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What Happened in Chicago & Philly?
Chicago’s Downfall
The NLDS between the Arizona Diamondbacks & the Chicago Cubs boiled down the no-frills youth movement of the Diamondbacks. The Cubs bats just fell asleep! They were out-hit in BA a mediocre .266 to a dreadful .194; they were out slugged .532 to a measly .255; out Homered 6 to 1 with two each by “Rookies” CF Chris Young & Stephen Drew and Arizona even had twice the amount of total bases than the Cubs!
On top of all of this, you have Pinella’s decision to pull Zambrano out early to save him for a game that never came to be. Sorry Lou, but this is the playoffs & a mistake like that one can change the momentum of a shorter series like this one. The first game of a 5 game series can easily set the stage for the remainder of the series; and in this case, a wrong move brought an end to the Cubs’ hopes of eliminates their World Series drought.
With the strong possibility of new ownership of the team, will this be motivation for the new owner, whoever they may be, to go out & find themselves a new field manager? I guess we’ll just have to wait & see! I hear that Dusty Baker may be available!
Phllies Come Up Phlat
It wasn’t for lack of power or speed, as the Phllies out homered the Rockies 5 to 4 & out stole them 3 to nothing, but you have to get on base like the Rox did in order to make the most of those chances. Philly hit a weak .172 to Colorado’s .267 and that’s with subpar outings at the plate by Helton, Holliday & Tulowitzki, all hitting well under their season averages. Although, Holliday did make up for it with 2 homers. The only two Phils to hit above .250 were C Carlos Ruiz & game 1 starter Cole Hamels! In the end, the red hot Rox & their pitching staff, especially their bullpen, shut down the mighty Philly bats taking them completely out of the game. In a pitching match, Philly loses this one every time. If the Red Sox don’t re-sign Schilling, the Phillies NEED to go out & get him, or another quality starter in the off season if they want to bolster their staff for a run next year while this team is still young. He would be a great mentor to young Hamels as well! They also need to address their CF situation with Rowand coming off a big free agent year.
Tune in to my next blog where I’ll be discussing what went down in the ALDS!
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