Return to Marshall Law?

Well that was the plan at least. Sean Marshall had a nice return to the Cubs, but ran out of gas in the sixth inning as he was tagged for two home runs. Matt Cain was too much for the Cubs to handle. It seems as if a guy has a good fastball he can beat the Cubs. Check that, it seems as if a guy has an arm he can beat the Cubs, and today was no exception as the Giants took the game 4-2. I am trying to be an optimist with the Cubs' offense, and I found something! The Cubs' on-base percentage sits at .318, which is amazingly in second to last place. Even more shockingly, the team at the bottom of the barrel is in the AL - Tampa Bay.

Sean Marshall's quick start today had an easy strategy borrowed from Chien-Ming Wang. He threw the ball over the place and hoped they hit at someone. He only had one strikeout on the day, to go with two walks. The three home runs are a bit of a surprise with the wind blowing in at 10 MPH and Marshall's sinker looking pretty good. Oh well, no big concern there.

Can somoene make Mike Wuertz the closer already? He had another good outing, bringing up his line since being recalled to: 24 IP, 22 H, 26 SO, 8 BB and a nifty 1.50 ERA. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA had his number one comparison as Brad Lidge going into the season. Wierd. The bullpen was solid as usual today - by usual I mean excluding Ryan Dempster of course. That's one spot Jim Hendry won't have to jack around with in the offseason.

Derrek Lee homered off Armando Benitez and is now 9 for 20 since coming back. It's nice to see him fully healthy again. Michael Barrett and Angel Pagan continued to struggle, no surprise there. Barrett's going to be out tomorrow with the foul tip injury. Ryan Theriot sat over Freddie Bynum, no surprise there. Why does Dusty insist on Freddie Bynum batting second? Is it because he looks like a baseball player? Is it because he looks fast?

The all old-timers decided to take shots on Marshall. Barry Bonds hit his 20th home run of the season, and guess what? He's hit .333 in August. The first time this season he's done well in the average category, of course his walks have been off the charts all season long. Ray Durham (future Cub?) and Moises Alou (former Cub) homered off Marshall in the sixth. That was all Matt Cain needed in his 7 innings, 1 unearned run with 7 K's. Only 2 walks of course, we're the Cubs.