Tuesday, April 18, 2006 |
Bad Ohman For The Cubs: Dodgers 2, Cubs 1
But Carlos Zambrano, the erstwhile rock of the Cubbie rotation, continues his struggles atop the mound. This is his rockiest start in recent memory, and tonight's game — in which he only pitched six innings, burning through 112 pitches — did little to change that perception. As he struggles to control his mercurial temper, so does he struggle to control his pitching; tonight's was only his second quality start in four on the season so far.
Neither side particularly outhit the other, though the Dodgers, uncharacteristically of late, managed to capitalize on a Kenny Lofton walk to Will Ohman in the ninth. Ohman, who at best was a fringy candidate for the Cubs' pen, probably signed his own ticket back to AAA Iowa with tonight's performance, ending the day with a 21.60 ERA. But this leads to another question: with Scott Williamson (and his 1.42 ERA) available in the pen, why did Dusty not use him in preference to Ohman? Dodger fans respectfully ignore such questions, and gratefully accept the win handed to them by their former charge.
Update: Here's the WPA graph:
WPA graph courtesy of Dave Appelman and fangraphs.com.
No surprise that the home team had a slight advantage all night long, and obviously Will Ohman's surrender of the game-winning single to J.D. Drew was the big news; Drew was an even bigger contributor to his team in winning than Ohman was to the Cubs in losing.
Update: Studes writes to inform me that I should mention David Appelman and fangraphs.com as the source of these graphs. Thank you both for providing this wonderful service.
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