Thanks, Jonny! :-)This afternoon, the baseball world paid rapt attention as Day One of the draft unfolded. Where would Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, and all the other Highly Touted prospects wind up? Who would fall from first round glory, through the cracks, to be snapped up in the second round? And so on and so forth.
And this evening, at Wrigley Field, the Blue Jays tried to make it two in a row over the Cubs by sending out a pitcher drafted by some other organization (Baltimore) in the 15th round of the 1996 draft. Not to be undone, the Cubs nominated a man drafted in the 17th round by Kansas City back in 1993.
Oh, there were first-rounders to be found - there were 11 in uniform tonight, 5 for Toronto and 6 for Chicago. Three of them didn’t get into tonight’s game: Roy Halladay (17th overall, 1995), Russ Adams (14th overall, 2002), and Mike Remlinger (16th overall by San Francisco, 1987) The Cubs have three more on their Disabled List, and it can’t be easy when you think you’re a contender and you have to get along without Mark Prior (2nd overall, 2001), Kerry Wood (4th overall, 1995), and Nomar Garciaparra (12th overall, 1994 by Boston.) But 7 of the other 8 first-round picks were among the 18 players who started tonight’s game.
However, the action began with the aforementioned Rusch dealing to Reed Johnson (17th round, 1999.) It was after Sparky singled that the three first-round picks in the Toronto lineup took over. Alex Rios (19th overall, 1999) walked, and a Vernon Wells (5th overall, 1997) double scored Johnson and moved Rios to third. Shea Hillenbrand (10th round by Boston, 1996) continued to make NFH fret by popping out in the infield. However, that RBI machine Aaron Hill (13th overall, 2003) cashed Rios with a groundout, before Frank Menechino (45th round by the White Sox, 1993) grounded out to end the inning.
There were eight players in uniform tonight who weren’t drafted by anybody. Six of them play for the Cubs. It was one of them, Neifi Perez (signed as undrafted free agent by Colorado, 1992) who started the Chicago first with an infield single. Perez was followed in succession by three of the four Chicago first-rounders in tonight’s lineup. But after Todd Walker (8th overall by Minnesota, 1994) lined out, Towers caught both Derrek Lee (14th overall by San Diego, 1993) and Jeromy Burnitz (17th overall by the Mets, 1990) looking at called third strikes.
The 2-0 lead stood until the bottom of the third, when Michael Barrett (28th overall by Montreal, 1995) homered on Towers’ first pitch of the inning to cut the lead in half. Towers suddenly had a Major Wobble. The pitcher, Rusch, hit the ball quite well, but Sparky tracked it down for the first out. Then, in what was perhaps the least mathematically likely outcome of any plate appearance tonight, Towers walked Perez on four pitches. It is unusual, to say the least, for Towers to throw 4 straight pitches out of the strike zone - it is even more unusual to throw 4 pitches of any sort whatsoever without Neifi Perez being willing to hack at one of them. Towers then fell behind Todd Walker 3-0, to make it seven pitches in a row outside the strike zone. After a called strike, Walker fouled off three in a row before working the walk. This brought Derrek Lee to the plate - you know, the guy who leads the National League in, well, pretty much everything. Towers promptly fell behind 3-0 to this third straight hitter...
The Cubs have never faced Towers, ever, but they surely have a scouting report. And it surely says somewhere that “this guy will throw strikes and challenge you.” So Dusty Baker gave his slugger the green light on 3-0. Lee, no doubt looking fastball, was fooled by a slider and dribbled it just in front of home plate. Elijah described it as "the shortest 3-0 fair ball in history." Gregg Zaun (17th round by Baltimore, 1989) pounced on it and threw Lee out at first for the second out, as the runners moved up. Towers then got Burnitz on a comebacker to end the threat. With one out, a run already in, and two runners on base, the Cubs 3-4 hitters barely hit the ball 60 feet between them.
The Cubs tied it in the bottom of the fourth after Aramis Ramirez (signed as an undrafted free agent by Pittsburgh, 1994) led off with a double. The Cubs decided to play for one run, and as so often happens, that’s all they would get. Corey Patterson (3rd overall, 1998) one of the better LH hitters in the Cubs lineup, was asked to give himself up. He did, advancing Ramirez to third, from whence he scored when Todd Hollandsworth (3rd round, 1991 by Los Angeles) grounded out to short.
The Jays regained their lead in the top of the fifth. With one out, Johnson tripled, and was content to stay on third on Rios fly out to centre. Corey Patterson, however, uncorked one of the wildest and weirdest throws I have ever seen by an outfielder not named Maldonado. Sparky trotted home and the unearned run put the Jays ahead 3-2. Towers survived a two out double by Walker in the bottom half of the inning. The Jays went quietly in the top of the 6th, and Jeromy Burnitz led off the Chicago sixth.
After his stressful third inning, I was pleased that Towers had simply made it through five innings, and doubly pleased that he actually had a lead. The Burnitz at bat, obviously, did him in. Towers eventually got the called strikeout, but it took 11 pitches.
Now I didn't know at first which member of the Roster had inserted the GameDay graphic of the Burnitz at bat into my Instant Replay Thread. It wasn't me. I am a trusting soul, and a rookie around here, and I leave all my work available for other Roster members to edit as they will. Until now, I'm not aware that anyone has ever meddled with my work. And all I have to say is this: nicely done! As a rule, I lack the necessary skill to perform such feats, but like any rookie I try to keep my mouth shut and learn from my betters. And, voila!
Thanks, Jonny! :-)
Anyway, Aramis Ramirez doubled on the second pitch he saw after the epic struggle with Burnitz, and Gibbons wisely came out with the hook. Pete Walker (7th round by the Mets, 1990) came into the game, as Gibbons executed the first of the evening’s three double switches by putting Walker in Menechino’s spot in the batting order and inserting Orlando Hudson (43rd round, 1997) into the game as well.
