Because you asked
First things first. I asked Lou about his decision to bunt Soto last night.
"We need a run to win. It's the eighth inning. I got Marmol for one, Wood for one if we score a run. I had talked to Soto about getting the bunt over if the leadoff guy got on. He just bunted a little bit too hard. I mean, I think you try to get people in scoring position late in the ballgame. We didn't bunt the next inning; there was another double play."
OK, you know the scenario: Edmonds opens the eighth with a walk, and Soto, who had 2 singles previously, bunts into a DP. In the ninth. Fukudome opened with a walk. Soriano didn't bunt, but he grounded into a 5-4-3 DP.
"A different way, the same result," Lou said.
So there you go.
On other matters, Cubs players don't seemed thrilled about going to Houston, playing at 1:05 Friday, riding out a possible hurricane Saturday and maybe playing two on Sunday. There's no official word yet, but that's one of the scenarios facing the Cubs and Astros id Hurricane Ike bears down on Houston this weekend. We'll know more tomorrow. On rumor making the rounds here at Busch was that the Cubs and Astros would play here this weekend. Not a bad option.
Lineup:
Soriano, LF
Theriot, SS
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Soto, C
Fukudome, RF
DeRosa, 2B
Pie, CF
Lilly, P
Guy's got heart to go crashing into Molina.
Looper's pitch count is already at 67 (according to ESPN). Time to pile on.
Nice. I was about to rhetorically ask 'how about a squeeze?', but I like the result.
Maybe Elias Sports can come up with this one. When was the last time a team lead the league in scoring, OBP, OPS but were last with WRISP ? And RISP with less than two outs?...Bet they cant even nail that one..Wonder what the LOB total for the Cubs is this year ? Wonder if PYTHAG has that figured into their algorythum.
Cubs had left 1,115 on base entering tonight. That ranked third worst in the NL. St. Louis and Atlanta had more LOB.
Cubs also lead the league in runs scored by a wide margin. So while they've left a lot on, they've also got a lot on. When you score 4 runs in an inning and leave two, that's not so bad.
If you're wondering.
...but I'm not Lou and I'm no big league manager, so we'll just move on...
Yeah, updated models have Ike edging a little more towards Houston, but we really won't know anything until tomorrow. But even then, it could still turn somewhere else at the last minute; Rita did in 2005.