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Goin' South: Cubs vs. Braves, Tuesday 6/2, 6:10 CT

"Goin' south", of course, is where the Cubs are headed in the United States, presumably (and hopefully) not where they are headed in the standings. This road trip, beginning with the three vs. the Braves, gives the team a real shot at improving their standing in the NL Central. Before the last road trip, a complete 0-6 disaster, the Cubs had actually played well on the road, going 9-8 in their first 17 road games of 2009. Remember, the Cubs did not go over .500 on the road last year until the sweep in Milwaukee in July.

Chris DeLuca's column today has some yawner ideas, including the same ol' Jake Peavy talk (no, Chris, Peavy isn't going to Milwaukee), but he does have one thought worth mentioning:

Outfielder Reed Johnson has been his hottest hitter and deserves to stay in the lineup until he cools. Bradley likely won't sit with his bat warming up and Kosuke Fukudome has been steady, so now seems like a good time to give Soriano's ailing left knee a little rest.

And now that I've gone on record as agreeing with DeLuca, here's the reason NOT to rest Soriano in this series: his lifetime splits in Turner Field, which read .362/.423/.768 with 5 doubles, a triple and 7 HR in 69 career at-bats. Bruce Miles doesn't see Soriano getting rested, either.

Dave van Dyck has a nice profile of tonight's starter, Randy Wells, in which we learn that Wells, through failure and perseverance, has learned what it takes to succeed in the major leagues:

"I'm in a good place right now personally and baseball-wise," [Wells] said. "Everything's just kind of falling into place. I don't try to be anything I'm not, I don't try to be Carlos Zambrano, I don't try to throw 100 [m.p.h.]. I sink the ball, change speeds and if I come out on top, I come out on top.

"Confidence is huge. I would be the first to admit I don't have great stuff, I don't have top-of-the-line starter stuff, I probably don't even have fifth-starter stuff. But the thing is, I have confidence knowing ... I battled when I got into situations. The next step is to not get in those situations anymore."

The key to that quote is "I don't try to be anything I'm not." Too many pitchers do this; I think that was part of Jason Marquis' problems, when he wasn't on -- he was trying to throw 95+, which he wasn't capable of. Wells seems to understand -- I think the Cubs lucked into a good middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Randy Wells
Randy
Wells

Cubs
vs. Kenshin Kawakami
Kenshin Kawakami
Braves
0-2 W-L 3-6
1.80 ERA 4.73
23 SO 44
7 BB 23
0 HR 5
vs. Atl -- vs. Cubs

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Randy Wells 0-2 4 4 0 0 0 0 25.0 22 5 5 0 7 23 1.80 1.16


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Kenshin Kawakami 3-6 11 9 0 0 0 0 51.1 54 31 27 5 23 44 4.73 1.50

Neither of tonight's starting pitchers has faced the other team before. (Seems like there's a lot of that going around lately.) As noted in dragonsfanatic's translation of Kosuke Fukudome's most recent diary, Kenshin Kawakami and Fukudome were teammates for nine years in Japan, so they've never faced each other, either. Randy Wells has been very good in his four starts thus far. Kawakami has issued more walks than he'd probably like. The Cubs need to start being more patient.

Remember when you could watch Cubs/Braves games on TBS if they weren't on WGN? Not any more -- these days the Braves are "local" to Atlanta TV again. But, today's game is on WGN, so it will be available nationally. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter anyway.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Overflow comment threads will post today at 7 pm, 8 pm and 8:45 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

0 recs  |  326 comments

Comments

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

and with that, I'm off

I hope to hit the game threads around 6, yawl!

How bout a lil thingy in the top so I can reduce it...
That's "y'all"

One of the few good things the South has contributed to the English language, aside from William Faulkner.

And Hush Puppies
Cuisine is not language

However some of the barbecue around here will have you inventing new words.

Lineup from @cst_cubs

sori, riot, fuky, lee, milt, font (3b), soto, blanco, wells.

Glad to have Gordo back
Gordo's tweet seems to imply...

