Sun 07/09/2000
The Cubs destroyed the second place Braves 15-3 for their fourth straight win.
The Cubs played their best game of the year playing nearly flawless defense
and pounding out 24 hits.
The Cubs are on a major roll right now. The defense has been getting progressively
better each week. This week the defense was nearly flawless. The pitching was
superb. The offense was, well let's just say SICK! Twenty four hits in just
8 innings is pretty amazing!
Tom Barnes pitched eight innings allowing just 2 earned runs. Tom struck out
7 Braves batters. He also picked off another two runners. Tom is picking off
an incredible number of runners this season. He also picked off another runner
at first but that runner got to second before the throw from first. Dan Gould
pitched a scoreless ninth. Dan had a real good hook working for him.
Defensively, no outstanding plays were made. There was a double play thanks to
some bad Braves baserunning when a line drive to center field was caught and thrown
to second to catch the runner off the bag. Pete DiNatale played a solid game at
short. Earl caught and played short for the Cubbies. Andy Luckhardt made his
first start of the season and did a nice job at first. Tom Barnes ended this
game in the exact same way he ended the Orioles game. Tom was playing first and there was a
runner at second with two outs. The batter hits a ball to short and there is an errant
throw to first. Tom gets the baserunner from second to over run third base and catch
the runner in a run down. Both times the runner is caught and the game ends!
The Cubs amassed 24 hits with 22 singles. There were 5 players with 3
hits and another 4 with 2 hits. Pete DiNatale was 3-4 with a triple, 4 runs scored and
3 RBIs. Mark Grogan went 3-4 to raise his amazing season average to .600! Earl
Carpenter collected 3 hits and 3 RBIs. Tom Barnes had 3 hits and 2 RBIs while
Eddie Murray had 2 hits and 3 RBIs. Dan Gould had three hits and 3 runs scored.
Dan used his awesome speed to get things going for the Cubs in the first inning
when he scored from third on a very shallow sac fly. If Dan had been out the Cubs
would have been pretty much out of the first inning without any runs. Instead the
Cubs went on to score 2 runs in the inning. The biggest inning was the fourth.
The Cubs broke open a 2-2 tie with an 8 run outburst. Dennis Fontecchio had an RBI
single to get the inning going. However, the crucial hit was a two out 2 run single
by Tom Jette. That hit drove in the second and third runs of the inning. After that
the floodgates opened. Andy Luckhardt walked, then a Gould double, DiNatale triple,
Murray walk, Carpenter single and Barnes single made this an 8 run inning! The Cubs
also scored 4 runs in the eighth when the first seven batters reached base, six were
by singles and 1 by walk.