13 games left....

According to espn.com, Rusch will be starting Friday against the Mets as Baker's plan to sweep the doubleheader versus the Marlins didn't exactly work out. I really don't know his plan now, is he going to skip Clement or go with a 6 man rotation? Of course with how many pitches Prior threw last night, an extra day off wouldn't be bad, not that we can afford it though. Personally let Clement pitch Friday on 3 days rest as he barely threw any pitches yesterday.


The matchups for this series:
Wood vs Fogg (4.82 ERA, 63BB/75K, 15 HR allowed)
Zambrano vs Perez (3.22 ERA, 72BB/217K, 22 HR allowed)
Maddux vs Van Benschoten(6.91 ERA, 19BB/18K, 3HR allowed in 28.2 IP)

Wednesday's ESPN2 game should be fun, and hopefully we don't make Fogg look so good again. Garciaparra is hopeful to return this series as well.

Runs Scored: Cubs -7th, Pirates -13th
OBP: Cubs - 11th, Pirates -12th
SLG: Cubs -1st, Pirates - 13th
BA: Cubs - 4th, Pirates -11th

K/BB: Cubs-3rd, Pirates- 10th
ERA: Cubs -3rd, Pirates-10th
HR Allowed: Cubs - 6th, Pirates - 1st

I'm a little worried about this series, the Pirates don't give up a lot of homers as a staff, we rely on homers as an offense and throw in that PNC is very friendly to lefties(which we have few of) but not righties (which we have a lot of). I'm nervous. Another sweep would be great but 2 out of 3 wil suffice. Astros and Giants are matched up for the next 3 games as well, so we should gain ground on one of them. I'm hoping Walker gets 2 of the 3 starts over Grudz in this series, but I don't expect it.

I do have to give credit to our bullpen lately, they have seriously stepped it up. Some numbers of our bullpen:

9/20 vs. Marlins 5.2 IP, 0 Runs, 3BB/6K
9/20 vs. Marlins 1.1 IP, 0 Runs, 0BB/0K
9/19 vs. Reds 2 IP, 0 Runs, 1 BB/1K
9/18 vs. Reds 2 IP, 0 Runs, 3BB/4K
9/17 vs. Reds 2 IP, 3 Runs, 1BB/3K
9/16 vs. Reds 2IP, 0 Runs, 0BB/2K
9/15 vs. Pirates 4 IP, 0 Runs, 1BB, 6K
9/14 vs. Pirates 6 IP, 0 Runs, 1BB/6K
9/13 vs. Pirates 2 IP, 2 Runs, 0BB/2K

That's a 1.67 ERA over the last week not to mention that the 3 runs versus the Reds that Wellemeyer gave up on Friday and the 2 runs that Dempster gave up on 9/13 were when both games were already decided. I've been critical of the bullpen most of the season but I have to applaud them lately.

The last bad outing was against the Marlins on 9/12 when Mitre and Leicester gave up 6 runs in 4.1IP after a rough 3.1 IP by Rusch. Of course Farnsworth is back and Baker will use him, Oh Boy!!!!!