Man, that sucked.
The Cubs owned Dave Bush, and Rich Hill owned the Brewers. Worst of all, Alfonso Soriano made a couple of nice plays in center field and Bill Hall...looked like an infielder playing out of position. The final score of 9-3 looks pretty lopsided, but if anything, it was even more lopsided than that.
I'd imagine many of you tuned in for the first inning, and didn't make it much longer. Ten Cubs came to the plate, and Chicago scored six times off of Bush in the first inning. Once Hill came out in the first and showed that he brought his A game, the contest was basically over.
That said, there are a couple of positives to take away. Bush went back out there and threw five shutout innings. If, as is reasonable to assume, the game was basically over at that point, the main goal for the rest of the evening is to avoid anything that will jeopardize our chances in future games. By going six, no important relievers needed to throw tonight, meaning every one except for Claudio Vargas and Carlos Villanueva will be fresh for the two games over the weekend.
The other encouraging thing was Corey Hart's home run. He's probably seen Hill more than most Brewers because they faced each other some in the minor leagues (I'm guessing), and his dinger to open the sixth inning was the first baserunner off of the Cub starter. It was the second ball Hart hit a long way; with a worse center fielder out there, Hart would've gotten a double in his first at-bat, too.
But that's about it. The Brewers came back a little bit in the 9th, scoring two more runs on a couple of doubles, including one from Kevin Mench, but all in all, it was a depressing scene. Fortunately, Dave Bush gave us five innings to remind us that he's not as bad as his first inning made him look; as Acheron pointed out in the comments in the game thread, perhaps Bush needs to throw batting practice before he starts, get those meatballs out of his system before it counts.
So, we're not going to sweep this one, but I still like our chances for a second consecutive series win. Ben Sheets tomorrow afternoon and Chris Capuano to follow. Keep the faith--Corey earned himself some more at-bats!