With his slow and ornery start to the season, Milton Bradley has already heard his share of boos at Wrigley. He turned the jeers into cheers on Tuesday night with a two-run sixth-inning bomb high into the center field bleachers, propelling the Cubs to a 6-2 win over Jake Peavy and the Padres. As Bradley circled the bases, he goofily placed his index finger behind his ear as a mock silencing of his critics, or who knows what.
“I was basically telling the fans that I’m a complete idiot,” said Bradley. “It doesn’t matter if you boo me or cheer me, I’m going to continue to do stupid things and then I’ll probably tear my hamstring while blinding raging over a blown call and miss the rest of the season.”
Rich Harden pitched six solid innings for his fourth win of the season and miraculously has yet to miss a start with his torn shoulder. Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg each notched scoreless innings out of the pen to secure the win. If any of the relievers got in trouble, Manager Lou Piniella did have his secret weapon, Neal Cotts, warming up to save the game.
“Look, we had Cotts up just in case,” said Piniella.”“In case of what, I’m not too sure, but thankfully we never had to go there.”
The Bobby Scales for MVP Watch
The 31-year-old career minor leaguer hit his first big league home run on Tuesday night and extended his hitting streak to five. Seriously.
Number of the game: 3
Strikeouts in as many at-bats for Derrek Lee, who returned to the lineup after missing the last week with a bulging disk in his neck. Calling Micah Hoffpauir … anyone, anyone.
By Jeremy Barewin
