Thursday the Cubs laid a whupping on the Milwaukee Brewers, handily beating the piss out them with their own sausages. Jim "My Career Ain't Over" Edmonds hit two homeruns, including a grand salami. Fukudome's bat continues to rebound from his mid-season slump as he added a two run shot of his own. And our pitching? Holy Crap. Rich Harden finally earned his first Cub win and struck out nine. Nine! That's ten, ten, ten, and nine Ks in his first four games, if anyone's counting. Sabathia's been sexier, with his 4 wins and 3 complete games, but so long as we can get the new kid some runs and he stays healthy, he's gonna catch up pretty quick. Dempster continues to be the best thing to come out of Canada since LaBlatt Blue and Zambrano is just a beast. I love this team!
I didn't expect the Cubs to sweep, given how anemic the bats were to start the second half, but the Cubs came in hot after that win against Florida on Sunday and never looked back. They manhandled the Brewers offensively and our pitching dominated their high scoring offense. Now I know we're only in the first throes of August, but I gotta say, the boys in blue look very sharp. I don't expect this to be the turning point of the season or anything, as there's still plenty of ball left to play, but it was sure enjoyable.
I found myself very disappointed in the Brewers the last game. The one knock I have on their team is that they resort to childish, pantie twisting bullcrap when they get knocked around. It happened last year against St. Louis and now the whole thing with Gagne throwing behind Edmonds in the 9th. The guy hit two homeruns, didn't pose for pictures as far as I could tell, so what's with the circus stuff? It was apparent Gagne meant to hit Edmonds, but Jim pulled his butt in and the pitch sailed past him. Leave it to Jim Edmonds to NOT take one in the ass. How you could argue that wasn't intentional is beyond me, but Gagne and Yost tried. Then Fielder throws his hissy fit in the 9th and gets rung as well. Get over it Prince. It was 11-4. You could have hit one to the moon and it wouldn't have fucking mattered. I didn't see where you had anything to bitch about anyway. Eat a tofuburger and shut the fuck up. Conversely, the Cubs handled the 9th with grace. No beanballs from Eyre or Marshall, although I'd be willing to bet if there'd been a close play at second in the top half, Edmonds might have tried to take down Weeks or Hardy. The Cubs may not forget what happened, but if the playoffs are on the line the next time we see the Sausage Slingers, I doubt you'll see any retaliation. I think the boys will just file it away for 2009. Whether it's just tempers boiling over or just a low class maneuver by Yost to try and distract the Cubs, it's still bullshit. The Brewers remind me of the Cubs from 2004, when they allowed distractions and ass-whippings to get to them. (See Moises Alou, Kent Mercker, et al.) Maybe I'm wrong, but this just suggests to me that maybe the Brewers aren't quite ready for the playoffs. A little more maturity down the road and I think they'll get their chances, as their young studs get a little more seasoning. A new manager might help, too, as Yost seems sort of clueless to me. Maybe not Dusty Baker bad, but Yost's style (or lack thereof) just doesn't work for me. With guys like Lou, LaRussa, Scoscia, Francona, and Torre in the game, you just need to manage smarter. They've got a great team and they could still overtake us, but I think they have a lot of growing up to do, hopefully starting next year or the year after.
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