Cubs win in bottom of the 9th

Sorry about the lateness of this blog, but I stopped off at Sluggo’s Sports bar, formerly Harry & Steve’s after the game. The place was jam-packed with Cubs fans, including former Cubs pitcher Lee Smith, and family.

As I mentioned yesterday, Soriano might be hitting in the 2 spot on Friday, that was moved up a day as he was #2 in the lineup today. This is the time for Lou to experiment in changing the lineup around, before we get to the regular season. Fukudome hit in the #5 spot today.

The game turned out to have an exciting finish, as Alex Cintron pinch hitting with bases loaded and 2-2 tie in the bottom of the ninth delivered a base hit to right field to give the Cubs a 3-2 victory over the Padres. Cintron may have just done enough to make the Cubs final roster, as he has shown versatility in the infield. 75 degrees and sunny at first pitch, as a packed house of 12,809 enjoyed the Cubs win.

Fukudome makes the catch.
(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

The game was full of outstanding defensive plays, most notable of those from the Cubs- Kosuke Fukudome’s phenomenal leaping, twisting grab against the right center field fence in the 1st inning. Sam Fuld also had an incredible catch of Paul McAnulty drive to left center, banging hard against the wall while holding onto the ball.

Not much exciting with the Cubs bats today, outside of the Cintron game-winner. Mark DeRosa is starting to get into the swing of things going 2 for 3 today, with a double and a walk. Ryan Theriot was 2 for 4 with a stolen base.

Former Cub Greg Maddux was supposed to pitch longer, but was hit in the leg by Derrek Lee grounder, and left after 2 innings. Jason Marquis is making his case for a spot in the rotation, pitching 4 scoreless innings. He allowed 2 hits, walked 2, and 2 K’s. Carlos Marmol did it again, pitching in the 9th, getting himself into trouble, allowing a hit, 2 bases on balls, but wiggling out of it unscathed. I’m not sure about this pattern Marmol has gotten into this spring, but he’s got some nasty stuff and it didn’t look like he was getting the calls from the umpire today.

Dome has extra base hit taken away by Padres Cedric Hunter.
(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

It’s funny that these spring training games technically don’t mean much in the big scheme, you wouldn’t know that by the fans’ raucous Cubs chants in the bottom of the 9th, before the winning run. Cubs will take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tomorrow at Hohokam and Ryan Dempster will make his 4th spring start.