Piniella happy but not content
Last time it took a hurricane.
This time, it only felt like one.
When Carlos Zambrano hurled a no-hitter last September in Milwaukee, taking down the homeless Astros sent north by Hurricane Ike, the distracted and distraught Houston club provided absolutely no challenge.
On Monday, it was blowing a bitterly cold gale off Lake Michigan and right at Wrigley Field, and Ted Lilly took full advantage of the miserably frozen, Opening Day conditions by challenging the offensively challenged Rockies and daring them to swing hard.
They did, and for awhile it looked like Lilly might just get himself a no-hitter amid the fog, rain and wind chill.
He took it into the seventh, before a two-out single by Garrett Atkins ended the dream and ripped a difficult decision from the frigid claws of a grateful Lou Piniella.
"It's early in the season to let a pitcher go much more than what he pitched,'' the Cubs manager said of Lilly, who tossed 104 pitches. "You're (asking) for problems there.''
Once a basehit was on the board, Piniella wanted only to see his club finish a decent game for a change, and he got that in a 4-0 victory over the Rockies.
"That was a good ballgame,'' Piniella said with a satisfied grin. "Good all the way around.''
Lilly (2-0), who was awful in Houston last week, turned it around Monday, keeping the ball down, throwing strikes, changing speeds and letting the Rockies get themselves out.
"It was a cold, raw day to play ball in,'' Piniella said. "But Lilly really mastered the weather.''
That the Cubs threw a 1-hitter was of no significance to Piniella. What mattered was that the Cubs threw strikes, at least until reliever Aaron Heilman walked a batter with one out in the eighth and a 3-0 lead.
The Cubs entered the game with the third-most walks issued, and Piniella hasn't tried to hide his disgust with the relievers' lack of commitment to the strike zone.
So after Heilman went to 2-0 on the next hitter, Piniella went to the mound and strongly suggested to Heilman that he might try throwing strikes, though in language that would make a truck driving lip-reader blush.
"I never mind that,'' Heilman said. "It was a good reminder. He just said, 'Trust your stuff and be aggressive.' ''
Not to mention, "Throw (bleeping) strikes!''
Heilman got the message, and the next two hitters, leaving closer Kevin Gregg to strike out the side in the ninth and end it quietly.
"We have some work to do with this team, believe me,'' Piniella said. "But we're pleased to be 5-2.''
Asked to elaborate on what that work might be, Piniella smiled and said, "Let's just keep winning, OK?''
The job ahead
Only a week into the season, you have to wonder about the patience of one Louis Victor Piniella.
Between injuries, bullpen issues, and some veterans' lack of hitting, the Cubs manager sounds like a man ready to make changes.
One might involve reliever Luis Vizcaino. Piniella has allowed Vizcaino to face precisely two batters in 2009.
It doesn't help that - from what we hear - Vizcaino began the season by skipping an off-day workout and being late to the park twice.
The problem for GM Jim Hendry is Vizcaino's $3.5 million salary, plus a $500,000 buyout for next year.
If not for that, you'd have to think Vizcaino would be gone already.
First things first
Derrek Lee picked a good time to go 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
Hitting .080 entering the contest, there was no shortage of whispers that Lou Piniella was on the verge of getting Micah Hoffpauir some playing time.
At least for the time being, that notion might have been shelved.
Harry Kalas
There was universal sadness at Wrigley Field on Monday as word spread that Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas had passed away at 73, after collapsing in the booth in Washington.
"He had probably the greatest voice in sports broadcasting history,'' said Cubs play-by-play man Len Kasper. "For me personally, it's a huge loss. He was always so good to me.
"Especially as a young broadcaster in Florida, trying to make my way, he always had a kind word, always had an encouraging word.
"What a terrible way for it to happen, in the booth like that. It's tragic for baseball. It really is.''
Kalas, who broadcast Phillies games since 1971, was born in Naperville and graduated from Naperville High School in 1954.
Danger zone
Scariest moment of Opening Day came in the top of the third, which featured a bench-clearing brawl in the second row of the right-field bleachers near the 368 sign. Icy heads prevailed and it seemed to end without too much damage.
In the dirt
Rick Sutcliffe bounced in his ceremonial first pitch to catcher Jody Davis, earning him a boatload of abuse from all his friends in attendance.
When the catcher was asked if Sutcliffe had lost anything off his fastball, Davis replied, "Yeah, about five feet.''
The quote
Lou Piniella on Reed Johnson: "He's just a good, old-fashioned kid who plays baseball the way it's meant to be played.''
And finally ...
Cubs radio analyst Ron Santo: "I'm really trying to stay on an even keel this year, because I really believe this is the year. On the other hand, it's possible that this isn't the first time I've said those things.''
brozner@dailyherald.com