This was a great win for the Cubs. It was without doubt the best defensive
game the Cubs played all year. It was also a gutty performance as three players
played at less than 100%. Tom Barnes pitched a wondeful 7 innings with what turned out
to be pneumonia. Chris Greig caught for eight innings on a hot day when he was
feeling miserable. Bob Zeleznik played his first game of the season with a bad
right foot. This was a win to build on for the Cubs.
As mentioned earlier, Tom Barnes pitched the first seven innings of the game.
He allowed just 5 hits and two earned runs in picking up his third victory of
the season. Andy Schultz pitched his best ball of the season going the last two
innings without letting up a hit or run! Andy also struck out 3 of the six outs
he recorded.
Defensively the Cubs shined, especially the middle infielders. Tom Jette played
a whale of a game at second base with 4 assists and 4 putouts. Dennis Fontecchio
was practically perfect at short. He had 7 assists and 3 putouts! The key out
of the game came in the sixth inning. The Cubs were nursing an 8-3 lead and
the Mariners had loaded the bases. The Mariners second hitter was up with a full
count. Tom made a great 3-2 pitch forcing the batter to hit a soft liner into
shallow left that Dennis made a nice play on. If that ball had dropped with the
runners moving on the pitch at least two runs would have scored.
Offensively, the Cubs broke open the game with a six run second inning. The
Cubs were aided by two bases loaded walks that inning and a two run single by
Tom Jette and an RBI single by Eddie Murray. Tony Leary had an interesting sixth
inning. He led off the inning with an out, but found himself immediately at first
base after a Bob Zeleznik single. Since Bob was using a courtesy runner for the
game, Package was inserted. He stole second and third on consecutive pitches. Mark
Grogan then lofted a medium depth fly to center field. Package raced for home
on the play and easily beat the throw giving Mark an RBI and a sac fly! The Cubs
offense was paced by Eddie, Bob and Mark who all went 2-3 on the day. Andy
Schultz has started to heat up at the plate for the Cubs as he hit a couple
liners today. A good sign for the Cubs was that they walked as many times
as they struck out in this game.