Sun 04/29/2001
The Cubs won a thriller 5-4 over the Braves. Eddie Murray drove in
three runs including the game winner with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the
bottom of the eighth.
The Cubs won their second consecutive season opener in thrilling fashion! The Cubs broke up a 4-4 tie
in the bottom of the eighth. Paul Sonnett started off the inning with an infield single and advanced to
second on a passed ball. After two outs were made, Dan Gould pinch ran for Paul who was still at second
base. Eddie Murray came up and had an amazing at bat. He got to two strikes and fouled off several
pitches before depositing a single into center field to score the winning run!
It was a very impressive start to the 2001 campaign for the Cubs. Tom Barnes pitched the first 5 innings
and gave up 1 hit and no runs. Of course, an appeal play at third helped. There was a Brave at second
with two outs and a double was hit. The runner easily scored but apparently missed third. Tom and the
umpire noticed. The appeal play was successful! Andy Schultz pitched two innings and gave up the Braves
runs but it was still a decent outing for the first one of the season. Earl Carpenter pitched the last two
innings and was dominant. Earl picked up the win.
The most impressive aspect of this game was the defense for the Cubs. There were so many great plays
made in this one game. Bruce Sher made a great over the shoulder catch while playing first base. Two
innings later, Tim Shaver made another great over the shoulder catch. Eddie had a monster offensive day
and also made some nice catches in right. Dennis Fontecchio snared an absolute rocket at third. Earl
Carpenter made two nice plays at short in one inning. The best
surprise of the day however, had to be the tremendous job Paul Sonnett did behind the plate. Paul was rock
solid back there stopping several pitches in the dirt.
The Cubs collected 5 runs and 7 hits in the game. Amazingly, the 7 hits came from just 4 players! Six of the
Cub players were held hitless in the game. Another positive sign for the Cubs was that all 5 runs were
scored with two men out! Eddie Murray was huge collecting 3 RBIs and scoring 2 runs
(actually Eddie had a courtesy runner for the game so his runners scored). Eddie had 2 singles and a walk.
The two rookies, Bruce Sher and Paul Sonnett, had outstanding defensive and offensive debuts. Each went
2-3 with 2 singles and 1 run scored. The only other hit was a triple which Earl crushed to center field
in the first inning. Dan Gould was used as a pinch runner a couple times and created all sorts of havoc.
He was used as a courtesy runner for Eddie in the third inning after Eddie had singled home Bruce Sher and
Tim Shaver (Tim had walked). Dan stole second and advanced to third on the wild throw from the catcher.
Dan then scored two pitches later on a wild pitch!
Today was a great win Cubbies!! Now we 17 more regular season games to compete in!