Cubs Held Hostage- Days 8-10- Wasted Weekend

The Cubs split four games over the holiday weekend. Let's review Jim Edmonds' "contributions" to the team's efforts.


Friday- Cubs 12, Pirates 3
Cubs blowout win? And Jim Edmonds seated squarely on the bench? What are the odds?? I would say "seated squarely on the bench where he belongs, but of course, he doesn't belong anywhere near a major league team's bench. Let's move on.

Saturday- Pirates 5, Cubs 4
Jim Edmonds gets one plate appearance. In a 4-4 game, he leads off the top of the eleventh pinch-hitting for Kerry Wood. If he homers, the Cubs win the game. If he doubles or triples, he probably scores when Ronny Cedeno singles two batters later and the Cubs win the game. If he at least reaches base, its first-and-third with one down for Soriano after Cedeno's single. But no... he pops out to center. Cubs lose in 14.

Sunday- Pirates 6, Cubs 5
Deja vu. This time, Edmonds pinch-hits for Reed Johnson in the tenth. He somehow gets ahead in the count 3-0, and manages to turn it into a popout to right field. The inning ends, and the Cubs lose in 11. (Note: the game would have never reached extra-innings if Soriano had caught a routine fly ball. There's no way to know if Pinella might have used a defensive replacement, had our best defensive outfielder not been demoted to make room for Jim Edmonds decaying corpse, but I can't say it didn't come to mind.)

Monday- Cubs 3, Pirates 1
Jim Edmonds gets the start, presumably as a reward for his clutch performance over the weekend. With one out and none on in the second, he pops out to center on the first pitch. With one out and none on in the fifth, he gets ahead 2-1 before whiffing on the next two pitches from Chad Billingsley for the K. In the 7th, Chan Ho Park enters the game, and Edmonds manages to scratch out a single, his third total base in 20 AB since joining the Cubs (that's a .150 SLG if you're keeping score at home.) He ends up stranded. Geovanny Soto, recognizing that reaching base would only mean another painful Edmonds at-bat, selflessly strikes out to end the eighth and keep Edmonds from doing any more damage.

So for the weekend, its 1-5, .200 AVG, .200 OBP, .200 SLG, .400 OPS, no runs, no RBI, two chances to win games for the Cubs squandered. This Sun-Times article on the Edmonds situation
suggests that he will get to start the two remaining games in the Dodgers series as well. Let's hope the rest of the team runs up the score enough that he can't find a way to give the game away.

Finally, a sad farewell to Geremi Gonzalez, who was struck by lightning and killed this weekend. I'm sure that was Edmonds fault too, somehow.