…that the Sun-Times is furloughing its employees:

On the road again. G-Dub back in ST lineup after furlough time. Cubs vs. Atl: sori, riot, fuky, lee, milt, font (3b), soto, blanco, wells.

So if anyone else has been wondering why Gordo has been disappearing for long stretches of time, this could explain it. By the way, if he continues to refer to himself as “G-Dub,” I will stop following him on Twitter and never read another word he writes.

No surprise

They’ve been doing so for over a year now. What’s surprising is that they furlough “high-profile” writers, like Wittenmyer.

Ah, OK.

I wasn’t aware until now.

I was wondering

who in the starting lineup was referred to as G-Dub. G-Dub being gordo makes more sense. But I agree that he shouldn’t be referring to himself that way.

G-Dub?

Yuck. Nick naming yourself is poor form, anyway.

Twittermyer is much better! Gordo works as well.

It's so ridiculous on so many levels.

I admit – I’m partly jealous of the guy because he has a job many of us would kill for, but calling oneself “G-Dub” is grounds for a sound thrashing.

My only conclusion

is that he was given that nickname growing up. I can’t honestly believe he would nickname himself G-Dub?

I like the lineup tonight
Please win tonight Cubs!
Shame that with that ERA Wells does not have a W.

He should have a coupla ’em. I bet we get one tonight.

I think the day off did me some good.

I didn’t watch any baseball and really didn’t even think about the Cubs. I feel refreshed! Hopefully so do the boys in blue (er, gray).

has anyone heard WHY Lou ...

won’t sit Sori for a game to rest him? I understand he’s a big bat in the lineup, but still.

oh ...

missed the part about Sori’s stats in Atlanta. Sorry, Al.

And he also

had yesterday off.

IIRC, all that nastiness in Atlanta a couple years back...

…sprung from Soriano homering, like, three times in one game.

Who got injured?

Wasn’t it some middle ATL infielder that hurt one of our players?

Renteria, now a Giant
Oops - he took out Fonty with a forearm going into 2nd
To be fair....

on that play had any other 2nd baseman been playing, Renteria would have simply bumped them on the thigh and nobody would have really noticed. Instead, we had Fonty playing second, so he clothes-lined him.

Probably becaue of the aforementioned splits in Turner.
yeah, I caught myself

a little late, though. See above.

Because he's gonna get plunked tonight

and Lilly will “retaliate” tomorrow.

Nitpick for archival purposes:

Picture under Soriano says “.368”, story says “.362”.

It's .362.

Typo. I’ll fix the caption.

I feel bad that Wells still doesn't have an actual Cubs picture
Although look @ horrible one that Harden has.
That one is awful

Poor Rich with the broken neck.

Or some sort of demonic posession
I'd like that changed before Wells....

He looks kinda cute in the photo….. no demonic like Harden

At least he has an Iowa one now

I think his first start had him wearing a Blue Jays hat.

hiya girl

how you doing?

Eh

I’m alright. But I gotta leave soon. 4-H. Woo-hoo.

I've asked for the SBN player page photos to be changed.

They are, supposedly, working on it.

Soriano leadoff homer

that’ll do donkey

Touching on what dragon translated from Dome's diary

I’m excited to see the Dome vs. Kawa at bats tonight

The good old days

I remember when I could flip between WGN and TBS for Cubs-Braves games. However, since I now live here in Atlanta, I’m stuck with Braves coverage, since the WGN feed will be blacked out.

Stupid, stupid MLB.

Oh well – won’t care tomorrow, since I’ll just be watching the game at the Ted.

Hey all... just got back from seeing Phish at Fenway...

… so i’ve been out of the Cubs loop somewhat. Glad to see they could at least manage a split with the Mannyless Dodgers.

Read something interesting… DLee hit .313/.403/.552 with a .955 OPS in May and hit into only one double play. How did Hoff do over the weekend?

Did anyone in particular pass that info along to you. :-)
One of my buddies... he hates DLee with a passion.

Hilariously enough, DLee seems to play out of his mind every time the buddy goes to a game.

And we all trust you bought your friend tickets to everygame possible...no?
I could hook you up with him and you could make it happen...

