Saturday, September 20, 2008

and miles to go . . .

That's what we ended with on Big Fox, the announcers making a Robert Frost reference and Aaron Miles popping out to (drum roll, please) Jimmy Baseball. 

Fantastically appropriate, no? To be honest, it could have been much worse. The Cubs were playing for the division, but we made some noise with our bats and didn't just roll over for them, and I think that says a lot about our team. The fact that we went into, let's face it, a pretty hostile environment, facing a team with a lot of hopes pinned on this series (not because they had to win it but because Lou Pinella doesn't use the backdoor for anything), and we won game one and made them work for game two, I think that speaks very highly of this club and the players on the field. 

Piñeiro actually pitched quite well, but unfortunately had some misplays and errors behind him that cost a few runs. (Muchas felicidades en el nacimiento de tus gemelos, Joel.) 

Franklin also pitched well, surprisingly enough, striking out three and not putting anybody on in his two innings of work. 

Glaus brought us to within one run of tying it with his three-run shot in the sixth, but we couldn't get past Marmol in the eighth or Wood in the ninth and ended up just short of a comeback. 

We had a rough season. We were on top for a while, but as time went by our deficiencies and outright holes became more and more evident. It was a brief success that we couldn't sustain. We played hard and showed a lot of spirit, even in the face of injuries and harsh media, but in the end, it just wasn't enough. 

Farewell, 2008 season. Our eyes and thoughts now turn to 2009 because as we all know, tomorrow's another day. 

As for the NL Central, well... These woods belong to the Cubs.