Yesterday Forgotten

What a difference a day makes. The Cubs looked very good today pounding the Kansas City Royals 9-1, with 8,987 in attendance. Mike Fontenot set the tone from the first Royals batter as he made an acrobatic leaping grab of a soft liner hit by Mitch Maier. Fontenot continued his focus on the offensive side as he had a very good at bat in the first inning, fouling off what had to be at least a half dozen pitches before drawing a base on balls. He would then use his speed and hustle to score from 1st on a Derrek Lee double. The Cubs never looked back.

The Cubs’ timely hitting included an Alfonso Soriano HR which was as high as it was long, as well as a Fontenot solo shot in the 7th. Joey Gathright playing the whole game in centerfield scored three of the Cubs runs. Micah Hoffpauir and Paul Bako each had two hits, as did Fontenot who had a double to go along with his HR.

The Cubs pitching looked outstanding the whole game, allowing the Royals only 4 singles. Chad Gaudin got the start and threw 2 quality scoreless innings. Jeff Samardzija followed with 3 innings of work allowing the lone run after a couple hits and a wild pitch. Samardzija was consistently hitting the mid-90’s on his fastball, and I saw one that was clocked at 98mph. Kevin Gregg, Jason Waddell, Esmailin Caridad, and Randy Wells each tossed a scoreless inning.

For old times sake Kyle Farnsworth came in for the 9th, this time for the Royals and got roughed up by the Cubs allowing 3 runs on 3 hits and a base on balls. Fanrsworth appears to be picking up tattoos for every new team he plays with, the Royals being team 4 since leaving the Cubs.

Aaron Miles dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt in the 2nd, advancing Micah Hoffpauir. Miles is versatile and does the little things well. Tim Kurkjian from ESPN was in attendance as well as a MLB Advanced Media film crew. Cubs color commentator Bob Brenly also looked on from the pressbox. The weather has been a little odd the last few days, highs in the upper 60’s today we had a lot of cloud cover with occasional sun. The Cubs will travel to play the Mariners tomorrow and then have Wednesday off before playing the WBC team Japan on Thursday at Hohokam.