DId you see the grin?
He was all business coming down the 3rd base line, but after he crossed the plate?
Then he broke out into that Mark DeRosa grin and whipped off his helmet to join in the mad Cardinal celebration on the field, and...
Man.
I know we're all sick of talking about the DeRosa trade, how he ended up a Cardinal and all that, but every time I see the guy now I get TeeO'd all over again.
It was a very good game.
Mark Grace was one of the announcers, and whoever the other guy was just kept congratulating himself on figuring out that a Dempster/Carpenter game might be a pitcher's duel...
And it really was.
They were both brilliant, but Demp more so because the Cardinal line-up is so much better.
Bobby Scales.
Loyal minor leaguer playing out of position against the Cardinals in September.
Maybe too much adrenaline?
He totally had that ball.
I'm ill for him, since he kinda helped it go out for the homer.
The Cubs tied it up in the 9th with an awesome little rally off Card's closer Ryan Franklin (didn't that end in a double play?).
And then Carlos Marmol - I thought he looked pretty good, but he couldn't get those 3rd stikes.
DeRo gets on trying to bunt Ludwig to 2nd, but Ludwig's out.
Molina hit and runs DeRo to 3rd.
Brendan Ryan is absolutely at a loss up against Marmol - those first two fastballs over the inside of the plate?
NObody could hit that.
But the next pitch wanders over the middle, Ryan hits the grounder to left, and that's when DeRo got to go cross the plate.
The Cubs played hard - nobody was slacking (at least those on the field), and it really was a good afternoon of baseball watching.
Today I'm gonna watch the Bears and hope that that guy playing qb last week has settled down a little, then make spaghetti and watch the last one of these Cubs/Cards games.
It's the other Cardinal Cy Young candidate, Adam Wainwright (18-8), vs. Confusing Carlos, which reminds me that the spaghetti will require a glass or so of a nice red.
I'm gonna leave you with this thought:
Like Greg Maddux.
Like Mark Grace.
I'm gonna be pulling for a good-guy ex-Cub to walk away from '09 with a fancy new ring.
He's also a Cardinal.
