With two out Shin-Soo Choo walked but Shoppach struck out to end the game

With two out, Shin-Soo Choo walked, but Shoppach struck out to end the game. Wednesday is the second of the three meetings between these two teams.  Game time is 7:05 PM Barry Zito versus Jeremy Sowers Zito is 2-11 on the year, with a 6.32 ERA. Sowers is 0-2 with a 6.57 ERA.  Seeing the ERA’s, you’d expect this one to be a high scoring affair, but after seeing the Indians’ offense, probably not.. The Baltimore Orioles had taken a 7-1 lead. I looked over to my brother and we agreed we’d rather watch the game at home and hope for a comeback there.After getting some more wings to go (Oh, how I love Buffalo Wild Wings) we hopped in the car and turned on Pat and Ron.Derrek Lee got a base hit Aramis Ramirez got a base hit.

And then something happened that gave everyone hope again, Jim Edmonds hit the long ball to left center-field, pulling the Cubs within three runs with two more innings to play.I started honking my horn and put the pedal to the metal to get home to watch the Cubbies pull off a come-from-behind win.I hate it when they get my hopes up; it felt like they had lost a playoff game, that’s how disappointed I was.I realize it’s just a game against the Orioles, and the Cubs still have a 3.5 game lead over St. Louis, but there was something majestic about a team who hadn’t been beaten at the Friendly Confines in 14 games, and I just couldn’t believe that it would ever come to an end.It almost didn’t. In fact, it shouldn’t have ended.It’s the bottom of the ninth Geovany Soto got a base hit DeRosa walked Daryle Ward got a base hit. Bases loaded with NOBODY out.A base hit would tie the game (at this point it was 7-5), an extra-base hit would win the game.

There was no one out, how could the Orioles possibly escape unscathed from such a patient Cubs team?Cedeno set the tone for the following two hitters He swung at every single pitch and struck out. Then something happened that I knew sealed the deal, Kosuke Fukudome, the most patient of the patient Cubs hitters, struck out swinging.While I was still upset when Blanco struck out after Fukudome, I wasn’t surprised.It was almost like it was a completely different batter from the man who had hit such a long home run in the bottom of the fourth. Fukudome had done so well earlier in the game that I thought there was no way we could possibly lose with him coming up.On a positive note, a pleasant surprise, in my opinion was Sean Marshall. In four-and-two-thirds innings, he struck out seven, but did give up seven hits. For a pitcher making his first big league start of the season, I give Marshall a thumbs up.Eric Patterson possibly was the second-biggest disappointment (next to Fukudome striking out in the ninth).

Along with doing next to nothing at the plate to the point where he was lifted for Blanco to pitch hit in the ninth he came in and called off both Edmonds and DeRosa for a ball DeRo clearly had, and then he dropped it to give the Orioles yet another person in scoring position.Had the Cubs been more patient in the bottom of the ninth, my drought of not seeing a Cubs win in nearly three weeks would’ve ended last night, hopefully tonight will be different.The Cubs home streak ends at 14…Let’s start a new one tonight Go Cubs!. The Chicago Bulls are in the driver’s seat.With a little over 24 hours remaining until Draft Day 2008, the Bulls, specifically GM John Paxson and coach Vinny Del Negro, are strapped in safely and are ready to ride into the future a future they hope will include a championship.In terms of who the Bulls want in the passenger seat to take the ride with them, that picture is clearing up more and more. The number one pick tomorrow will be, when it’s all said and done, Derrick Rose of Memphis.The stars will align and the Southsider, born and raised, will hear his name called by commissioner David Stern. He and his family will no doubt cry tears of great joy, knowing that their boy is home to stay.He’ll come to the stage, with the crowd on its feet, and he’ll be handed his uniform for his new career as the Chicago Bulls’ franchise point guard, and more importantly, franchise face.Believe it or not, though, the real intrigue to the 2008 NBA Draft for the Chicago Bulls won’t begin until after they make that number one pick.Mock drafts for the second round are quite an unnecessary process. The second round of the NBA Draft has three categories of players in it.First are your Gilbert Arenas’s of the world second-round gems who fall under the radar and, through the course of their careers, give the teams who passed them over fits.Second are your foreigners, or as I call them the San Antonio Specials.