Alfonso Soriano danced around late Tuesday night and got the Gatorade bucket filled with ice water dumped over his head.
Soriano had just smashed a two-out single off Cardinals second baseman Tyler Greene. The ball trickled away in the 10th inning, scoring Tony Campana and giving the Cubs a 3-2 walk-off victory at Clark and Addison.
We need that kind of emotion and belief, Soriano said afterward, above the dance beats pumping from the clubhouse stereo. We got to celebrate when were winning, because thats the best part.
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A blown save against the Cardinals last season prompted Carlos Zambrano to look in the direction of Carlos Marmols locker and deliver the We stinks! address.
No ones quite sure what the Cubs (6-12) are now, or what theyre going to become. But if the past two nights are any indication, its going to be unpredictable.
The last time the Cubs had back-to-back walk-off wins against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field was July 26-27, 1961, according to team historian Ed Hartig.
Its great, especially for a young ballclub, said Jeff Samardzija, who threw 6 23 scoreless innings that became a footnote. We know were going to be in a lot of these tight games.
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We know were not going to bang the ball around the park. We just need to pitch well and play good defense and when we get those opportunities to score runs, we need to get them across.
This one took three hours and 21 minutes. The boos became the soundtrack as Marmol walked back to the dugout in the middle of the eighth inning.
They had just watched Matt Holliday lift Marmols 2-2 slider over the wall in centerCampana thought it was close enough to make a jumpfor the go-ahead, two-out, two-run homer.
Manager Dale Sveum gave his closer a vote of confidence: Hell be right back out there tomorrow. And Bryan LaHair changed the subject in the ninth when he hit the teams first home run in nine games, a shot off left-hander Marc Rzepczynski that tied it at 2-2.
Soriano still hasnt homered yet, and on Tuesday snapped an 0-for-14 streak, and finally got his first extra-base hit of the season. Before the game, Sveum issued another vote of confidence and said he wouldnt drop Soriano in the order.
On a team thats looking to go young and inexpensive, Soriano is a symbol of the old way of doing business. Hes the 136 million man who enjoys being around the rookies.
It makes me young, Soriano said. I hang around with those guys, play with them, Im happy. I know that Im 36 years old, 11 years in the game, but with those guys, I feel like this is my first year in the big leagues, too. Im very happy that Im part of this team.
The Cardinals (11-7) wouldnt have made the playoffs and won the World Series last year if the Cubs had shown a little more fight and tightened up their game in St. Louis. Who knows where it will go from here?
(This) is an interesting little team with how we play and how we come to the park and work every day, Samardzija said. That starts up top. Dales been great since spring training with keeping our minds set on the right goal.
(Thats) to play the right way. What happens, the outcome of the game, is important, but its also about how you play the game and how it pans out for nine innings. In this case, it was 10, and we kept playing the whole game.