The Return of Baker, Long Balls, and an Injured Star Right Fielder in an MRI Machine

I'll start off by saying, yes, the title is corny.

I would've gotten this post up last night, but much to my surprise, after I returned home from watching the game last night, Google informed me that I was locked out of my blog for it possibly being a spam blog... After fits of rage and constantly checking to see if I had been allowed back in, I finally got in late this morning.

What a game... Aaron Harang, a pitcher who was 4-0 at Wrigley, seemed to forget his previous dominant starts at the friendly confines as the Cubs beat the Cincinnatti Reds.

Ryan Dempster looked decent in the top of the first inning, he went 1-2-3, but that number three hitter, Ken Griffey Jr., popped out to shallow right field. Alfonso Soriano came into make the play, and did his trademark hop when he caught the ball... His landing after the hop hopefully isn't something that he'll repeat. He started limping off the field, and SS Ryan Theriot helped him back to the dugout. He had an MRI last night, and the Cubs organization expects to have the results back sometime this afternoon... (I'll keep my non-existent readers posted :-])

In the bottom of the second, Kosuke Fukudome (arguably my favorite Cub right now...), singled to lead off the inning, and Mark DeRosa belted a 2-run shot to the left field bleachers making the game 2-1.

But Ken Griffey Jr. countered with his 595th career home run, another 2-run shot to left center to make the game 3-2.

But in the bottom of the 5th, Derrek Lee, sporting number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day, belted a 3 run shot to left center making the game 5-3, never to have the Reds reclaim the lead for the rest of the game.

Dempster looked good through most of his start, his only blemishes were the Griffey homer and an unnecessary amount of walks. But he got the win. Carlos Marmol came out to pitch the 7th inning, and ended up loading the bases with no outs. On a ball that should have easily been a 2 run scoring single, Mike Fontenot (backup 2nd baseman) dove and stopped the ball and got the force out at 2nd only allowing one run to score. The very next pitch, Derrek Lee hustled to get a ground ball going down the 1st base line, threw it to get the force at 2nd, and Theriot quickly threw it back to Lee to get the runner at first.

The Cubs ended up winning 9-5.

Dusty Baker, who is now the manager of the Reds, didn't exactly get a warm welcome. Baker has been rightly accused of, in the past, over using his starting pitchers. He took Harang out of the game in the 7th inning, and was booed by the fans at Wrigley. Is Baker another scapegoat for not going all the way? Yes and no... Baker wasn't the best manager the Cubs have ever seen, he inherited great baseball players to work with... Could the same be said about Lou Piniella? Arguably yes, but Piniella is different, he knows what he's doing and is possibly one of the greatest managers of his time.