This past Friday I attended Opening Day at Wrigley Field on April 1. The Chicago Cubs played the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was a good game with the Cubs leading 2-0 heading into the fifth inning until one pitch cost that bit the Cubs the rest of the game happened. This one pitch was a grand slam hit by Neil Walker of the Pirates found the street on Sheffield Avenue. Then again in the seventh inning another Pirate hit a two-run homer into the left field bleachers.
The debate of who the Opening Day starter for second base went to Darwin Barney. Both Barney and Starlin Castro combined for five hits. Castro made two impressive defensive plays. On the first play of the game, Castro went up the middle and made a great play to rob Pirates player Jose Tabata of a hit. When Carlos Pena saw the play that Castro made he said he didn’t know of many shortstops that could make that play.
Opening day for me was a day that I will remember for a long time. It was a chilly, windy and rainy day. It was a sellout and many true Cubs fans were out in full force. Even though the game didn’t turn out the way I wanted it was still a day to remember. In one of my other blogs I predicted the Cubs would win their Opening day game but I predicted wrong. That now makes the Cubs 1-8 in the last nine years for Opening Day.
On Tuesday the Cubs played the Arizona Diamondbacks and won the game 6-5. Since Carlos Pena had a sprained thumb, Tyler Colvin started at first base. This was Colvin’s first Major league game as a Major league first baseman. Colvin had a two-run homer in the third inning, his first homerun of the 2011 season. Colvin handled the eleven chances in the field flawlessly. This was Colvin’s first homer since September 15th of last year. Last season, he was hit in the chest by a broken bat that collapsed his lung on September 19th against the Florida Marlins Andrew Cashner also had his first big league start and left the game early due to shoulder stiffness.
After a 3-2 start the Cubs continue to get better and look better than they did last year at the beginning of the 2010 season. As long as the injury bug doesn’t continue to haunt the Cubs they could possibly be looking at playing in October now that the team is younger and don’t have as much pressure
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