… better make it pairs though, so i can tag along and make sure he gets there.

I too old for hook ups.
Wait, so it wasn't my tweet?
That deepwins, dwid woo offwere twhoo pway?
I'm twying two dwo some twitter bwisness hwere.
I bweg yowah pwardon Dwave.
Haven't even had time to catch up on Twitter...

… work email and personal email after two days off / four days out of town are MORE than enough to handle…

… wouldn’t be surprised to learn HE grabbed it from your tweet though. :-)

Hoff? Never heard of him.
Not taking anything away fro DLee's month of May but...

I wonder if the one double play has more to do with the lack of baserunners/double play opportunities

That's the way to put a positive spin on things.
I'm a huge DLee fan, I'm just messin around

his bat might not be what it used to be but his glove’s still gold

Well, it's a valid point.

The Cubs lower team OBP may be a contributing factor. I’m too busy/lazy to look at the numbers right now, but I believe he’s hitting more fly balls/line drives this season, too.

I love it when I'm

busy/lazy ;-) I just sit in my chair thinking about what I should be doing!

constructive procrastination
Ugh

Stuck at work until 9…Wish I could watch this instead.

Why not do both?
TWSS
Looks like we're gonna have to have a TWSS-Off.

Beware – I’ve got game.

Tie doesn't always go to the Daver, eh?
I was gonna say that...

…but your post shows up as being above mine.

TWHS
Well, yeah. I did say it. Right there.
So what's it like having DMCub's post hanging there over yours?
A little awkward, to be honest.
Oh, nice setup
I figured you would.

I’ll take the wins when I can get ’em ;-)

Rich Harden update from twitter
cst_cubsHarden throws on side, says it went well. To do same thurs, then sim or rehab start and return from DL — poss near end of trip.
As much as I like Rich

and I do… I’d rather have someone who can knock in runs instead.

Relax - Lilly's pitching tomorrow
He said knock "IN RUNS"...

not “UP NUNS”.

I know Ted can do no wrong

But I’d rather not hear about him doing that to nuns.

You are in fine form today!
::blushes::

I have been watching what I eat and exercising more lately.

Wii Fit

or Sweatin’ to the Oldies?

Chair Yoga.

ZE GOGGLES

ZAY DO NUZZING!

TWSS

The Daver – STRIKES!

Knock in runs

not out catchers.

Volquez to DL.

Not sure whether the Cubs were going to face him next series or not, but Rotoworld is reporting that Edinson Volquez is going to the 15-day DL. Joey Votto is already on it.

That’s right, people – I’m always one series ahead!

I don't root for injuries.

But this is good news for the Cubs.

My feelings exactly.

The Reds were really tough on the Cubs in that series at Wrigley, and Volquez and Votto have played well against us. I wish them the best in their recoveries, but the Cubs are a team in need of some breaks – lucky ones.

Hiyo! Great news. Cincy's precipitous drop in the standings forthcoming...
Volquez looked bad yesterday

BBTN said he left after 1 IP b/c of tingling in his ring and pinkie fingers.

That doesn’t sound good.

That's a rough break for them

he was rested through a start, had several days off… pitched one inning and now they can’t back date the DL stint. Good for everyone else though!

Dusty strikes again?
Everything is Dusty's fault... I thought we all knew that by now.

Floods? Dusty. Hurricanes? Dusty. Earthquakes? Dusty. Pitchers? Dusty. Steriods? Dusty.

JIMMY? Dusty?
Dusty can also be blamed for any of Chevy's problems

Remember that commerical where it said he drove one

Yep. GM's bankruptcy? Dusty.
Dusty is guilty of Judd on WGN radio
Judd Sirrott? Dusty.
I keep hoping he gets a little better......

but I still want to stick tuning forks in my ears during the 5th

Tuning forks in ears? Dusty.
Jimmy? Dusty? Nope.
Whew!
Jimmy? I knew Jimmy...

I was a friend of Jimmy… I worked with Jimmy in the Senate… Jimmy is no Dusty.

Untrue. Hurricanes are George Bush's fault.
Poor responses to Hurricanes? Bush. Cause of Hurricanes? Dusty.
Hurricane Dusty

YIKES!

