With the wind howling out, the Cubs sent their ace to the mound in hopes of sweeping the Brewers out of town. The brooms weren’t needed unfortunately due to yet another bullpen collapse.
Carlos Zambrano (1-1) had a relatively short outing due to the combination of a high pitch count and what appeared to be forearm cramping. Big Z continued to be inconsistent allowing 4 (3 earned) runs while walking 3 and striking out 7.
Much like the game on Wednesday, the Cubs and Brewers traded shots all game until finally the Cubs bullpen faltered yet again this season. Sean Marshall allowed an uncharacteristic run to score in his 1 inning of relief.
But the Brewers did even more damage against Chicago’s favorite wide receiver: Jeff Samardzija. Samardzija is proving once again, that he doesn’t deserve to be on the Major League roster and he ridiculous contract only compounds the problem. Jeff Grabow didn’t impress anyone either, allowing a run to score without a ball leaving the infield.
The Cubs offense did hit 2 home runs off of Brewer starter Jeff Suppan. Suppan was making his season debut and managed to keep the Cubs somewhat subdued. Derrek Lee (2), Marlon Byrd (3) and Aramis Ramirez (3) all connected on balls that left the yard. Lee appeared to be okay after missing yesterday’s game with a thumb injury.
With 2 outs in the 9th, Chad Tracy plated Ryan Theriot on a bloop fly ball to right field to keep the Cubs alive. Ramirez put a charge into a fly ball that was caught by Jim Edmonds to end the game. The Cubs tried to fight their way back, unfortunately for the Cubs, the bullpen gave up too many runs to overcome so late in the game.
Derrek Lee was ejected late in the game for arguing a called strike 3 call. Lee wasn’t the only person upset with the strike zone, as both starting pitchers appeared to get squeezed on calls early in the game. The home plate umpire appeared to expand his zone to the dismay of batters from both teams.
Final: Cubs (4-5) 6 – Brewers (4-5) 8
WP: Chris Narveson (1-0)
LP: Jeff Samardzija (0-1)
S: Trevor Hoffman (3)
The Cubs open up a 3 game series with the Houston Astros who are coming off of their 1st victory of the season.