It was one swing of the bat that decided last night's battle for first place between the Whiz Kids and the Cubs. It was a mighty blow struck by first year Cubbie, Mike Reutter. Mike led off the bottom of the 5th inning and smoked a pitch well over the left field fence to provide the Cubs with their only run of the game. The good news for the Cubs was that the Whiz Kids were unable to put any runs on the board. Pitching and defense was the name of the game in this contest.
The Whiz were up first and loaded the bases with two outs. Cubs' starter, Mike Girard, wriggled off the hook by getting a routine fly ball to left to end the inning. The Whiz were at it again in the second putting runners on first and third with two outs, but a pop pout to short ended that inning, with goose eggs still on the board. Meanwhile, Whiz ace (Mike Kane) breezed through the first 2 innings, facing the minimum 6 batters.
In the 3rd, the Whiz got the lead-off runner on when Greg Mangione reached on an error. He was erased when trying to steal second on a perfect throw by Cubs' catcher Jerry Rosen. That would be huge as Bob Bolt followed with his second single of the game, and that surely would have scored Mangione from second. Girard then got Joey Burns to line into a double play to end the inning. The Cubs would get their first runner into scoring position in the bottom of the 3rd, on consecutive singles by Andy Hoyle and Dave Mitchell. Both runners moved up on a perfect sac bunt by Ron Massaroni. Mike Kane escaped the jam by inducing a grounder to third on a drawn in infield and a comebacker to the mound. Mike gets more comebackers to the mound than any pitcher I have ever shared the field with, and he is one of the best fielder of the 1-spot that have ever played in this league.
Both teams got runners to into scoring position a in the 4th inning, but the Cubs got out of their jam on a nice play by Dave Schillinger at second on a soft liner that he turned into a double play. The Cubs wasted a two out double by Jerry Rosen in the bottom half of the inning, when Kane got a very dangerous Ron Lochner to pop out to short to end the threat.
Girard got through his half of the 5th with his first 1-2-3 inning. That is when the lightning struck. Mike Reutter led off the 5th with a bomb to left that was a no doubter, as soon as it left the bat. No outfielders even gave chase, as they just turned and watched it disappear into the trees in left center. The Cubs had the lead at 1-0.
Mike Kane shut of the rally there as he got through the rest of the 5th and the 6th without incident. Now it was up to Girard and the Cubs defense to make that one run stand up. That is exactly what they did as Girard got the bottom of the Whiz order in the bottom of the 6th, and pitched around a Shawn Martin two out single in the 7th to secure the victory.
Girard ended up with the win, hurling a complete game shutout, scattering 7 singles and 1 hit batter, while striking out 2. Mike Kane was the hard luck loser in this one pitching superbly, throwing 6 innings, giving up just 5 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 1. A red hot Andy Hoyle had two hits to add to Rosen's double and Reutter's blast. Bob Bolt led the way for the Whiz with two hits.
The win puts the Cubs in good position to win the regular season and earn the top seed for the upcoming playoffs. All they need to do to win the regular season is win tonight vs the Giants, in their regular season finale. If the Cubs should lose that game, the Damn Yankees vs Whiz game will decide the top spot, and the Cubs would slide to # 2. With a win in the finale, the Cubs would get the top spot and the Yanks vs Whiz game would decide the 2nd and 3rd seeds. It should be fun to watch.
