What Do You Get When You Add 8 And 3?

Something magical?

I know I could have also gone with the Samardzija #29 that he wears now, with the Cubs, but I wanted to throw down a little ND love because, among other reasons, Kerm, a multiple graduate of Our Lady, is too tired of the bullshit he gets if he simply appears to be rooting for his alma mater (I know, what a dick, right?). And anyway, he’s honest enough to say that he, along with just about anybody who has been following this team, did not expect Samardzija to contribute anything for the Cubs in 2008.

There is so much to dissect about that absolute beauty of a game. I really feel sorry for the fatalist screaming ninnies if they can’t appreciate that this game is what is so goddamn great about watching baseball. The game could have turned on so many things, and it didn’t. And the frustrated losers for once were the goddamn Tardinals.

Pujols’ throwing error in the 5th that the Cubs capitalized on.

Lee’s swinging bunt that “knocked” in a run.

Marmol’s “phantom” balk.

Soriano’s diving, circus catch (and in case you were still feeling any guilt about Marmol’s balk–or unless you would enjoy rubbing it in by shouting “Denkinger” to any Cardinals fan, knowing you got away with one–keep in mind that on Soriano’s catch, Aaron Miles would have been doubled off second base instead of nearly being doubed off of first).

Fukudome’s balls-to-the-wall catch one batter later (nice call, Lou, on putting Fukkake out there).

Josh Phelps’ sharp grounder down the line in the 8th inning that was about 10 inchies foul.

Buddy Ryan avoiding Ramirez’ tag on the 9th inning SAC attempt by Izturis, but oversliding third base and getting caught in a bang-bang play with nobody out.

The 2-0 “high” strike to Pujols (eat shit, Albert)

You could find a few other examples, but every one of those plays tipped this tight game in the slightest direction. One play that will likely get overlooked, however, happened during the one inning thrown by the rookie out of Valparaiso, IN.

Samardzija, who had not pitched since he helped gum up that ugly blowout on Saturday, took the mound in the 7th inning, after Rich Harden had let the Cardinals creep back into the game in the 6th. The first hitter, that eternal wet-newspaper swinging Jason LaRue, poked one through the hole over second base. At this point, I was hoping to hang my hat on the commonly suggested notion that Samardzija had played big-time football in front of 80,000+ people and he wasn’t going to let anything get to him. But none of that mattered here. The crowd was cold and somewhat quiet. It was a simple game of baseball and Samardzija’s value wasn’t necessarily in his ability to perform on stage, but rather simply to pitch.

And yet.

The Genius brought in Braden Looper to pinch-sacrifice, and Looper munsoned the first pitch straight into the air. Derrek Lee–who had just concluded another in a long and puzzling string of ineffectual at-bats when he followed up a frustrating near-miss of a Geico Insurance home run by taking a 37 mile-per-hour fastball for strike 3 to end the top half of the inning, and may have taken his mystifying ineffectualness out to the field–somehow out-munsoned Looper by running past the ball (the subsequent replay from beyond the catcher’s right shoulder made it look like Lee may also have been worried about colliding with Samardzija had he dove for the ball and let’s face it…Derrek Lee is a big man but he’s a toothpick compared to some of the young bulls that Samardzija has gone over the middle on while at ND but either way, DLee failed to make the play and that is one goddamn ridculously long run-on sentence and I wonder if I’ve beaten some record previously held by Dave Barry). The ball got behind both players and with 44,155 mostly toothless Ozarkians sensing a prime clusterfuck opportunity for their heroes to steal the game, Samardzija coolly lept over Lee, ran back the eight feet or so to pick up the ball, and calmly threw a strike to baseball’s smallest target–the three foot, six inch Mike Fontenot.

Of course, even if that play turns into an ominous should-have-been out, it doesn’t mean that everything falls apart inning, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out either way. Marmol and Wood’s tightrope acts in the 8th and 9th provided enough excitement, thankyouverymuch. But after seizing the action and deflating the Cardinals with a play on which they had briefly and excitedly held such high hopes, Samardzija proved that he could, indeed slam the door, by getting the next two hitters to harmlessly fly out.

While Jeff Suh Mar Zhda and the Cubs
Stick it to St. Looey

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