Cubs To The Month Of May: Your $20 Is On The Nightstand
What’s impressive about the fact that the Cubs followed up an unusually strong April with an equally dominant May is that May started with a very inauspicious 2-5 start. The difference is that they finished April losing four of their last six games while they finished May hotter than Josh Hamilton’s old crack pipe; indeed, the only truly rough stretch this team has endured thus far has been in that period from April 24th through May 7th when the Cubs went 4-9.
May started like April started, which started like how March started–with a loss to the Brewers. Kerry Wood hit Craig Counsell to start the ninth inning, and then was done in with some suspect outfield defensive play, as the Cubs lost their second 3-game series to the Brewers at Wrigley. What followed was a very frustrating series loss to the Cardinals, when Jason Isringhausen demonstrated that the Cardinals don’t expect to be a contenders by celebrating his series-winning srikeout of Derrek Lee as if his team had won the World Series–something Isringhausen wasn’t able participate in in 2006. Good for Izzy, the luckless douche.
Anyway, the Cubs then travelled to Cincinnati and lost their fourth straight 3-game series, the rubber match being decided by the same score as a forfeited game, 9-0.
Of course at this point the ledge jumpers were approaching full Code Red status. We here at Hire Jim Essian, on the other hand, preferring to take the long view, admonished all of these shrieking pantywaists to get a grip.
Our validation, as it turns out, would come immediately, as the Cubs kicked off a ten-game homestand May 9th by facing the same team that emasculated the shit out of them last October–Arizona. The D-Bags had been playing well from the start of the season, but the Cubs were able to exact a little revenge from last season’s abortion of an LDS by sweeping the Snakes, the sweep being assured in an exciting, late-game rally in the series finale.
In fact, since that point, the Cubs have easily been the best team in baseball. Sure they stubbed their toe in Houston and then kicked away two games in Pittsburgh that they had in the bag but, even including that stretch last week, their record is 17-6 since that 9-zip loss in Cincy. Not too shabby. In fact, this 7-0 homestand means they haven’t lost since Fonzie lost the ball in Pittsburgh.
Yesterday the Cubs actually got to begin a month by playing somebody other than Milwaukee and, sure enough, they won. The win, of course, concludes a perfect 7-0 homestand. I have to think the booze cart was cleared out on the flight to San Diego last night.
Better look out June–if the Cubs treat you like they treated April and May, you may want to wear some padding.
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That wild comeback that the Cubs pulled off on the hapless Rockies last Friday brought to a mind a similar game back in 1989. Of course, the 1989 game gets the edge simply because the game happened later in the season–at the tail end of August before a stretch drive that included 4 contending teams in the old National League East. And in this year’s game, the Cubs came back so ferociously that they still had to hold the Rockies for two innings while protecting the lead whereas the 1989 game ended up as a walk-off victory in extra innings.
Still, once the Cubs closed to 9-4, that game instantly came back into my head.
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While last Friday’s epic comeback brought back memories of 1989, I cannot shake the idea that this is the best Cubs team I have seen since 1984. Ya’ll remember 1984, right? Rarely did that team makes things unneccesarily hard on themselves by pissing away too many games. It was a veteran team that didn’t get distracted by all of the retarded bullshit about 1969–indeed every time the Cubs played the Mets, it was all they could do to keep from mutliating the Mets and raping their wives to let the world know that 1969 had not a goddamn thing to do with them.
Similarly, the makeup of this year’s team is veteran in nature, although slightly less so. And throw out those three fluky games that Wood has blown where he’s hit the first batter with a pitch (seriously, check out Wood’s walk rate–6 in 30 2/3 IP…he’s not a problem, folks), and said batter has come around to score, and the Cubs seem very good at clamping down when the game’s in the bag.
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Any time you analyze a team on the heels of some hot play, it’s hard not to be a joy-popper, so I’ll be the first to suggest that there will undoubtedly be some rough patches ahead, and the chicken littles will come-a-clucking as surely as Scott Eyre needs to sit down to put on his pants. Hopefully, though, that stretch doesn’t come this week, as the Cubs need to establish some dominance on the road, and a successful West Coast would go a long way to securing that dominance.
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Comments
Weebs Being the young’n in the group, the game that comeback reminded me of was September 3, 2003 against the Cardinals:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN200309030.shtml
I believe it was Ditka that came on to sing the stretch (must be those shitty singers that do it) and Alex Gonzalez and Moises Alou helped get them back in it. I guess they weren’t in a huge hole early, but it was still an impressive comeback down 6-0 late in the game.
Reuschel's Jowls We’ll see where the season ends up going, as that will be the final arbiter of where Friday’s comeback ranks in terms of the best. But to me, I’ll give it a nod just for the fact that it occurred with three of the Cubs’ best hitters on the bench. Eight-run comebacks are impressive no matter what, but doing it with your back-ups is sending a fuckin’ message to the rest of the NL.
I refuse to get giddy. My inner pessimist won’t allow it. But I will say that I’m glad the Cubs took care of business during the home-game-front-loaded first two months of the season. That’s just smart baseball.
(Also, I’m impressed with their resilience so far. Not too long ago, losing a game in the matter we did in Pittsburgh last Sunday would have spiraled into a six-or-seven game losing streak. Instead, this Cub team turns that on its ear and reels off seven straight Ws. I like that moxie. Yeah, I just used the word “moxie” on this site. Wanna make somethin’ of it?)
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