Despite allowing 6 walks to Atlanta hitters, Carlos Zambrano seems a good bet for his 4th win of 2006 ; the Cubs are leading the Braves, 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th. Earlier, Zambrano saw a no-hit bid come to an end when Jacque Jones tried to catch a Wilson Betemit fly ball with his mouth. Official scorer A.J. Pierzynski chose not to call it a two-base error, strangely.
(UPDATE : Braves 6, Cubs 5, middle of the 9th. Ryan Dempster blew the save, Neifi Perez allowed Marcus Giles to score the lead run on an Andruw Jones sac fly….thing is, Giles was on 2nd when the play began. Perez dropped Jacque Jones’ throw from right center, then fired the ball over Michael Barrett’s head. Perez, for those who like to dwell on horrible things, is hitting .198, has an OBP of .221…and can’t be counted on to perform some of the most routine tasks in the field, apparently).
Earlier today, Cubs C Michael Barrett received a ten game suspension and Pierzynski was fined an undisclosed amount for their brief, one-sided boxing match last Sunday at the Cell. I’m hopeful that in future, Pierzynski will refrain from attacking Barrett’s right hand with his jaw.
Since man cannot live by Too Cold Scorpio videos alone, I’ve tried to tune in Yahoo Sports’ promised free webcast of USF vs. Pedderdine, but sadly, only the audio is working. With Texas closing in on a Big 12 Tournament victory, it’s very likely the Longhorns will be one of the NCAA Regional hosts next week. There’s a lot to be said for intercollegiate day baseball-on-AstroTurf, especially as they sometimes forget to password protect the wireless internet connection at the Disch.