Marshall yanked after 4+

Recently, I seemed to have lost sight as to the reason why I created this blog. It wasn't so that I could report on Cubs' news. If you want Cubs' news, go to cubs.com. It was for me to weigh in on the Cubs games and give my opinions about the Chicago Cubs, mainly Lou Piniella. I was so sick of ranting to everyone about Dusty Baker every time he made a dumb move that I decided to create a single blog that everyone can look at to get my opinions.

As most of you should know, a win doesn't mean that the manager did everything right. A loss doesn't mean that the manager did everything wrong. The wrong guys could step up and cover up a mistake and make the manager look like a genius. What am I talking about? How about Izturis' game winning bloop double about a week ago? I was screaming at my TV to use Ryan Theriot in that situation, but Lou let Izzy hit for himself anyway...

Now, coming off of a game in which the Chicago bullpen retired all fifteen batters that it faced (including nine strikeouts), it's time to again second-guess the Cubs' manager on a win. After 76 pitches and 4 runs, Marshall was pulled before he could record an out in the fifth inning. Sure, Marshall had given up three homeruns, but he had only allowed five hits -- just three in the first four innings.

If Marshall is gonna get pulled after his fourth run on every outing, the bullpen is going to be real busy. Let's not kid ourselves, Marshall isn't going run quality start after quality start out there every time, so why not let him pitch through some adversity? What better time to do it then when you're in a bandbox like Arlington? What better time to do it then when you're playing by AL rules?

Yes, only one run was scored by the two teams combined in the final four innings of the game, but did you really expect that? If you knew that was coming, then you're a genius and pulling Marshall would've been the right move. But, I certainly didn't know that was coming and neither did Lou!

Piniella brought Marmol into the game too early, but Marmol covered for his manager's error by throwing three dominating innings.