Let’s reset the scenario here for Jack Bauer Squared entering the season’s final 18 games. We came into our third straight road series at 71-73 and tied for first place in the National League West. Coming off series with the two division leaders where we went a combined 4-2, we headed to play the league’s two worst teams next before finishing with 12 division games.
If ever there were an opportunity to take advantage of, the series at Tigers of the Ontario Peninsula qualified. Every win feels precious right now, and you have to beat the teams below you. If only I could have explained that better to my code bits.
So we opened the series in Tiger Stadium by squandering run-scoring opportunities early. We left seven runners on in the first 4 innings and led just 1-0 despite outhitting the Tigers 5-0. The Tigers put up two runs in the 4th and another in the 5th off Teddy Higuera and then it stayed 3-1 until Bobby Murcer led off the 8th inning with his team-high 25th home run.
We put runners on the corners after that but couldn’t get the tying run home. We ended up with a 3-2 loss, dropping to 16-22 in one-run games. Meanwhile Steroids Make You Fast moved a game ahead of us by winning their game.
No time to mess around now against a team we needed to beat, and we came out stronger in the second game. Ryne Sandberg hit his 10th homer and Garry Maddox doubled in two in the 1st inning to give Mike Cuellar an early lead.
We got another start from good Cuellar, fortunately. He gave up only 1 run and 2 hits in 8 innings, and Bob Woodward nailed down the final out for his 34th save of a 5-2 win.
Steroids lost their game to push us back into a tie, both of us now two games under .500 again. You start to get the feeling there won’t be much separating us at the end of this season.
A bit of a brief sidebar here feels needed to discuss Sandberg’s performance for me. The 1984 Ryno was an MVP for the Cubs, hitting .314 with 200 hits, slugging over .500, stealing 32 bases, and a Gold Glove fielder.
He was my 3rd-round pick in this draft, where great hitting second basemen weren’t that easy to come by. I’ve had him batting 2nd all season, where I still believe he belongs. It’s just … he’s been really disappointing. He’s played fine defense at least, with only 7 errors, but I needed quite a bit more offense than that out of him and there’s just no sign he’s going to provide it.
He’s played all 147 games and has put up a meager .245/.278/.370 slash line (compared with .314/.367/.520 in real life). For what it’s worth, in 53 seasons for other owners in his performance history, Sandberg’s worst season was .255/.293/.417. So he might be on his way to surpassing that for me. Gee thanks, random luck.
Now back to the action … We again got going early in the series’ final game, with Murcer’s 26th homer capping a 2-run 1st, but the Tigers quickly pounced on Bert Blyleven and opened a 5-2 lead in the 3rd. And then crickets until the 8th inning.
We rallied nicely in the 8th, loading the bases with no outs and Maddox clearing them with a double to tie the game. We couldn’t get Maddox home from 3rd with one out, alas. Then Gorman Thomas led off the bottom of the 8th with a homer off Joe Sambito, and we went meekly in the 9th to lose 6-5, another missed opportunity.
That made us 16-23 in one-run games and 72-75 overall. Fortunately Steroids also lost their rubber game and remained tied with us. The rest of the division, as noted previously, isn’t exactly far behind either: 3 and 5 games back. With all division teams playing each other over the final three series (each four games), anyone really could wind up winning this.
Next up we come home to Olympic Stadium to face Todd Helton???, who at 60-87 brings up the rear in the NL but yet has won 8 of its past 10. Since we just learned that beating teams below us isn’t easy at all, there’s no chance of overconfidence going into this one either. But you know it would be a darn good time for a sweep, I’m just sayin’.
