Yep. It ended up like a typical Cub one run loss. They shoulda won when the bases were loaded in the 10th, instead it goes 11 and the Cards win 3-4.
But if we didn't have all the crap-baggage from this season, we'd all be saying this was one hell of a game because... it was.
There was a play in the 1st inning that was astonishing, and where the Cat/Mouse thing came from:
2 out with Ryan Ludwick on 3rd, Matt Holliday on first, Jon Jay at bat, and Ryan Dempster throws one in the dirt. Holliday takes off for 2nd but stops 2/3rds of the way because Geovany Soto had already thrown the ball down to Starlin Castro at the bag.
Now, I'm not saying Tony LaRussa planned this exactly, but I promise you he told his team the Cubs have a young, semi mistake-prone shortstop in Castro. And to take advantage of that where you can.
So, Castro's the Cat and Holliday the mouse as Castro runs him back to first. But when Holliday (look at the replay) begins his retreat back to first I swear you can see him look at Ludwick and sneakily wave him home. So now Holliday is the Cat playing with Castro the Mouse as Castro chases the slowly moving Holliday baaaaack BUT SUDDENLY CASTRO TURNS BACK INTO THE CAT, TURNS AND FIRES HOME TO NAIL LUDWICK, THE EVENTUAL MOUSE in the whole deal who was trying to sneak in a run.
Of course, this all happened in a couple seconds at the game, where I loudly proclaimed myself a Baseball Moron by saying, "That was CRAZY! He'd have tagged Holliday out! Why take a chance with that insane throw home?"
I immediately winced, because had Ludwick crossed the plate before Castro tags Holliday, Ludwig's run would have counted. I'm SUCH an idiot - just one of the reasons why I'm not playing short for the Cubs.
We also got to see Marlon Byrd make a spectacular throw home to nail Schumaker in a play at the plate, my fav.
It was unbelievably beautiful out last night - kinda cool with the flags lazily pointing towards the plate. It made for some weird fly balls - some looked and sounded absolutely crushed but didn't go out. You could see Marlon over-run a number of them (that first one turned into a triple, but then he made the adjustment).
Surreal moment of the game.
I've been to lots of games this year. You can count how many times the fans have all gotten to their feet on probably 2 hands. But EVERYBODY was up in the top of the 8th with Marshall pitching, 2 out and 2 strikes and...Aaron Miles at bat. Really? Important point in the game but that was weird.
He grounded out.
The Cards got to Demp, the Cubs got to Chris Carpenter (Theriot with a triple!), it goes into extra innings and the Cubs lose the game and the sweep.
But this was a great weekend of baseball both at Wrigley and in Cooperstown.
Andre Dawson's HOF speech was fabulous, and really flattering to Chicago.
And now it's off to... Houston.
The Cubs were very good this weekend against a good team. If they play like they have all year, though? They'll be horrible tonight. They go good, then bad.
