Coming into Thursday night's game at Citizen's Bank Park, the Chicago Cubs had scored 245 runs this season. The Philadelphia Phillies had scored 246. Yet one team was at the bottom of its division, while the other team was at the top.
Cubs Vs. Phillies: Ryan Madson Blows First Save Of The Year, Cubs Win In Extras
You might think that the difference is all due to the gap in starting pitching, that one team has a staff filled with the best starters in baseball, and the other had an injury-riddled staff that was held together with duct tape and fringe pitchers. The actual reason between the two might surprise you, though. It might blow you away.
Wait, no. You guessed it. That’s exactly right. The Phillies can pitch historically well, and the Cubs are kind of a mess.
But when Kyle Kendrick is pitching, and when an hour-plus rain delay forces both teams to rely on the bullpen after three innings, the Cubs and Phillies are actually pretty similar teams right now. Both are close to league-average offenses. Both have high-strikeout, quality closers. Put that way, this should have been a good game. And it was. The Cubs took advantage of a crucial error, hit a clutch home run, and survived to win in 11 innings, 4-3.
The Phillies did all of their scoring on one swing. Raul Ibanez singled, Dane Sardinha walked, and Jimmy Rollins, playing with a sore knee, drilled a three-run homer to right off Cubs starter Randy Wells. A three-run lead is normally enough for the Phillies.
This wasn't the typical Philies team, though. This was a Phillies team that had to rely on the bullpen for at least six innings, and for the most part, they did fine. Danys Baez threw 2-2/3 scoreless innings before hitting Darwin Barney with a pitch. Barney then stole second and scored on a Starlin Castro single. In the eighth, Jose Contreras gave up back-to-back doubles to Castro and Carlos Pena to cut the lead to 3-2.
In the top of the ninth, Geovany Soto tied the game with a line-drive home run to center off Ryan Madson, who blew his first save of the year. Tyler Colvin, who was a Kevin Correia-like 0-for-34 coming into the at-bat, followed with what was ruled a home run originally, but overturned and ruled a double after the umpires reviewed the video and determined that a Phillies fan reached over the railing in the right-field stands. If it were the playoffs, you would have seen the replay sixteen times already; it was that close.
The Cubs got their revenge in the 11th, though. After Tyler Colvin's single -- making him 2-for-2 after his 0-for-34 -- he moved to second on a passed ball by Carlos Ruiz. With two outs, Darwin Barney chopped a ball to third, and Placido Polanco threw a ball in the dirt that Ryan Howard couldn't handle. Colvin scored the winning run all the way from second. Carlos Marmol allowed a base runner, but otherwise recorded a clean save.
Take away all them fancy pitchers, and these teams are pretty evenly matched. And, yes, that’s a pretty ridiculous qualifier, so you have to use it when it applies.
For more on the Cubs and Phillies, please visit team blogs Bleed Cubbie Blue and The Good Phight.
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