Walker has been absolutely brilliant for the Blue Jays this year, and you knew that sooner or later he was going to struggle. His ERA coming in was 1.20, and he’s not that good a pitcher. No one is that good a pitcher. Tonight was the night. Patterson’s infield single put runners on the corners, and Hollandsworth’s sac fly (his second RBI while making an out) tied the game. Barrett singled, and there were runners on the corners again, this time with outs. Dusty went to his bench to get a pinch-hitter for his pitcher. But Walker retired Jose Macias (signed as undrafted free agent by Montreal, 1992) to keep the score tied.
The new Cubs’ pitcher, Todd Wellemeyer (4th round, 2000) breezed through the top of the seventh, and Walker retired Perez and Todd Walker to begin the bottom half. But then he flagged some more - Lee and Burnitz singled, and Ramirez walked to load the bases. With the LH Patterson due up, Gibbons made his second double switch of the evening. Scott Schoeneweis (3rd round by Anaheim, 1996) came in to face Patterson and moved into the leadoff spot in the batting order, as Frank Catalanotto (10th round by Detroit, 1992) came in to play LF.
At this juncture, Dusty Baker chose not to use the best RH bat on his bench, Jason Dubois (14th round, 2000). Baker was doubtless saving him for some more important situation, later in the game. I guess. Now in fairness to Baker, while Patterson hasn't hit LH very much this year, he has held his own against them over his young career. But not this time, as he hit a comebacker on Schoeneweis’ second pitch to end the inning.
Pete Walker had retired just four of nine hitters, had blown the save - but, nevertheless, the score was still tied at 3-3. He had actually lowered his ERA to 1.15 despite his troubles. In some ways, this was a pretty remarkable performance. I mean, if you’re going to go out there and screw the pooch - and Walker was definitely not very effective tonight - it’s hard to see how he could have done it so completely and still hurt his team so little in the process.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Vernon Wells hit a deep drive off the wall in centre and tried to make it all the way to third. The play was very, very close but the umpire said he was out. You can’t complain - it was just good baseball. In the seventh inning of a tie game, aggressive baserunning to make it to third with one out is a good gamble. Especially when you remember the last time Corey Patterson was called upon to make a throw that mattered. But the Cubs made two good throws, a good relay. Although Keith Talent noted that Wells "probably wouldn't have been called out if he wasn't admiring his fly on the way to first. He only turned on the jets halfway around second..."
So now there were two out with no one on. The Wells out felt especially painful when Shea Hillenbrand suddenly remembered how much NFH is counting on him, and lined what would have been a go-ahead double to left. But no matter, as it turned out. See, we don’t know if Aaron Hill was also Named For Hank. But let’s put it this way - he carries one of the great baseball names, and he’s actually living up to it. He lined the go-ahead single, driving Wellemeyer from the game.
So Dusty Baker summoned one of his lefty relievers, Will Ohman (8th round, 1998) to face Catalanotto. Catalanotto hit a hard shot at first baseman Derrek Lee. A late hop ate up the Gold Glover, but he still had a play to get the out - except Ohman forgot to get over and cover first. So Lee had no play, and after Zaun singled to load the bases, Dusty went to his pen again and made a double switch of his own: Mike Wuertz (11th round, 1997) came in to pitch, hitting in Patterson’s spot, while Jerry Hairston (11th round by Baltimore, 1997) took over in centre. Wuertz retired John McDonald (12th round by Cleveland, 1996) to end the inning.
Schoeneweis came out to work the bottom of the inning, and Dusty still disdained calling on a RH pinch-hitter. This time it was harder to explain. Todd Hollandsworth has had barely 100 AB against LH over the last three plus years. Furthermore, he's really not very good, and on top of that, he's having a lousy year. Now if Baker sent Dubois up to bat, Gibbons would obvously counter with his RH - but if I were running the Cubs, I'd certainly prefer seeing Dubois hit against Frasor rather than Hollandsworth hit against Schoeneweis, or any other LH for that matter.
Hollandsworth opted for the element of surprise, and tried to bunt his way aboard, but Schoeneweis threw him out easily. And Scott’s work was done. He had thrown three pitches, but he had recorded two important outs, stranded three inherited runners in a tie game, and was now the pitcher of record to win the game. Ah, the life of a LOOGY!
Jason Frasor (33rd round by Detroit, 1999) came in to get the final two outs in the eighth. Michael Barrett greeted him with his second homer of the night, cutting the lead to a single run, but Frasor retired his next two batters. We went to the ninth inning with the Jays ahead 5-4, and the happy knowledge that everyone else in the AL East was either losing or had already lost.
And now, with one out in the ninth, we finally had a DUDE! sighting. Eric Hinske (17th round by the Cubs, 1998) pinch hit for Frasor and worked Wuertz for a walk. The Dude stole second, and was moving cheerfully to third on Alex Rios' infield hit - but when defensive whiz Neifi Perez threw the ball away, the Dude scored a reassuring insurance run. Rios soon got himself thrown out trying to steal and Wells struck out. And so we went to the bottom of the ninth. We didn’t hear the tones of “Gangsta’s Paradise” as Miguel Batista (signed as undrafted free agent by Montreal, 1988) came in from the pen. But Miggy was dealing anyway. He faced the three LH hitters who bat 2-3-4 in the Cubs order, and he set them down on 14 pitches for his 11th save.
And thanks to the amazing and awesome power of Burley Tuesday mojo, the Magpie evens his season record at 6-6.
The Jays send Roy Halladay against Sergio Mitre (7th round, 2001) at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon as they go for the sweep.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050608012225399