Coming off the division title years in 2007 and 2008, hopes were high for a three-peat in 2009.
But the Cubs struggled for much of the early going in ‘09. They kept near first place, but after mid-April
were not again in first place — until July 26, when a win over the Reds put them at 51-45 and half a game ahead of the Cardinals.
The Astros came to town for a four-game set beginning on a Monday evening.
And neither team did very much in the way of hitting or scoring. Carlos Lee homered off Carlos Zambrano in the second inning, but the Astros didn’t score again through the ninth. The Cubs’ sole run through regulation time was also a solo homer, by Derrek Lee off Wandy Rodriguez. The Cubs had just six hits through nine, the Astros four.
The Astros got a runner to scoring position in the 10th and 11th, but could not score. The Cubs got a runner to scoring position with two out in the 12th — nothing doing.
Finally, the Cubs broke the deadlock in the 13th. Lee led off with a walk and Aramis Ramirez singled him to third. To set up a force at any base, Milton Bradley was intentionally walked.
Up stepped Alfonso Soriano. All the Cubs needed, with nobody out, was a deep fly ball.
The Cubs took three of four from the Astros in that series, but they would fall out of first place in early August. They had a 57-48 record on Aug. 4 and were tied for first with the Cardinals, but went 8-16 the rest of the month and fell far behind, finally finishing the year 83-78, 7.5 games out of first place.
Soriano, who had been signed to the biggest contract in franchise history before 2007, was traded away in 2013 as Theo Epstein tore down the team to do a rebuild. He was sent to the Yankees with two-plus years left on that deal for a right-handed pitching prospect named Corey Black, who never made the majors.
Soriano hit 181 home runs in his six-plus Cubs seasons and was a good teammate. If the Cubs had won the World Series in 2007 or 2008, something that certainly was possible, no one would have cared about the rest of the contract. Instead, it served as an example of the right intentions that failed to be fulfilled.
Last note: You’ll notice the Cubs were wearing their blue alternate jersey at home for this game. They did this from time to time around then, but when the Ricketts family bought the Cubs they decided they wanted the team to wear only the white pinstripes at Wrigley Field, which I think is the right call (apart from certain alternates, like the Wrigleyville set and the Chicago Blues set worn in recent years)
