by Boutros Boutros Ghali
The Cubs lost game three to the Cardinals behind some bad pitching by Jon Lester in the first inning. Lester could not locate his pitches properly and the Cardinals took advantage early with two homers for 3 runs in the first inning.
Lester did settle it down some and only gave up one more run in the following five innings, but the Cubs were too slow to catch the Cardinals with that four run lead. And I mean too slow literally.
The Cardinals got those three runs in the first inning from a solo shot by Tommy Pham and a two run homer by Stephen Spaghetti. Their fourth run came in the third when Illiterate Jhonny drove in Karen Carpenter. The Cardinals did not score again and the Cubs just could not quite reel them back in before the end of the game.
The Cubs finally got on the board in the 3rd and cut the lead in half. Lester got another hit, which further strengthens the argument that the DH is the most pointless position in sports. Carlos Martinez, who had been pitching very quickly throughout the game to keep the Cubs off balance, started to have a little trouble controlling those quick pitches. He walked the bases full for Anthony Rizzo.
Plunk knocked in two on a single up the middle of the field. Illiterate Jhonny was able to stop it, but he also went into some sort of convulsions and was rolling around in shallow center for too long to stop the Cubs from scoring two runs. Cubs 2-Cards 4.
In the 8th inning, the Cubs looked like they were going to catch the Satanic Fowl, but they came up just short due Anthony Rizzo being a bit slow on the bases. Kevin Siegrist and Johnathon Broxton combined to walk four straight batters, which cut the lead to one run and left the bases full for Maness vs Russell.
Addison Russell made contact and hit the ball into mid-right center field to Heyward. Rizzo tagged up and took off for the plate to tie the game up. Unfortunately, Heyward has a good arm and gunned Rizzo down at the plate to complete a double play.
The Cardinals went to the bullpen again and Bourjos beat Montero to end the inning with a strikeout. Cubs 3-Cardinals 4.
The Cubs tried again in the 9th after Starlin Castro was able to get to a 100 mph fastball off of Rosenthal. The Cubs replaced Castro at first with Quentin Berry as a pinch runner.
Berry broke for second base and for the first time in his career, he got thrown out stealing. Tony Cruz, who replaced the Neck Tattoo when he hurt his hand tagging Rizzo, fired a rocket down to Wong covering second and Berry was very out.
Two different times the Cubs get thrown out running the bases and the Cardinals are able to hang on for the victory.
That's the Reckless Recap. Go Cubs!
Remember to use the Amazon link to buy some nice running shoes. Maybe you send some to the Cubs so they can get a bit quicker on the bases. If you buy 40 pairs of shoes for the entire Cubs roster, I'm sure they will win some more games and Son Ranto.com will get a pittance to keep this rumbling bus rolling into the future.
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