The Cubs Chronicle

Well, that was a nice debut. Cubs pitching prospect Todd Wellemeyer, called up when Sammy Sosa went on the DL, struck out the side in the bottom of the 17th inning today in his major league debut. Wellemeyer earned the save, giving the Cubs a four-game sweep of Milwaukee, after the Cubs went up 4-2 in the top half of the inning on a two-run homer by Corey Patterson. Granted, Wellemeyer faced Eddie Perez, Royce Clayton, and Brooks Kieschnick, all of whom could blend in nicely on any Triple-A roster. But Wellemeyer looked good. He threw a mid-90s fastball, as well as a hard slider that didn’t seem to me to break a whole lot (Perez didn’t have any trouble fouling off a couple). It was Wellemeyer’s changeup, though, that really impressed. In fact, his changeup was the pitch that struck out all three batters.

If you saw Moises Alou hug Patterson after the game, you know that the Cubs are having a lot of fun right now. I am too. Winning does that.

Confidence is a fun thing. Even though the Cubs were facing Ben Sheets, whom they’d never beaten, and had Tom Goodwin, Lenny Harris, Eric Karros, and Troy O’Leary all in the starting lineup, I wasn’t that pessimistic. (Note: Karros has been good this year, but not against right-handed pitchers; he did hit a home run off Sheets, though.) Which is a change for me. Of course, they were facing the Brewers, but still, Kerry Wood showed no ill-effects after his 141 pitch outing (though that doesn’t mean he won’t later on), the bullpen this side of the two closers was great, and Patterson was the offensive hero.

On to St. Louis.

UPDATE (11:00pm): Brian Carstens, Scott Lange, The Cub Reporter, Let’s Play Two, Out in the Bleachers, and Yarbage Cub Review all have thoughts on today’s game. If the Cubs don’t lead the league in anything, they at least lead the league in quality team-specific blogs, with all due respect to the other team-specific blogs out there.