Recap: Cubs at Astros, 5/20/08

A single baseball game can pretty easily become a microcosm of a player's or team's season, reflecting what's good or bad, done well or poorly. Tonight had the feel of a microcosm game, as Ryan Dempster illustrated all the reasons why Cub fans should be less than comfortable with him playing an important role on our pitching staff.

It's not that Dempster's performance -- 2 BB, 5 Ks, and 4 Earned Runs in six innings of work -- was all that lousy. Take away Hunter Pence's grand slam swing in the bottom of the fourth and maybe he gets out of that inning with only a run or two given up. But Dempster had almost no control tonight, yielding only two walks (to Carlos Lee and Geoff Blum in the fourth, just before Pence's grand slam homer), but falling behind batter after batter and being generally inefficient with his pitches -- as illustrated by 109 heaves in a mere six innings. He actually pitched pretty well, given how often he was working from behind in the count.

On the opposite spectrum of mediocrity, Chris Sampson made efficient use of his less-than-overpowering stuff, giving up only two Earned Runs and 1 BB with 4 Ks in 6 2/3 IP. Sampson threw only 83 pitches despite getting 2 more outs than Dempster, and never seemed to get himself in too much trouble; the Cubs got their only two runs on a blast from Aramis Ramirez in the 4th with Derrek Lee on first. No Cubs baserunner got past second after that, their best chance coming with 2-outs in the seventh, when Mark DeRosa singled and Sampson walked pinch-hitter Micah Hoffpauir to bring Soriano to the plate. That ended Sampson's night as Doug Brocail came in to strike out Sori and end the threat.

Jose Ascanio made his first appearance of the season, an adventurous-but-ultimately-scoreless two innings that featured two walks and a strikeout. Ascanio is billed as a flamethrower, his fastball supposedly hitting the high nineties. I might have missed it in a momentary lapse of focus, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see any pitch faster than 95mph on WGN's radar gun. Regardless, he's going to have to throw more strikes if he wants to keep a job in Lou's bullpen. (then again, I suppose nothing's certain in a bullpen that can employ Chad Fox. Alas, I digress).

More than anything, though, I think this just gets chalked up to the law of averages. Like the loss against the pirates last week, sometimes a good team just gets beat by an inferior team. We don't know anything now that we didn't know before today: Ryan Dempster needs to throw more strikes, and the Astros have solid home run power in the heart of their lineup. Tomorrow it's solid youngster Sean Gallagher against professional journeyman Shawn Chacon. Let's hope for a laugher to give Carlos Marmol a much-needed three days off.

More notes from tonights game:

- Jim Edmonds watch: Jimmy E. went 0 for 3 with a walk tonight, grounding into a double play to clear the bases for Mark DeRosa and Micah Hoffpauir (who, as mentioned earlier, would single and walk, respectively). Now, I'm not saying that if DeRosa is in the 7 hole instead of Edmonds we score some runs in that inning. I am saying that Jim Edmonds is washed up and should not be on our team. As Colin at Goat Riders of the Apocalypse points out, Ted Lily is our second-most productive left-handed bat. I don't know much, but I do know this: Give him a starting job, and Felix Pie will outhit Ted Lilly.

- Also worth noting: Edmonds, supposed defensive whiz, put a ball in the dirt trying to throw out Miguel Tejada at third after Tejada tagged up on a sac fly in the fourth. Len and Bob were apologetic, claiming bad luck as the reason why the throw bounced in the dirt behind a slow-moving Tejada, about 3 or 4 paces in front of a desperately stretching Aramis Ramirez. I think it had more to do with the fact that Edmonds couldn't make a throw to third from shallow center field. I don't know much, but I do know this: Felix Pie throws out Tejada on that play.

- For a former (and brief) RoY candidate, Hunter Pence's .325 OBP is pretty bad.

- ...It's ever-so-slightly less bad than the Astros .323 team OBP. The team's only respectable OBPs belong to Lance Berkman, getting on at a Bondslike .467 clip, Miguel Tejada (.372), and -- strangely enough -- Captain Ruptured Anus himself, Kazuo Matsui (.386)! I'm not sure Tejada's even counts, though, because that respectable OBP is inflated by a thoroughly unsustainable .342 batting average. Combined with their pitching, I give it a month before the Astros are out of it completely.

- Derrek Lee really doesn't want a day off. I mentioned yesterday that he seemed to have turned a corner about midway through the game, where he started having better At-Bats and seeing more pitches. Well, today he broke out of his slump, going 3 for 4 with a run scored. Please Lou, don't give him a day off to play Hoffpowerless.