It was only one game. Opening Day should set a tone, for the team and the fans.
The Cubs loss to the Nationals, 2-1, had some good but mostly bad overtones.
The good: Dempster had his best pitching performance in more than year (it probably helped that it was cold and batters did not like to swing and the wind was blowing in at gale force.)
The bad: some said Game One of 2012 was like witnessing Game 163 of 2011.
Two bad baserunning errors were critical in the game's outcome. Sveum said he told Soriano to steal third base. Why? He was already in scoring position. He has bad legs. He is not a base stealer. "Aggressive" baserunning is one thing; but stupid baserunning calls seems to be standard operating procedure, a continuation of Quade. Then sending Mather home on "contact" with less than two outs is also stupid. Every little leaguer knows you hold at third until the ball is through the infield or the ball is thrown toward first (and you have a large lead). Sveum's excuse was that if the ball was a foot left or right of Zimmerman at third, Mather scores. But that was not the play!! There is a fundamental grasp of baseball basics which has not changed at all, even though the coaching staff made great emphasis on running the bases in camp. The training and actual on-field calls are in conflict, which leads to lack of baseball intelligence in the players.
The bullpen concerns going into the season exploded into outright bleeding ulcers. Dempster threw 108 pitches and had to be relieved in the 8th. Kerry Wood is called to get two outs. He walks three batters and the game is tied. Horrible outing by a pitcher who the organization "babied" during spring training to not overuse him and "save him for the regular season." Rust is rust. Bad is bad. Wood was bad.
Then Marmol was not that much better. The staff began fiddling with his fastball grip just as camp was coming to an end. There is a problem filling a pitcher with known control issues new mechanics on how to throw instead of teaching him how to pitch in situations. Whatever was rattling around Marmol's skull in the 9th did not equate into a good performance on the mound.
The team's offense was more than anemic. It was non-existent. The team had a .095 batting average. And there was no indication that the team can manufacture a run if their lives depended upon it.
Nothing in the home opener changed the no expectation attitude that this will be a long, long season on the North Side.