Galveston would be no more.
or

it would have missed land

I don't know

I don’t think he’d reach hurricane status. Like, the Weather Channel would talk about the storm becomming Hurricane Dusty, but I don’t think it’d make it past tropical depression status.

it would miss land

since that would be clogging land, and we know his feelings about clogging

The best of all of 'em... Clutche? Dusty.
Win

Epic win.

Thank you. Donations accepted.
Yeah

if that post sounded like anything, it would sound like the horn used whenever the home team scores a goal in hockey.

the fog horn
Yes, this

For some reason I couldn’t think of the actual name for it.

Yeah for 6pm starts!
Seems like the first in a long time
Alright ya'll... catch ya a little later for the game. Take care and remember: Blame Dusty.
Wow...

In news I just picked up listening to Bill Simmons podcast, Joe Buck is going to have his own TV show, in which in addition to discussing sports, there will be “comedy” sketches that he will be acting in? This makes me want to sacrifice a chicken to Jobu to make sure he loses his voice, and never gets it back.

A *live* chicken
He MUST have pictures of someone

because he’s a godawful announcer. tv show… Is his sidekick hawk Harrelson?

Gilbert Gottfried
When I saw that he was getting his own show

made me happy I don’t have cable.

It makes me think, why is there only a Fire Joe Morgan website?

Why couldn’t Mose Schrute have a Fire Joe Buck website as well.

OT Comment

But does anyone know where I can get a Chicago Cubs BBQ grill cover?

Game starts meow?
Did you just

meow?

littering and....
Well then

I’ll just activate my specials car’s wings and fly away.

i'll believe that when me sh** turns purple and smells of rainbow sherbet
TW....

wait, what?

Bomb!
nice

and Congrats to Sori for taking sole posession of second place for all time lead off HRs

Thats why Sori doesn;t get a day off today
THAT'S

Why you don’t bench Sori this series!

I said earlier a sori leadoff homer will do!

donkey!

Three batters

three hard hit balls. I think they’re going to get a bundle tonight.

Make that

four hard hit balls.

Where is everyone ?

Slow thread.

It's an hour earlier than everyone thought?

Or they’re all waiting for a First Pitch Thread that’s not happening

Was briefly perplexed by that myself.
on a Japanese Player sidenote

Ichiro has a 25 game hit streak going

Dome says hello to his old roommate by trying to break his ankle
Anyone in the mood to do a quasi-play-by-play?

I’m at work for the next hour… just hits and outs would do

I'm also at work for the next hour or so

I’ve got this and the gamecast to keep me company.

FO6

Short LF – 2 out

Wells looks good

with a fast 1-2-3 inning.

FO7 NH

End 1, 1-0 Cubs

That is Alfonso Bleeping Soriano

And you will show him respect.

we should move him down in the line up

hey Worf!

Looks like Lou made the right choice

by not benching Sori…sorry this post is probably a little late just got here

What I miss??

been walking and feeding dogs…

Sori went deep

Wells had a nice 1-2-3- first inning

We gotta get

that kid his first win today!

well, if he would pitch better

i mean, an ERA of 1.80 and you want him to get wins? he should be better than that lol

i agree, he deserves a few wins by now

yeah, good call

who should really lower that by a point…

if he was better

he would ahve wins, with the 1.5 R per game in support

A FIVE PITCH INNING ?

Good lord . I went to check some e mail and it was over. Wow.

I went back on the DVR

to figure out what Kelly Johnson was up to. I should’ve waited for the commercial.

awesome aint it
Glad to see both Sori and Wells off to good starts so far tonight.
Nice

Chip Caray had his baby boy in the booth.

“Just like his grandfather, he likes a bottle late at night.”

I walk in a little late

Find there’s no game thread, Sori HR, good start for Wells
So what’s the score? Just 1-0?

LBR hits to 2nd

And throw is off. Safe at first -1 away

Font

with the four foot lead, and having to dive back into first

four feet

is like 10 steps for him isn’t it? :P

Slid for a coupla feet, too
So, this is the game thread?
C'mon Han Soto!!
JIMMY!

must keep the tradition

Geo Ks looking

LBR steals 2nd – 2 away

What are you yammering about?

