With all of the rainouts and heat index cancellations over the past few weeks, the Giants and Cubs agreed to try to get Tuesday's cancelled game played on Thursday. There was rain on an off all day, so getting the game in was no sure thing. We agreed to use the 13+ field at the Rotterdam Babe Ruth complex. When players were arriving, the hot topic was the appearance that the outfield fences were awfully close. Under further inspection, it turned out that the dimensions were very similar to Kuhn Field (Cook Park) except for an area in right center that was a little shorter. With both teams having a couple of lefty hitters with pop, the over/under for HR's in the game was set at 4. Spoiler Alert: There were exactly zero home runs in the game. Much ado about nothing.
The teams had a second challenge for the game: NO UMPIRES SHOWED UP! We agreed to have the catchers call the balls and strikes, and the base coaches would make all calls on the bases. They all did a great job. There were very few complaints from either side. Great sportsmanship was shown by both sides.
As for the game: The Cubs scored one in the top of the 1st. Carlos Espada singled and stole second. One out later Chris Dunn hit a fly ball to left that was misplayed and Espada came around to score. Cubs up 1-0.
The Giants got 3 runs in the bottom of the second, to take a 3-1 lead. Andy Pedone singled to lead it off. Rick Caruso followed with a bunt single and Chris Guido delivered Pedone with a RBI single. John Cortese and Ed Powell then reached on errors, both scoring runs, and the Giants left the inning with a 2-run cushion.
That seemed to wake up the Cubs bats. Espada again started the rally with a single. He was moving on the pitch when Paul Miles grounded to short, so the only play was at first. Espada then stole third and came home on a Chris Dunn single. Dunn then stole second and third. Rosen walked, and after a pop out to the mound, Mike Girard came through with a 2-out RBI single to right center. PJ Martone and Matt Miles walked to reload the bases with 2 outs. Next up, Jim Bonaparte (going after Ron Hunt's MLB record) took one for the team and Sherwin So produced 2 more runs with another 2-out single. By the time the smoke cleared, the Cubs were back on top 7-3.
Both pitchers (Powell and Girard) settled in for scoreless innings in the 4th and 5th. The Cubs used hits from Matt Miles and Sherwin So, along with walks to Espada and Paul Miles to get their first run in the 6th. A RBI groundout by Dunn and a RBI single by Rosen pushed the Cubs lead to 10-3. The Giants answered with 3 runs of their own, in the bottom half of the inning. Joe Coluccio led off with a single and James Davis, Brendan Hogan, and Andy Pedone followed with singles of their own. Two runs were in to bring the Giants back to within 5 (10-5), and runners were at 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Girard got a fielder's choice, a sacrifice fly out to right by Rick Caruso, and a ground out to second to escape the inning with a 4 run lead (10-6).
The Cubs, seeing that their pitcher was running on fumes, added two important insurance runs in the top of the 7th. Girard led off with his 4th hit of the day. The next two batters reached on two fielders choices. Bonaparte followed with a walk and So delivered the first run with another clutch 2-out single. Espada walked to load the bases and Paul Miles' walk plated the 12th run of the night for the Cubs.
The bottom of the 7th was supposed to be uneventful, wiith the Cubs holding a 12-6 lead. However, with one out Ed Powell singled and Steve Lounello followed with a fly ball to left center, spaced perfectly between Paul Miles (left) and Dunn (center). Too perfectly between them! Both Cubbies gave 100% effort to catch the ball and those efforts ended in an ugly collision. Dunn's knee ended up contacting Paul's chin, upending Dunn so that he landed on his face. Both Giants runners stopped while the Cubs defense ran out to check on their teammates. Very Scary! Both players avoided serious injury and finished the game. When the smoke cleared, The Cubs decided to reward the Giants' sportsmanship by awarding lead runner home plate, and the score was 12-7. After a walk to Ed Nadeau, Girard got a pop out to short and a strike out to finish the game. I think both teams were quite shaken by the collision.
Along with Girard's 4 hits, the Cubs got 3 hits each from Espada, and Sherwin So, and two hits from Matt Miles. The Giants were led by Pedone and Caruso, who had 2 hits each. The Cubs move to 7-0, with the win, and move on to their second meeting of the season with Whiz Kid on Tuesday July 1st at Watervliet, at 6:00 pm. The Whiz will enter that match up with a 7-1 record (the only loss being a 2-1 defeat to the Cubs earlier in the year). It should be another great game.
