Sun 07/08/2001
The Cubs played their 100th regular season game against the Phillies on 7/8/2001. This is possibly one
of the best comeback wins in Cubbie franchise history, overcoming a 10-2 deficit after 5 innings!
Oh what a day! The Cubs played the 100th regular season game in their history and turned in one of
the greatest comebacks in team history! Trailing 10-2 after 5 innings, the Cubs scored once in the
sixth, six times in the seventh and once in the ninth to tie the game. The Cubs went on to win with
a run in the tenth with no one out!
Helping make the victory so sweet was that the Cubs beat the National League leading Phillies while
missing its number 3 and 4 hitters and several other key performers. Eddie Murray is out after having
successful rotator cuff surgery on 7/5. Eddie will be out for a good part of the remainder of the
season. Earl Carpenter was also out on vacation. The Cubs started the day with 10 players and finished
with 9 when Chris Greig had to leave after pulling a rib cage muscle in the sixth inning. Despite all the
adversity, the revamped lineup played with a ton of Cubbie pride to steal a win!
Andy Schultz has been having an incredible year pitching and turned in a masterpiece today. Andy pitched
5 innings of 1 hit shutout relief that allowed the Cubs to mount the comeback. Andy picked up his
second win in two weeks. In three of his five innings, Andy only faced three batters and he never faced
more than 5 in any inning! The one batter to get a hit off Andy was erased on a double play.
Although the Cubs defense had a couple questionable moments, there were some nice plays made. Dennis
Fontecchio and Tim Shaver combined to turn 2 6-4-3 double plays including one in the top of the tenth.
We've turned 8 double plays in our last three games: 3 against the Orioles, 3 against the Brewers and
2 more today! Mark Kujawski made his first start at third and had a great game. Paul Sonnett continues
to impress behind the plate. Very few balls get by him. When the opposing team allows 4 runs to score
on wild pitches/passed balls, the importance of a good cather becomes even more obvious! Paul also played
right field for a couple innings and made one nice catch going back a long way to track a ball down. Tom
Barnes made a nice play at first on a slow roller diving to the bag to just beat the Phillie runner for the
out. With a Phillie at third and two outs in the top of the eighth, Rich Schwarz made a diving catch in
shallow center to keep the Cub deficit at one run.
Tom Barnes had a perfect day at the plate going 4-4 with a walk and 4 runs scored (actually Tom had
courtesy/pinch runners each time that scored on his behalf). Dan Gould was a complete mad man on the
bases. His speed contributed to at least three runs. He scored the game tying run in the ninth inning while
pinch running for Tom who had singled. Dan immediately stole second. Paul Sonnett followed with a hard
ground ball up the middle (Paul also had a run scoring double to the wall in left in the second inning) that
the second baseman should have stopped but it went off his glove and trickled a few feet behind him. Dan,
running hard as soon as the ball was hit managed to score all the way from second on the play totally
surprising the entire Phillies team. The ball never even reached the outfield! Dennis Fontecchio followed
Paul's single with a great sacrifice bunt. After a wild pitch and a strike out, Paul was at third with
two outs representing the game winning run. Kujo had a great at bat earning a walk and the Phillies gave
him second base when the first pitch to Andy Schultz came from the full wind up. Andy had a chance to win
it in the bottom of the ninth with two strikes. Andy hit a hard one hopper down the first base line that
the Phillie first baseman bobbled but recovered in time to beat Andy to the bag. We had two great at bats
at the end of the ninth inning. The game was won in the tenth when Dan reached on an error by the shortstop
and stole second on the next pitch. Rich Schwarz (4-6 with a double) followed with a two strike single to
shallow center to score Dan with the winning run. The seventh inning was huge for the Cubs when they
plated 6 runs. Kujo led off by reaching on an error by the shortstop. After a smashed line drive to center
by Andy Schultz was caught, Dan and Rich singled to load the bases. Tim Shaver followed with a clutch 2
run double. A wild pitch allowed Rich to score and moved Tim to third. Tom Barnes delivered an RBI single
for the fourth run of the inning. Dan ran for Tom and stole second. After the second out was recorded,
Dennis Fontecchio reached on an error by the third baseman which scored Dan and put Dennis on second. Two
wild pitches later and Dennis was home with the last run of the inning.
As a somewhat interesting note, The Cubs first game back in 1996 was also against the Phillies. That game
was a blowout win for the Cubs though, not nearly as exciting as the 100th game!