My TV and Yahoo Sports says Soto walked

Settle down Klingon...
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!
That's a good movie.
The phrase you wanted there was..

“Whatchoo flapping yer gums about, Clutch?”

Nah, Work is opionated, but he certainly is no deadbeat, like Clutche...
spellcheck.........

is a good tool

Crappy Braves broadcast switched it up
NM - Geo walked

1st and 2nd – 1 out

Huh?

Gameday shows Geo walked

I think he drew the walk there...

that’s what gameday says.. and thought that’s what Pat said..

A few less DQ blizzards

And Soto scores!

Having my only info from GameCast and this thread

I had no idea what was going on for a good 15-30 seconds after reading this.

Chipper figured that the first baseman

needed some extra running drills, and throws it away, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 outs

Wells!!!!

Helping himself!!!!! I love it!!!

Love seeing a pitcher help his own cause.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the National League is the only league

The senior circuit...

The AL wasn’t even the first league to try to challenge the NL.

NOW that's how a pitcher gets an RBI

nice, easy inside-out swing!

Yes, I’m still bitter. Deal with it.

That was a good job by Randy...
Good job Randy!

First hit and RBI!

Cubs are succeeding!
Blanco hits to 3B

Stepped on the bag, but flung the ball to the dugout.

Wells knocks one in – 1st & 3rd, 2 outs, 2-0

Your are not having a good day at describing this game
On my damned phone

Anybody else wanna take it, feel free

No keep it up

Your ’mistakes" are always in the Cubs favor.

He's still heaps better than...

Judd!!

LOL -- Brenly

“Wells realized he wasn’t going to get a pitch he could drive out of the ballpark”

You know how you say “in bed” when you read a fortune cookie?

You could just add “Unlike Zambrano” to everything Brenly says.

we got this one
Paging...

MLB gameday audio?? Come in gameday audio????

anyone else just lose it?

Good morning

I missed the very first meeting of Dome and Kenshin, but it should be recorded somewhere on my HDD, and funny it’s a comebacker :-)

Good morning, Dragon!

How’s it going?

Sori FO8

Mid 2, 2-0 Cubs

McCann FO9
Verryyyyyyy long FO9
but a long out nonetheless
Anderson FO4
Kenshin lost his precise locations

there was good documentary film on NHK – he is using too many slow curve ball than he used to in Japan, and that makes his pitching form unbalanced…. and looks like it is continuing a bit….

Randy Wells = Keeper.
+1

How old is he?

27?
Not until August...he's 26
Plenty of good years ahead of him then

Hope he keeps it up. He sounds like a smart guy who understands what he needs to do

Wells seems to be pitching some fast innings

did he dip into the Maddux juice?

Hope there is a game to watch

when I get home in 45 min.

Me too

At least I’ll be able to tune in WGN on the drive home. At this rate it’ll be the 8th by the time I’m out of here in an hour!

8th inning on

lol

Prado FO8

End 2, 2-0 Cubs

Pitch counts through 2:

Wells: 15
Kawakami: 33

Riot FO3 in foul territory
Here's the meeting #2

Did they hide their grins in the first meeting?

i think all grins were gone

when Dome tried to take out the ankle with a line drive :-)

He knew

the curve is coming…. bad luck….

Is is just me...

or does Lee look slllllooooowwww on fastballs right. down. the. middle.

seems that has been a running theme

and I truly wish it would change

I can only assume he's getting fooled and expects more off-speed stuff...

2 pitches in that AB were GROOVED.

Lee FO2 in foul territory

Mid 3, 2-0 Cubs

Frenchy 3U
Nice play by Lee - where is Clutche?

Paying bills, no doubt . . . .

Lee still has the skillz with the glove.
Greg White Ks
Be careful on Kenshin's hitting skill

He blasted 8 HRs in 10 years with Dragons, a couple of good basehits Braves…

seems like a Theriot pace
He has 5 HR's this year doesn't he?

or is it 4?

