The Saturday debut of Rich Harden was a dandy from the point of view of a Cubs fan.  When I first heard about the deal I was interested to see if they had any intention of putting him in the bullpen, if for nothing else than to figure his health out a little.  They stuck him in, though, and he looked good.  I had to watch a replay at a local bar in Minneapolis since I don’t have cable, but even through the booze Harden looked good.  He threw hard and had nice movement down on everybody and a little something in for the righthanders.  Even if he levels off or gets injured they have risked very little and he is good enough to pile up 10 wins which would be stellar.  The only problem with Harden was that he couldn’t pitch a complete game.  Since his arm is timed to explode from the elbow down after the 5^th inning, it was a good idea to get him out of there.  He pitched well and threw a bunch of strikeouts like you would expect from him when healthy.  If he is ever able to stay healthy going deeper into games the sky is the limit.  If not, five scoreless ain’t bad.

As a game, the Cubs had it in the bag.  Edmonds was big.  Theriot’s highlight (or lowlight) was the air mail he sent into right field that allowed two runs to score and the game to extend.  Despite his 3-4 appearance with two walks it was that lollipop that got the press.  I suppose it is an issue of suppressing instinct in that kind of situation.  You want to make the play to end the inning.  When you are in the process of making the play you are certain you are going to do it.  Still, I think you just have to eat that one and not let anything bad happen.  The ball got past him pretty quick and he was on his back trying to throw to second on what was going to be a bang-bang play even with a good throw.  I am sure Lou got into him a little. 

The real goat was Marmol.  He came in to start the top of the 9^th, which may have been a job for Wood if he didn’t have the blister on his index finger.  He seems to have problems with San Fran in particular.  Sometimes he is there and sometimes he isn’t.  Sometimes he isn’t there and the Cubs still win, like on Saturday.  In San Francisco on July 2 he gave up two runs on three hits in one inning of work and still the Cubs won.  He has really deteriorated over the last two months and he needs to fix whatever is wrong over the All Star break.  If he can’t fill the roll of the set up guy after that he should have that job taken away.  He is young.  That is my definitive statement on Marmol.

I was excited to watch the Lincecum versus Dempster matchup on Sunday, but I couldn’t get to a bar so I had to watch it as a gamecast.  That is a lot like watching amateur porn by reading the transcript.  You can generally figure out what is happening by reading the statistics but when something really interesting or exciting happens you have no idea what is going on.

-Uh

-yeah

-Uh

-Oh yeah

-Uh

-Oh yes

-Uh

-Ah Ah Ah

-You like that?

-Yes…here…bite down on this.

-Jesus, Michelle, what is that?

-It’s a riding crop, Steven, don’t ruin this for me.

-Mrph

-Oh yes!

-Mrf mrf?

-YYEEESSSSS

-Mmrm…shmrrf…mrf

-Oh God

-Mrf..MRPH?! (whistle)…(pop)…(Whizzzzzz)(POP)(scrunch)

-AAAHHH!

-MURGUR!!...Dammit Michelle!  Whatdiya do that for?

-I thought you’d like it!

-You thought wrong!

That sort of thing.  As near as I could tell, Lincecum’s velocity and control were both there as he only gave up 6 hits and one run over 8 innings.  The Cubs, a team I see as a very patient, confident club that believes they can generate against anybody, had trouble with Timmy. Jimmy Edmonds providing what little offense they had.  The Cubs, who are 5 of 7 in July, can’t be too down going into the break.  Lincecum is an All-Star who has electric stuff.  He looks like a short version of Nolan Ryan the way he reaches back and whips forward.  He doesn’t seem to spend as much time looking for a balance point or searching for his target the way a lot of guys do.  Once he decides to bring it, it is one big, fluid motion and for such a short guy, he brings heat.  I like watching him and wish I had been able to on Sunday.  Hips before your shoulders, kids.