Soriano Survives

So Day 1 of Lou’s experiment of putting Soriano second in the batting order went fine.  Not only that, but Jason Marquis had another good outing, either helping him cement a spot in the lineup, or at the very least, increasing his trade value.  Offensively, the Cubs were fine at the top of the line up. Theriot, batting leadoff, went 2-4 with an RBI and a stolen base.  Soriano went 1-3 with a walk. Not bad, but looking at the first inning and you start to see the problem.  Theriot led off the game with a single, stole a base against Greg Maddux (which we all know is easy to do), but Soriano couldn’t advance the runner to third, grounding out and leaving Theriot stuck at second.  It didn’t help that Lee couldn’t move Theriot over either.  He hit a line ball off the end of the bat that hit Maddux in the thigh.  Maddux threw Lee out, but had to leave after two innings with bruising.  The biggest problem offensively for the Cubs is Derek Lee.  Lee was 0-4, struck out once, grounded into two double plays, and left 5 men on base.  Lee is currently hitting .107.  Meanwhile, the guy who was his backup today, Micah Hoffpauir, went 1-1 and is batting .455 this spring.  Lee has the third lowest batting average of anyone on the team with 5 or more plate appearences, with only light hitting backup catcher Koye Hill and Tyler Colvin, who is barely out of college, hitting worse.  Other players who hit poorly today were Aramis Ramirez, 0-4, and Geo Soto who was 0-3.  Fukudome, who made the swith to the fifth spot in the batting order was 1-4 and scored on a Sam Fuld sacrifice fly.  Mark DeRosa is finally warming up, going 2-3.  What can we do to wake up some of these bats?

There were 50 major league scouts at the game to check out the surplus of Cubs pitching.  Marquis did well today, going four scoreless innings and struck out two, but also walked two batters.  He was also helped out by a nice catch from Koske Fukudome to rob former Cub Jody Gerut of an extra base hit in the third.  There are a lot of teams that wouldn’t mind having Marquis on their lineup. (hopefully)  Sean Marshall went three innings, two runs on four hits, although one of the runse were unearned, coming on a Theriot fielding error.  Tim Lahey had another fine day, going one inning and not allowing a single baserunner to reach.  The game was tied in the top of the ninth when Carlos Marmol came into the game.  Marmol had no clue where the strike zone was today, giving up a hit and walking two batters to load the bases. Luckily he was able to get out of the jam without giving up any runs. 

The Cubs won the game in the bottom of the ninth, when pinch hitter Alex Cintron hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth for the game-winner.  Cintron has been a nice addition to the Cubs bench, which is pretty strong.  Cintron can play anywhere in the infield and has a decent bat. 

Soriano’s Short Memory

When scanning stories about Soriano, I thought it was funny to see Soriano say;

"It’s the first time I batted second in the big leagues.  I didn’t feel very comfortable. But it’s the first at-bat. I will have to make a couple little adjustments batting second because I never batted second."

Maybe Soriano’s memory is in as bad shape as his legs.  Soriano has not batted second in a big league game in a long time (since May 16, 2001), but has batteed second in a total of 11 games in his career. He’s 5-for-31 (.161) when he hits second. Ouch!   That’s not good.  At least he seems to have a good attitude about it.

"Batting second, if [Piniella] thinks I can help the team more, I’m OK with that," Soriano said. "He told me he’s trying to protect my legs. I think my legs will be fine in a couple of games."

His legs don’t look anywhere near where they need to be, so that remains to be seen.  And if Lou makes this a permanent move?

"I don’t know what he wants to do with me," Soriano said. "If that helps us to win, that’s OK."

Right things to say at least.

Best Wishes

Best wishes go out to the Red Baron, Rick Sutcliffe, who was diagnosed with a treatable and curable form of colon cancer. Sutcliffe will undergo chemotherapy and surgery over the next few months and take a temporary leave of absence from his ESPN gig.  Rick knows that he has the support and well wishes from Cubs fans everywhere.  Get better soon Rick.

On Deck

The Cubs welcome the Angels to HoHoKam Park on Friday. Ryan Dempster, will make his fourth spring start. Can he match Marquis?  The game will be televised on Comcast Sports Net at 3:05.

Go Cubs!