Kawakami Ks

End 3, 2-0 Cubs

Wells has faced the minimum through 3

27 pitches through 3 innings

Positively Maddux-like

If you're going to emulate somebody

you could do a lot worse

Yeah...you could try and be like LeBron and not shake hands after a loss.
I think the correct protocol

is to shake hands like a man, and then go beat up the Gatorade machine.

That's how I was taught in Little League
Pitch counts after 3:

Kawakami: 45
Wells: 27

but nothing happening... :-)

We used to call him “the clean up hitter of Dragons”

So he was the Dragons' Zambrano?
MB

limping after hustling down the line trying to beat out the high chopper

Took a step and then started jogging normally

We’ll see

That sounds a little promising..
Does it look bad?

or some kind of minor thing??

Bradley 4-3

High hopper, throw barely beat him

Bradley come up limping after trying to beat out a throw.
Over-under is 10 days
#$%$#^&@!!!

is MB hurt??

He went straight to the clubhouse.
Bladly twisted his ankle...

with the bag…

oops, Bradley....
I thought it

looked like it was his groin again. I didn’t see an ankle.

Looked like it happened before the bag...

I suspect a calf strain.

Went right into the Clubhouse
DL, Milton Bradley...Milton Bradley, DL....oh I see you two already know each other.
having MB is great

So much better than Ibanez or Dunn. What’s the point of this guy – can’t even hustle out one ball hard without breaking down.

Calm down, he fells wanted here remember? He'll play through stuff he normally wouldn't now that he has the re$pect he de$erve$.
I $ee what you did there...
$o $neaky by $WL
And a new $tart?
He can be...

Such a good hitter, dangerous and patient… if only he was durable.

Even a hustle-play without injury could lead to ejections

He’s got a variety of ways to leave a game

Pumps some sunshine

your way…

Cheer up, mate! We can still make the playoffs.. :)

That's his weapon

Kenshin’s precise location of fastball and cutter, but he lost it….

Of the last 6 batters...only Dome has hit the ball out of the infield.
Is there a ball magnet in the 3B glove only when Soto is up?

I swear 90% of his outs are weak choppers to 3B

Not true

He also hits plenty of comebackers and strikes out . . .

is he hitting his weight?
Ok Milton...

its time to be a man. Stay in the game. You didn’t tear your leg off. Rub some dirt on it and get out there.

eh, reed johnson's a better hitter this year anyway

no big loss

MB watching the rest of the game

Reed to CF and Fukudome to RF

Release Gregg NOW!

Unconditional and outright. This guy doesn’t deserve to wear a Cub uniform.

Why do the Cubs hate Wells so?

Cubs are the only team in the World that can lose a game after recording 3 outs in the bottom of the 9th and being up 5-3. Ok, maybe not the only, but they really had to collectively try to lose that game. It took a real team effort.

Think about that one for a while.

Some other facts to ponder after tonight’s game:

Cubs were throwing a no-hitter through 6 and 2/3 innings and LOST!

Cubs were leading 5-0 in the bottom of the 8th and LOST!

From the 8th inning on the Cubs had an error at 1st (that would have been an out), hit a batter, through 4 consecutive balls, and a passed ball on strike 3 (that put the tying runner on 1st)

Then my favorite part, as everyone in North America knows with utter certainty that the Cubs will loose, but they then need to rip the scab off and rub a sliced lemon it it as they push you down the stairs, so they make the game go on until the bottom of the 12th inning!!

Cut, and then take camera 2 as we watch Fukudome walk in the dugout with the expression of, ‘Why the Hell am I on this team?"

Priceless. I am not jumping off any ledges, but I am putting a bookmark on this one. We are passed the, "Too small a sample size", passed the beginning of the season, passed, we need Aramis, passed, "You need to pin this one on Lou".

This team fell down on National Television. They should be embarrased. They did not get beat by Atlanta, they just gave it away. They had the pitching, they had enough hitting. It is only one game, but I would argue it may prove to be a very telling game of the 2009 Cubs.

I know return from the ledge to allow you all to enjoy the rest of the evening.

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