On a beautiful afternoon/evening at the A-Diamond in Schenectady, the Cubs and Whiz Kids got together for their final regular season meeting.
The game was a near replay of the game played just a week ago, when the Cubs beat the Whiz with timely hitting; sound defense, and a dominant performance on the mound from Chris Dunn. Dunn again was terrific. He scattered 8 hits, no walks, and 1 HBP, while striking out 3, in his 7 innings of work. The Whiz were able to plate 4 runs (3 earned), but that just was not enough as the Cubs pounded out 16 hits in pushing 9 runs across the plate, in an important 9-4 victory. The win puts the Cubs just 1 win away from clinching the #1 seed for the playoffs, with 2 games to play.
The Cubs jumped out to a 3-0 lead, in the top of the second inning. Andy Hoyle started the inning with a solid single. Ron Massaroni was hit by a pitch, and Alex Marin followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving both runners into scoring position. Jim Bonaparte hit a slow roller off the end of his bat to the right side, and the only play was to first base, scoring Hoyle with the games first run. With two outs and a runner on 3rd, Jim McQuade singled and John Coulombe hit a towering shot over the right fielder's head, and the lead was 3-0.
The Whiz got back to within 1 run in the bottom of the 3rd inning. They grouped 3 of their 6 hits on the night, in this inning. Paul Scuteri singled and stole second. After a Dunn strike out, Greg Mangione hit a RBI single to right, and Jan Friedman doubled to put runners on second and third, with just one out. Dunn induced Jeff Friedman to ground out to short, scoring Mangione, and then induced another grounder to short to end the inning, clinging to a 3-2 lead. The game was kept at 3-2 in large part because Cub's catcher, Jerry Rosen, threw out Doug Reisinger trying to steal, after he led off the 4th with a single. That OTS deflated the Whiz's rally in the 4th, and kept the Cubs ahead 3-2.
The score remained 3-2 until the top of the 5th inning, when the Cubs produced 5 runs on 7 hits. Jim McQuade got things going with a lead off double. One out later, Carlos Espada singled him to third, and stole second. Dunn followed with a bloop single down the left field line, plating 2 runs. Mike Girard singled and Dunn moved to second. A fielders choice got the Whiz their second out of the inning, but Rosen, Hoyle, and Ron Massaroni had consecutive singles plating 3 more runs. The Cubs left the top of the 5th feeling pretty good with an 8-2 lead, and Dunn dealing on the mound.
The Whiz would get one run in the bottom of the 5th. Jim Hicks led off with a single and Scuteri reached on an error that moved Hicks to 3rd with nobody out. Dunn then made a move to first, catching Scuteri leaving too early. The ensuing rundown plated the run, but got the Cubs their first out of the inning, and erased a runner. Dunn got out of the rest of the inning without incident with a 8-3 lead.
Both teams would plate one run in the 7th to make the final score 9-4. The win was the third against one loss for the Cubs in the season series between these two teams at the top of the standings. The Cubs can clinch the number one seed and the regular season title with a win either Thursday night vs the Yankees or next Tuesday night vs the Dodgers.
However, the regular season title is not what either team sees as important. The number one seed entering the playoffs makes the road a little easier, but these two teams will only be happy if they are hoisting the trophy when the the final playoff game is over. The Playoffs start for both teams on Wednesday 09/25, when the semi-finals begin, as they have both clinched byes to the semi-final round. Nothing has yet been decided!
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Wednesday 11th of September 2024 09:52:29 AM
