Cubs pitchers give up five runs. Three times in the same game!

In addition to the Cubs Classic Moment turned in by Starlin Castro, the Cubs accomplished a rare feat even for them on Sunday afternoon. They managed to allow the Mets to score five runs in an inning in three separate innings in the game. How rare is this? That is the first time the Mets have done that from an offensive standpoint in their entire history (since 1962). And it the first time since 1967 that the Cubs have given up five (or more) runs in three different innings. I looked back at the boxscore from that game in 1967 and noticed a parallel between that game and Sunday's game. Both games were started by decent middle of the rotation starters (Ryan Dempster & Ray Culp), saw a decent reliever appear late in the game (Sean Marshall & Bill Hands), and otherwise included a slew of unproven rookies and has beens throughout the rest of the game (Scott Maine, Marcus Mateo, Scott Russell, Thomas Diamond in 2010 - John Upham, Bob Hendley, Dick Radatz, Joe Niekro in 1967). The starters were responsible for their share of runs in both games (3 ER in both games for the starters), but the rest of the runs in both games were given up by pitchers that probably had no business taking the hill in a major league game. That probably shouldn't come as a surprise though!




In looking back through history, the Cubs were actually on the good side of it the last time this event happened in baseball. They scored 6 runs in the 1st, 5 in the 4th, and 6 in the 8th in a 19-6 victory over the Brewers on April 30, 2008.