Look, I'm not claiming I know more about baseball than Lou Piniella... but if I had my team on the road for game one of the playoffs... and I had my ace on the mound and he is matching the other team's Ace inning for inning... and he has 8 Ks in 6 innings... I'd let him pitch the 7th.I'd push him to 100 pitches.
I'd say "We have a chance to beat this team, get homefield advantage, win the game that they threw their ace and get the edge in a best of five series."
Call me nuts!
Forget 100 pitches, he never threw 90!
This is not a second guess... this is what I, and I assume 99% of Cubs fans were thinking!
When he came out before the 7th began, I just assumed he was injured.
But Piniella explained in the post game press conference that he is bringing Zambrano back on 3 days rest.
Um... not if the Diamondbacks win game 3 you aren't!
If Rich Hill wins game 3, Zambrano comes back to win game 4 and Mr Throw the Glove after a homer Ted Lilly clinches it, I'll eat a big bowl of crow.
But maybe then Lou might hold Zambrano back as well... got to save him for the World Series!
The Cubs only had 3 pitchers and I can understand why Sweet Lou took Big Z out early but Carlos Marmol came into game 1 with only 3 home runs surrendered all year and he let Mark Reynols (first batter he faced) get a hold of won. Now Piniella looks like a fool when he shouldn't.
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