In all my travels, rarely do I get a room with a great view, and that’s with platinum status. This trip to Chicago was one of the few exceptions, and at the risk of sounding like one of those annoying people who want you to look at their boring vacation photos, I thought I would share this shot I took from my room earlier this afternoon. It’s a spectacular day here, a little chilly still, but much nicer than yesterday, without a cloud in the sky.
They play a song here after every Cubs victory that, if you can believe this, is EVEN WORSE than Go Dodgers Go. And the worst part of all is, people here ACTUALLY SING ALONG TO IT. Dodgers went 1 for 5 w/RISP and, for the fourth time in their past five games, scored either one run or zero runs. This time, it wasn’t the surging Ryan Dempster who shut them down. This time, it was Sean Gallagher, who started the season in the bullpen and came into this one with a 5.68 ERA. Tough to win that way. … Jeff Kent woke up with a stiff back. Maybe it was the Westin Heavenly Bed. Guess it’s a good thing I’m at the Sheraton this time. Anyway, he thought he could play, but it tightened up on him again during BP. He’s day to day — but then, you may recall, so was Furcal. … Fukudome went 1 for 2 with a walk against Kuroda, then hit a backbreaking, RBI double off Broxton in the seventh, all of which will be duly noted by just about every Japanese media outlet you can possibly think of, and even by several that you can’t. … Can’t believe every paper in Louisiana didn’t send a reporter here to cover this historic game, what with Danny Ardoin, Juan Pierre, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot all in the starting lineup of one team or the other. … Boys fall to 26-25. Snakes play later.
He is suffering from lower-back spasms. Again, not sure how serious it is — probably not very — but we’ll find out after the game.
Don’t know why yet, but will update when I do. Here’s the new lineup
LF Pierre
SS Maza
RF Ethier
1B Loney
CF Kemp
3B DeWitt
2B Hu
C Ardoin
RH Kuroda
A longstanding running among writers and medical personnel all over baseball is that whenever a player has surgery, they always report afterward that the guy had “successful” surgery, and then somebody invariably says, “What would unsuccessful surgery have been?” and then the trainer invariably says, “Unsuccessful surgery would have been if the patient died.” Well, Andruw Jones is very much alive after undergoing arthroscopic surgery earlier today in L.A., but he is still going to miss four to six weeks. And no, before you ask, they did NOT throw in a free liposuction. … Jason Schmidt went 3 1/3 for Inland Empire last night, throwing 45 pitches, 32 of which were strikes. He did allow three runs (two earned), but nobody cares about that. His velocity topped out at 91, and Joe Torre said today that it might be into next year before Schmidt hits his old, pre-surgery velocity. … Nothing new on Furcal except that Joe said he has been given no reason to think Furcal will be ready in time for the start of the homestand.
Here’s the lineup, with Danny Ardoin in it
LF Pierre
SS Maza
RF Ethier
2B Kent
1B Loney
CF Kemp
3B DeWitt
C Ardoin
RH Kuroda