Balls and Tires

Brian Roberts and the O’s were successful in the club’s first game at Wrigley Tuesday night.

Riding a 14 game home winning streak, the Chicago Cubs fell short to the first-time visitors from Baltimore Tuesday night, 7-5. After the 6th inning, it looked as if the Cubs were done for the night. But after a towering home run by the player I still feel weird rooting for, Jim Edmonds, the game got a bit more interesting. Add Aramis Ramirez’s RBI single and it’s a 2 run game. Then, with the bases loaded in the 9th, both Ronny Cedeno and Kosuke Fukudome strike out, and Sweet Lou pinch hits for Patterson with…Henry Blanco?? Who was just toyed with by Sherrill and the ballgame is over. The worst part of it was that Brian Roberts, who everyone thought would be heading to the Northside sometime this season, went 3-5 with an RBI in the win. His thoughts after the game:

“I thought I was going to be a Cub in December,” Roberts said before the game. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. … Once the season started you just kinda go out and play your spot and the rest will take care of itself. I really haven’t thought about in a long time.”

Man, I wish the Cubs front office could have found a way to make that deal go through. Roberts would have been a huge boost right now for the Cubs. With Soriano injured, Roberts could lead off and Kosuke could be in a position to drive in some runs. I really like Theriot in the 8-hole, and even though Patterson is playing more LF, the position could be played most of the time by DeRosa. You have Patterson and Ronny Cedeno on the bench, as well as Mike Fontenot and Daryle Ward. This is a huge hypothetical, because you never know who would have been dealt in the Roberts deal. However, Buster Olney reported much earlier in the year that Sean Gallagher and/or Sean Marshall were the “centerpieces of the deal”. For now, I’m just dreaming about a Cubs utopia in which the club has a definite lead-off hitter. And Sammy Sosa never corked his bat. And Corey Patterson actually turned out to be the real deal. And Alex Gonzalez never bobbled that double-play ball in the Bartman game. The possibilities are endless.

As I looked through some videos on ESPN.com this morning, I came across one that interested me very much. I saw from the headline that Hernandez hit a grand slam in yesterday’s win vs. the Mets in interleague play. Which Hernandez, you say? King Felix. FELIX HERNANDEZ???! Like, the guy who gets 10 at bats a year? Yes, and off of who else, but Cy Young winner Johan Santana!!! Amazing stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d08gfZpnDA4

 What amazed me even more was seeing Mets fans comment about how the Mariner win was a fluke. I read one comment that said that Seattle wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for Hernandez’s grand slam. Now, I’m not a math major, but I’m pretty sure that 5-4 is 1, and all of us could deduct that the 2 runs the Mets put up would trump the 1 that Seattle put up sans Felix’s blast. But how can you make a comment like that??? Let’s say Felix didn’t hit a GS. You never know what could have happened in the rest of the game offensively for Seattle! The grand slam happened in the 2nd inning, too. Having that sort of cushion the whole entire game gives a team a different mindset at the plate. Mets fans, I know you’re having a tough year so far, but so is Seattle. They need wins in a bad way, and it’s not their fault that David Wright bobbled the Willie Bloomquist grounder that would have ended the inning. The Mariners took advantage of a favorable situation, which is what ballclubs are supposed to do. A “W” is a “W”, which is one phrase the worst team in the league, the aforementioned Mariners, would love to keep saying. Unfortunately, Felix got injured in the fifth and didn’t go the distance to get the win. Hats off to you, King Felix, for quieting the Shea crowd all by yourself last night.