October 08, 2003
Negative in Chicago
And I thought only Boston sports writers did this. Maybe Phil Rogers is in the wrong town:
Perhaps the most disquieting moment of the night for the Cubs came in the ninth inning. Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek lost control of the ball when he tried to tag Pierre on a potential double-play grounder by Castillo. It set up a two-run single by Rodriguez, who finished with five RBIs.
Grudzielanek's error was the Cubs' first of the postseason. You hope they and their manager haven't run out of a magic. They'll need it, even if they have Prior and Kerry Wood.
Rick Morrissey thought it started too easy. He two, seems more worried than he should be about Prior and Wood:
It's Mark Prior on Wednesday night, the sort of thing that should even out the mood swings. And yet, a draining Tuesday night isn't going away. Aside from Kyle Farnsworth, the bullpen fell apart.
"We come back with our two big horses," manager Dusty Baker said of Prior and Kerry Wood, who pitches Friday.
A sentence full of foreshadowing that you expect in a Cubs' playoff story: And it started so well.
Folks, you lost one game, and your best pitchers haven't taken the mound yet! And besides, there is a very good explanation for last night's game that has nothing to do with pitchers or managerial moves; the wind was right.
STATS, Inc. records the wind direction at the start of each game. Here's the average total runs scored for each of the wind directions in 2003:
| Direction | Average Runs Per Game | Number of Games |
|---|
| Out to Left | 4.33 | 3 |
|---|
| Out to Center | 12.27 | 11 |
|---|
| Out to Right | 9.77 | 13 |
|---|
| Left to Right | 8.50 | 4 |
|---|
| In From Left | 7.31 | 13 |
|---|
| In From Center | 8.23 | 13 |
|---|
| In From Right | 7.78 | 18 |
|---|
| Right to Left | 7.00 | 6 |
|---|
And guess what? Last night's game was coded as "Out to Center." The answer was blowing in the wind.
