Hey, at least the Braves didn’t score 16 this time…Cubs Lose 3-2

The number one concern for the Cubs heading into the 2010 season, was their bullpen, and that was no more evident than tonight, only two games into the season.

For the early part of the game tonight, we saw a highly contested pitchers duel between the Cubs Ryan Dempster, and the Braves Jair Jurgens. Dempster went six very good innings giving up no runs while while allowing 3 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 9 batters. Meanwhile, the pitcher opposite  of him, Jair Jurgens, went five innings giving up 2 runs(Unearned) on 3 hits, and two walks, while striking out 2.

But, the difference in this ball game came down to the bullpens. As, the Braves relievers went a combine 4 innings of shutout ball while allowing 4 hits, walking 1, and striking out 5. Whereas, the Cubs bullpen went a combined 2 innings giving up 2 runs on 2 hits, and striking out 3. Now, it should go noted that those 2 runs were all due to the poor pitching of John Grabow, the reliever Jim Hendry just had to have back for 2 years and $7.5 million dollars.

I think if this poor showing for the Cubs bullpen keeps on going, then we will see roster moves within the next week. A potential roster move could be Jeff Gray being called up, who was acquired from the Athletics in December, and Jeff Samardzija be sent down.

However, we should not look past the fact that the Cubs team batting average for tonight’s games was only .197(7 for 31). And lets be honest with ourselves, if Troy Glaus did not bobble that double play ball in the fifth innings, the Cubs may not have scored at all in this game. As a team the Cubs left 6 runners on base, and were o for 4 with runners in scoring position.

Game Thoughts ( Thoughts I encountered from the Game)

• Jason Heyward is looking like a really good player, and another ” Cubs Killer”.
• If Theriot keeps struggling, and Kosuke keeps hitting, Could we see a change at the top of the order?
• Why does Jim Hendry overpay for bad relievers, i.e. John Grabow
• Is the Cubs offense improved from last year?
• Despite his two hits, I was not impressed with Alfonso Soriano?
• Were we kidding ourselves when we ignored talk about the Cubs veteran players getting up in age?
• Hey, at least we got 160 more games to go…Oh brother!?!?

*Official Box Score of Tonight’s Game