Hard slog for 1,007

Or, maybe it was because both teams have struggled of late to score runs.  You choose.  Either way, it was an afternoon of scoreboard donuts until the 11th, when the Cubs do what the Cubs do best- gave the game away.  Don't blame them.  It's encoded in their DNA.  The Dodgers scored without putting a ball in play.  A walk to Ramon Martinez.  A walk to Wilson Betemit.  A botched play that allowed Martinez to steal third.  An intentional walk to Rafael Furcal.  Then Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol hit Juan Pierre in the knee to score Martinez on an offering so poor it got past Chicago backstop Michael Barrett and would have been a wild pitch had it not nicked Pierre.  Fair to say it's a good idea to keep any Cubs fans you know away from loaded pistols for a day or so.  Lou Piniella, too, maybe for 48 hours to be safe.  I asked Joe Beimel, who played for Piniella in Tampa, what he thought was going on in the Cubs locker room.  "Probably a lot of cursing," he laughed.

The end was so strange, Pierre momentarily didn't realize the ball that hit him would have brought Martinez home whether the ump saw it or not.  "When the ball bounced and hit me, I was like, "The ball hit me!"  I was so intense trying to get the guy in and get the game over with I got caught up there." Not that there weren't any fringe benefits for Pierre, who doesn't exactly drive home runs with Gehrigesque regularity.  "Either way, the guy would have scored, but it's nice to have a ribbie instead of a swinging strikeout and to score like that.  But I guess that's kind of selfish," Pierre said smiling.  "I know I get my ribbies any way I can.  If I've got to dive over home plate to get hit, I'll do it.  It was definitely one of the weirdest endings (to a game) I've ever had."

Even for Dodgers starter Randy Wolf, who had another strong outing, the day was hardly conventional.  Unlike Chicago lefty Rich Hill, who threw only 66 pitches before Piniella lifted him for a pinch hitter in the seventh, Wolf labored hard through his six innings of shutout ball.  101 pitches and some monumental at bats, including a 10 pitch marathon by Alfonso Soriano in the fifth that resulted in a walk and a bases loaded jam.  "That fifth inning took a lot out of me," Wolf said.  "Soriano took a lot out of me.  He fouled off some tough pitches.  I didn't want to give in, though.  Regardless of how many RBIs he has this year, he's still one of the most dangerous hitters out there.  So I just tried to make a pitchers pitch, and hopefully he'd get himself out.  If he didn't, I'd work on the next guy."  The free pass loaded the bases, but Wolf escaped the inning by inducing a weak grounder to first from Ryan Theriot. 

The pivotal play was probably the Martinez "steal" of third in the 11th, a potentially disastrous mishap with a fortuitous ending.  After slipping on his secondary lead, Martinez was hung up between second and third.  Fortunately for the Dodgers, instead of forcing him to commit to one base or the other, Barrett threw straight to second.  Martinez immediately took off for third and beat the relay throw easily.  "It was one of those plays where you say something I shouldn't say out loud now, then put your head down and bring it up slowly to see what the result is," Grady Little said of his reaction when he saw Martinez hung up.  I'm sure whatever it was the Dodgers' skipper said to himself paled in comparison to what flew out of Piniella's mouth.  Both may have needed their mouths washed out with soap, but for Sweet Lou, it likely took some industrial strength stuff to get clean.

Killer showing once again from the L.A. pitching staff.  Wolf was strong through six, Joe Beimel cleaned up a Rudy Seanez mess by coaxing a long, bases loaded fly out from pinch hitter Aramis Ramirez to end the eighth, Jonathan Broxton pitched two dominant innings, and Chad Billingsley chipped in with a scoreless frame to pick up the victory.  Thanks to their efforts, an Andre Ethier pinch hit homer in the Dodgers' half of the eighth, and some big time help from the Chicago in the 11th, the Dodgers got win 1,007 over the Cubs. 

Look 'em in the eye and punch 'em in the nose, boys. 

More on the game tomorrow.  Enjoy a smattering of audio in the meantime. 
Download grady_little_5.27 on 2-1 win.mp3
Download grady_little_5.27 on 2-1 win 2.mp3 

BK