Rain Ruins Cubs Night

The steady rain on a rare night game at Wrigley Field on a Saturday night ended up being costly for the Cubs. We can thank Fox and television money. Despite the forecast of rain all night, the Cubs and Giants proceeded with the game. Doug Davis made his first start as a Cub, and was the lone bright spot for the Cubs on an otherwise gloomy and miserable day.

Davis battled the elements to post a solid box score line. He struck out six over five innings of work while only giving up one walk and one earned run. He kept the Cubs in the game and actually may have kept it a one run affair if it was not for some slippery baseballs from wet grass that caused a couple throwing errors by the Cubs defense in that fateful 3rd inning.

After the struggles we have seen out of Casey Coleman and James Russell as spot starters, it was good to see a solid outing from Davis against the defending World Series champions. I am definitely looking forward to Davis’ next outing to see if he can keep this up. If he can be a serviceable fifth starter in the rotation for the season, the Cubs can bring along Andrew Cashner slowly to make sure he is 110% healthy, and the Cubs can make up for foolishly trading away Tom Gorzelanny to the Nationals, or not signing a veteran project like Aaron Harang that the Cubs had a shot at this past off season.

The Cubs offense had their chance to ease the pressure off Davis with some first inning runs, but with the bases loaded and only one out, Marlon Byrd hit a weak line drive to short stop that almost doubled off runner Starlin Castro. Alfonso Soriano struck out on a pitch he would have hit onto Waveland Ave only a week ago when he was hot, to end the threat.

The rain was the culprit for the shortened game and errors that may have ultimately cost the Cubs the game, but knowing the weather conditions, the Cubs offense missed out on their change to get the early lead that is so vital when there is a threat of a shortened game.