Pirates and Cubs close out season series at soggy Wrigley Field
Can the season end soon enough for either the Cubs or Pirates? Probably not, but at least their four-game series at Wrigley Field will be finished on Thursday night.
Everyone out there who thinks you can just buy a seat in the playoffs every year, a la the Yankees, I present to you the 2009 Chicago Cubs as Exhibit A in my case against such nonsense. With a payroll around $140 million, third in the majors behind the two New York clubs, this season has been something of a disaster for the Cubs.
Lou Piniella’s squad will finish second in the NL Central and come home with a record above .500, so we’re not talking about an absolutely awful team in terms of wins and losses. But the team, both on the field and up in the front office, failed in several areas after being the consensus picks to take home the NLC title this season.
Now for everyone out there who thinks that a team can build through the draft and farm system, allow me to put the Pittsburgh Pirates on display as proof otherwise. With a payroll under $50 million to start this season – before they dealt away some of their higher-paid talent – the Bucs ranked 27th out of 30 MLB clubs and will come home with a losing record as 99% of the prognosticators out there predicted.
Only this was no ordinary losing season, no sir. This was a record-setting losing campaign as the Pirates suffered through their 17th-consecutive losing season. And if they don’t win at least two of their final four games, it will be their second 100-loss season of this decade.
Speaking of winning two games, the Pirates did indeed win twice on Wednesday when they swept the doubleheader from the Cubs by scores of 4-0 and 8-2. Picked up from the Braves back in June when the Bucs dealt Nate McLouth, Charlie Morton tossed the complete game, 4-hit shutout in the afternoon contest while Ryan Doumit’s four hits, including a homer, and four RBI paced Pittsburgh’s offense in the nightcap.
The two wins snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Cubs this season and left Pittsburgh with a 4-10 record against Chicago’s North Siders in ’09. The Pirates beat the Cubs just once in six tries at home in PNC Park and are now 3-5 at Wrigley.
Starting the final game of the four-game set, made necessary by a rainout in August, will be lefthander Paul Maholm for Pittsburgh with Jeff Samardzija going for Chicago.
Maholm hasn’t pitched that well at Wrigley over the past few seasons, his start here back on May 25 indicative of that as he worked four frames and was charged with seven Chicago plate crossings though the Pirates rallied for a 10-8 win. In five starts at the friendly confines, the Bucs lefty has pitched 24 innings and allowed 27 earned runs. Despite those shoddy numbers, Pittsburgh is 3-2 in those five outings.
Samardzija is making just his third start of both the season and his career as Chicago takes a look at the former Notre Dame star and tries to determine just where he might fit in for the future. After a decent showing when called up in a relief role in 2008, Samardzija has taken a step back this season with so-so numbers at Triple-A and a lofty ERA over his 18 relief outings and two previous starts this season.
The lines were a bit slow to come out this morning, but have established Samardzija and the Cubs -140 favorites, or thereabouts, with a total of 10½. It's my last chance this season to win some money at the expense of the Cubs, so my pick is the Pirates and Maholm at +125.
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 4, Thu, Oct 1, 8:05 p.m. (ET): Paul Maholm (15-16, 4.44) vs. Jeff Samardzija (0-2, 7.53)
UMPIRE
Assuming the rotation holds for the umpires, Jim Wolf will be south of the dish deciding the balls and strikes on Thursday. Wolf has favored the home team by a 2-13 margin in his games behind the plate, with a 17-14-2 O/U mark in 2009.
WEATHER
Having said all of that, there’s a good chance this one won’t get played. At the very least rain is going to play a factor, either causing delays, causing it to be suspended before the usual nine innings or simply played in adverse conditions. There’s a 60% chance of rain increasing as the evening progresses. It will be in the upper-50s at first pitch with winds in the 12-15 range from the SSE (out to left-center).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Can the season end soon enough for either the Cubs or Pirates? Probably not, but at least their four-game series at Wrigley Field will be finished on Thursday night.
Everyone out there who thinks you can just buy a seat in the playoffs every year, a la the Yankees, I present to you the 2009 Chicago Cubs as Exhibit A in my case against such nonsense. With a payroll around $140 million, third in the majors behind the two New York clubs, this season has been something of a disaster for the Cubs.
Lou Piniella’s squad will finish second in the NL Central and come home with a record above .500, so we’re not talking about an absolutely awful team in terms of wins and losses. But the team, both on the field and up in the front office, failed in several areas after being the consensus picks to take home the NLC title this season.
Now for everyone out there who thinks that a team can build through the draft and farm system, allow me to put the Pittsburgh Pirates on display as proof otherwise. With a payroll under $50 million to start this season – before they dealt away some of their higher-paid talent – the Bucs ranked 27th out of 30 MLB clubs and will come home with a losing record as 99% of the prognosticators out there predicted.
Only this was no ordinary losing season, no sir. This was a record-setting losing campaign as the Pirates suffered through their 17th-consecutive losing season. And if they don’t win at least two of their final four games, it will be their second 100-loss season of this decade.
Speaking of winning two games, the Pirates did indeed win twice on Wednesday when they swept the doubleheader from the Cubs by scores of 4-0 and 8-2. Picked up from the Braves back in June when the Bucs dealt Nate McLouth, Charlie Morton tossed the complete game, 4-hit shutout in the afternoon contest while Ryan Doumit’s four hits, including a homer, and four RBI paced Pittsburgh’s offense in the nightcap.
The two wins snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Cubs this season and left Pittsburgh with a 4-10 record against Chicago’s North Siders in ’09. The Pirates beat the Cubs just once in six tries at home in PNC Park and are now 3-5 at Wrigley.
Starting the final game of the four-game set, made necessary by a rainout in August, will be lefthander Paul Maholm for Pittsburgh with Jeff Samardzija going for Chicago.
Maholm hasn’t pitched that well at Wrigley over the past few seasons, his start here back on May 25 indicative of that as he worked four frames and was charged with seven Chicago plate crossings though the Pirates rallied for a 10-8 win. In five starts at the friendly confines, the Bucs lefty has pitched 24 innings and allowed 27 earned runs. Despite those shoddy numbers, Pittsburgh is 3-2 in those five outings.
Samardzija is making just his third start of both the season and his career as Chicago takes a look at the former Notre Dame star and tries to determine just where he might fit in for the future. After a decent showing when called up in a relief role in 2008, Samardzija has taken a step back this season with so-so numbers at Triple-A and a lofty ERA over his 18 relief outings and two previous starts this season.
The lines were a bit slow to come out this morning, but have established Samardzija and the Cubs -140 favorites, or thereabouts, with a total of 10½. It's my last chance this season to win some money at the expense of the Cubs, so my pick is the Pirates and Maholm at +125.
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 4, Thu, Oct 1, 8:05 p.m. (ET): Paul Maholm (15-16, 4.44) vs. Jeff Samardzija (0-2, 7.53)
UMPIRE
Assuming the rotation holds for the umpires, Jim Wolf will be south of the dish deciding the balls and strikes on Thursday. Wolf has favored the home team by a 2-13 margin in his games behind the plate, with a 17-14-2 O/U mark in 2009.
WEATHER
Having said all of that, there’s a good chance this one won’t get played. At the very least rain is going to play a factor, either causing delays, causing it to be suspended before the usual nine innings or simply played in adverse conditions. There’s a 60% chance of rain increasing as the evening progresses. It will be in the upper-50s at first pitch with winds in the 12-15 range from the SSE (out to left-center).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!