The brain finally kicked in almost 48 hours later, and I have the score book in front of me:
The Dodgers looked like contenders for the 2019 league championship, for the first 2 innings, on Tuesday night. In the top of the first inning, Paul Miles got the Cubs on the board single-handedly when he singled with one out, stole second. He moved to 3rd, and scored on two wild pitches, putting the Cubs up 1-0. Ray Coletta kept the rest of the Cubs from doing serious damage in the rest of the first and all of the second innings, looking very good while doing so.
In the Dodger's half of the first, Harry Staulters led off with a single, stole second, advanced to 3rd on a Mark Denicola single, and scored on Ray Coletta's RBI single. The Dodgers would take a 2-1 lead in the second. Steve Schafer and Dave Reed led off with singles. Two grounders later, Schaefer crossed the plate with the go ahead run.
Being behind after 2 innings, the Cubs woke up in the 3rd. Jim McQuade led off with a single, and was sacrificed to second on a perfect sac bunt by Al Williams. Scott Ross singled him to third, and Paul Miles delivered the tying run with a RBI single. Paul immediately stole second to put runners on 2nd and 3rd, with one out. Ray Colletta got Mike Girard to hit a short fly to right, for what should have been an easy second out, with no advancement of the runners. The right fielder was unable to make the play, and two runs scored, with Girard safely on first. Girard stole second, and when Ron Lochner 's hard grounder up the middle was speared by Coletta, Girard was caught too far off second (what a surprise). However Coletta's throw to third was high, and Girard was safe at third. Jerry Rosen delivered him with a solid single, and Jon Martin followed with a single to plate Lochner. When the smoke cleared, The Cubs were in possession of a 6-2 lead.
From that point on, Girard settled in on the mound, for the Cubbies. He would not allow another run, and gave up just 4 singles (2 in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th), the rest of the way. The last 9 Dodgers to face him went down in order. He pitched a complete game, giving up 2 runs on 9 singles, walking none and striking out 3. Girard was backed by some solid defense, especially by Ron Lochner at 3rd base. Ron made 7 plays, on a very busy night at the hot corner.
The Cubs would add 4 more runs in the top of the 5th inning, to push the lead to 10-2. Al Williams, Scott Ross, Paul Miles, and Ron Lochner all had singles in the rally. The big blow was a 2 RBI double by Jerry Rosen (by far the hardest hit ball all night). The final score of the game was reached in the top of the 7th, on a Jon Martin RBI single. The 11-2 victory improved the Cubs record to 6 - 1- 1. The Dodgers slipped to 4-5, with the loss.
Now the Cubs will wait for the seeding to be revealed for the second phase of the season, knowing only that they will make the top four. We won't know the rest until Friday night.
Good luck to Don Ball and his squad. They will be making a lot of noise in the second round, and in the playoffs. They are a way better team than this final score showed. With Denicola and Coletta on the mound, and top six in the batting order that stacks up against anybody, they will not be an easy out.
