Chicago Cubs @ Washington Nationals Game Thread 7/5/07

Thu., July 5 @ 6:05 p.m. CT TV: CSN Radio: WGN 720


The Cubs look to win the series tonight as they take on the Washington Nationals again tonight from RFK Stadium.

Tonight's Pitchers:
Sean Marshall 4-3, 3.50 ERA

Sean Marshall was great following his call-up in April/May but last week, he gave up a ton of runs to the Brewers in that Saturday rout. Sean needs to get back on track as the Cubs need this win. A win would give the Cubs a big 3 out of 4 against the Nationals.

VS
Jason Bergmann 1-5, 3.47 ERA

Don't let his record fool you. Just pan over to his ERA and you will see Jason has done good this year despite a lack of offense. This could be another dangerous trap game for the Cubs and they should not look past Bergmann.

Chicago Cubs VS Jason Bergmann

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Washington Nationals VS Sean Marshall

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Prediction: Cubs 5 Nationals 1

Go Cubs!

Capital Unkind

Nationals:6
Cubs:0
What an awful day for the Cubs. They just couldn't get their bats going against Nationals rookie pitcher Matt Chico. The Cubs only put together an amazing 5 hits in this ballgame against the southpaw. Ryan Zimmerman led off the game with a homer and the Nats never looked back. The Nationals put up 5 runs in the 5th including a grand slam by the Nationals only all-star Dmitri Young. With that grand slam by Young it ties his home run total for all of last year (7). An interesting stat I came across in another forum during this game: 4-45 for catchers since Barrett was traded now. 1-23 from Bowen alone, and 3-22 for Hill. Our catchers just are not hitting the baseball and are basically an automatic out every time they come to the plate. My first Cubs stud of the day is going to be a hard choice since noone got more than 1 hit in this game. My stud of the day is going to have to be Ryan Theriot with the double late in the ballgame. My dud of the day is Rich Hill who gave up 6 runs. Another dud of the day should go to Lou Pinella for intentionally walking Ryan Zimmerman in front of Dmitri Young who eventually hit that grand slam. Bob Brenly said that Zimmerman had hit into more double plays than Young during the season so they should have tested Zimmerman.

One player to note in this bad loss is Billy Petrick who threw one shutout inning. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite bullpen pitchers and I liked him since he first debuted. He has an ERA of 3.18 so far this season which is 3.00 lower than Eyre's ERA.

Next Up: Tomorrow at 6:05 central time on Comcast SportsNet from RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. Sean Marshall (4-3, 3.50 ERA) will take on Jason Bergmann (1-5, 3.47 ERA) Hopefully we can bounce back and get a win.

Youtube Video of the Day:
I promised you all another Youtube Video of the Day so here it is:

Chicago Cubs @ Washington Nationals Game Thread 7/4/07

Happy 4th of July Cubs Nation!

TV: WGN
Radio: WGN 720
11:05 Central Start Time

Pitchers:
Rich Hill 5-5 3.49 ERA


Rich Hill gave up 5 runs in the first inning of Friday's Cubs/Brewers game but the Cubs bailed him up scoring 6 unanswered runs capped off by the 2 run walk-off homer by Aramis Rameriz to give the Cubs the big victory. Rich started off the season so well but has struggled since. Hopefully he gets his act together today.

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Matt Chico 3-5, 4.74 ERA

Matt Chico hasn't done a bad job this year but lack of run support by the Nationals has hurt his winning percentage. His 4.74 ERA isn't very high compared to some past pitchers the Cubs have faced this year. Not one Cub has ever faced Matt Chico so that is why there is no chart below. The fact that Chico is new for our guys could be an advantage for the Nationals.

Prediction:
Cubs 4 Nationals 3

Go Cubs!

Welcome to Cub Nation!

Welcome to Cub Nation. I am your official admin Jeff and we are going to talk Cubs all year long here. Currently the Cubs are 42-40 and 5.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for first in the NL Central. The Cubs have won 10 of their last 11 games and went on a 7 game win streak up to Saturday and are now on another 3 game win streak. Here at Cub Nation at www.ryantheriot.blogspot.com I will post game recaps, game previews, Youtube clips, and other Cubs news as well as news on the Bears and Bulls when Cubs season is over. So join us here as we are just getting under way.

Youtube Clip Of The Day: