Hey, the Cubs will take it, without question. A 5-4 extra inning win over the Cardinals is sweet however you slice it. A win is a win is a win. So three guys got caught stealing. So Todd Walker went 0-7 while sending in the tying run in the ninth on a Scott Rolen error and hitting in the go ahead run on a groundout in the top of the fourteenth. If Walk's going to go 0-7, that's the way to do it, I suppose.
And the Cubs need the win, as we are all much too painfully aware.
Sean Marshall had another good start, going 6.1 IP, allowing two ER on eight hits and striking out four. He's lowered his ERA to 4.80 on the season, which isn't great, but take away two of his 11 starts (his May 11th 9 run loss at SF, and his May 22nd 7 run defeat to the Marlins) and he'd be looking at a 2.72 ERA. Yeah, yeah, if it's and buts were candy and nuts, blah, blah, blah. But it's encouraging for the 6'7" young lefty, and for this writer, nonetheless.
Bob Howry didn't help matters much, though, allowing his inherited runner, Timo Perez, to score and count for Sean's second ER on the day (which tied the game), and also allowed Hector Luna to score on his record (which gave up the lead), both on a Scott Rolen double to left. He did get Juan Encarnacion to ground out, 5-3, however, to strand Albert Pujols at third, preventing any further damage.
Scott Williamson then came in and allowed two straight singles and a sac fly in the eighth to make it a two run deficit, before Rolen's two run error (only his fifth on the season) on Todd Walker's grounder to third. Thanks, Scott. The Cubs definitely needed that one.
Good news followed, not only on Todd's 14th inning RBI, but also that Will Ohman, Roberto Novoa, David Aardsma, Scott Eyre and Ryan Dempster all combined to keep the Cards from scoring anymore runs on the day. Nice. Scott went 2.0 IP and Ryan went 2.1, so that's a lot of good work from the pen. However, the Cubs now need Glendon Rusch to go deep in this afternoon's game to let the pen have some rest. Yikes.
So, the Cards might just even up the three game series today, sending Mark Mulder up against Rusch. But, ya never know. Mulder is 5-3 on the season, but his ERA is 4.52 and he's coming off a eight run, three homer outing vs. the Padres on May 28th. Hopefully, he hasn't regained his form yet. But this is Mark Mulder (and his 2.63 GO/AO) we're talking about here. We'll find out on Fox soon enough.
I won't get into the mistakes Dusty made in the game, taking runners out of the game on several occasions. I must be in a nice mood or something. I'm just going to hope that the Cubbies aren't too worn out to score some more runs this afternoon. Can you expect Juan Pierre, Michael Barrett, Jacque Jones and Ronny Cedeno to get three hits every day? Don't we wish.
I think they might need it with Rusch on the mound. I might be grabbing the remote by the third. The thought of Glendon trying to get Pujols out makes me cringe.