Piniella Juggles Cubs Lineup

By: kevinhill

Heading into their second road trip of the season the Cubs needed a spark. Having only scored one run in their previous twenty innings, they headed into arch rival St. Louis having lost two in a row. Lou Piniella decided it was time to do something different.

His lineup card for this game:

Ryan Theriot, SS
Kosuke Fukudome, RF
Alfonso Soriano, LF
Aramis Ramirez, 3B

Derrek Lee, 1B
Mike Fontenot, 2B
Geovany Soto, C
Reed Johnson, CF
Ryan Dempster, P

What do I like about this lineup. Most I like that Aramis moved ahead of Derrek Lee. Aramis doubled to extend his hitting streak to seven games. The guy is locked on and Lou finally put him where he belonged. Lou also moved Theriot to the lead off spot and dropped Soriano to third. Interestingly enough, Soriano doubled to lead off the eighth inning. His only hit in his only at bat with no on and no out.

Second interesting fact about the Soriano move. I have made the argument with Head in the Ivy that it doesn’t matter where Soriano hits because at the end of the game he is always in the position to win it for us. Tonight, in a one run game with one runner on, the last hitter ended up being Theriot. Had the lineup not been changed, it would have been Soriano. Now I know baseball is situational, meaning any one play or change affects everything else that happens. So it may not be fair to say that if Soriano stayed at lead off, he would have been at the plate in the same situation. It’s fun to think about though.

Lou admitted the shakeup didn’t exactly work out as planned. Only Fontenot had a rbi as the other two runs were scored on an error and a double play ball by Theriot. That just made me realize, Soriano would have been at bat with the bases loaded in that spot. Let’s see what he does today as the Cubs work to get back on track and start climbing the standings ladder.