dove back to the sliding DeRosa, he had touched the plate. The Cubs celebrated at the pitchers mound mobbing Reed Johnson, hero for the day.

Piniella, in the post game comments, didn't express any concern over Marmol. Cub fans have some reason to be concerned and hope that following the All Star break he finds his form again. Rich Harden was brought here to help the Cubs win a World Series. He definitely helped them win today. Along the way I suppose individual players like to have decent statistics. He deserved a win today, but the box score won't show that. A minor disappointment among an otherwise exciting win.