CUBS’ 11-6 LOSS TO ASTROS: MENTAL MISTAKES, BULLPEN FAILURES

Last night’s 11-6 Cubs detriment to the Astros, which forsaken them behind in to second place by 1/2 diversion after the Cardinals kick up on the Dodgers, incited on dual plays.

The initial was Kosuke Fukudome’s irregular preference to try to widen a slight singular to core margin in to a double. The fool around was right in front of both him and Astros CF Michael Bourn; it was the leadoff fool around in the bottom of the initial inning; since would you risk receiving a curtain off bottom when your group is already trailing 1-0? It wasn’t a great thought at the time and it seemed to take a lot out of the Cubs; the subsequent 9 hitters went down in a row until there was one out in the fourth inning.

The second bad fool around was Ryan Dempster’s preference to try for a stand in fool around with the measure 2-0 and runners on initial and third with nobody out in the tip of the third. Miguel Tejada strike a comebacker which Dempster snagged in front of the mound. It was obviously a hit fool around — Bourn, who was on third base, pennyless for the plate. He would have been out simply had Dempster thrown to Koyie Hill, who, according to Paul Sullivan, was yelling for the ball:

Catcher Koyie Hill was yelling at Dempster, who paid him no heed.

“I did listen to him, and I think that’s since I threw it in core field. When I went to throw to second, I listened ‘home.’ I should have well known to go home. … Bad baseball.”

Don’t know either which was the decay of not pitching for 4 weeks or what — even if Dempster doesn’t throw the round in to CF and gets the stand in play, there was nobody out. A run would have scored anyway. If he throws home and gets Bourn, there competence have still been time to spin a DP by removing Tejada at 1B, and even if which didn’t happen, the subsequent dual hitters were slight outs. That would have left the measure 2-0 instead of 4-0, since one of those outs became a scapegoat fly.

And the Cubs would have had a improved shot at the diversion which way. Roy Oswalt left the diversion in the second inning with a reduce behind strain. Reliever Wesley Wright late the initial 5 batters he faced but afterwards utterly mislaid his control. This isn’t all startling — Wright is in all used as a LOOGY and the thirteen batters he faced final night was the many in his vital joining career. Five walks, a scapegoat fly and a singular later, the Cubs were behind in the diversion trailing usually 4-3. The singular was by Reed Johnson — a unequivocally early have use of of a PH in the fourth inning if you’re not going to leave him in the game. This, and a double-switch done in the sixth after Lou again unsuccessful to assimilate which Sean Marshall could essentially throw to some-more than 4 batters, left the Cubs short of dais players utterly early in the game.

Dempster gave it behind in the fifth, permitting a two-run HR to Tejada, but the Cubs scored equally it in the final of the fifth on Aramis Ramirez’s three-run shot.

And afterwards the bullpen failed. They got out of the sixth with no damage, but Angel Guzman gave up a HR to Geoff Blum and afterwards in the eighth, Kosuke Fukudome usually longed for a diving catch on a Jeff Keppinger round which wound up as a two-run triple. It wouldn’t have been an easy play, but if Fukudome can grab which ball, the measure stays 7-6 going in to the final of the 8th — an wholly opposite game.

The Cubs’ five-game winning strain is over; it happens. The Cubs had sufficient baserunners, notwithstanding carrying usually 5 hits; Astros pitchers expelled ten walks — all unintended — but the Cubs unequivocally took value of them usually in the fourth inning, when the 5 walks since led to 3 runs. Dempster’s pitching and invulnerability showed the decay from his layoff; might be a rehab begin wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. Speaking of rehab, B.J. Ryan done his initial coming for Iowa (OK, technically, it’s not a rehab assignment, but the Cubs are perplexing to “rehabilitate” him), throwing eleven pitches (five strikes) in a scoreless inning with one walk. It’s a start, anyway. He’ll have up to 6 appearances there prior to the Cubs confirm what to do with him; he has to be removed inside of fifteen days of final night or be released.

With Ted Lilly on the DL, they might need him prior to the fifteen days have been up. Today’s pregame thread will post at 11:30 am CDT.