Wild Day at Wrigley: Bean Brawl, Near No-Hit Bid Between Cubs and Padres

You can call the Chicago Cubs a lot of things this year but just don't call them boring. They continued their string of wild games in the past two weeks with another high-drama day game at the "Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field" against the San Diego Padres. This time in the middle of the controversy for the Cubs was their mild-mannered, slugging first-baseman, Derek Lee.

The altercation came in the bottom of the fourth inning of a scoreless game when Padres pitcher Chris Young hit Lee with a high and tight pitch on his left hand (his dominant hand). Lee took offense to the location of the pitch and began slowly walking toward the direction of Young. The two exchanged words for a moment and then Lee came after Young with a hard right hook toward his head, only he missed. Young also missed with his attempt at a swipe towards Lee and then both players were restrained by their fellow teammates, who were all quickly on the field as soon as the fight broke out. Whether the beaning that Lee took was intentional is unclear. Young claimed that it was not.

"I will say this, I didn't throw at him and that's as far as I'll go. I didn't try to hit him. It had nothing to do with anything in the past. I was just trying to throw a pitch inside. It got away and hit him," claimed Young who was immediately ejected as was Lee, Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, and Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry

Lee who will likely be suspended for a few games at the very least had this to say about the incident, "I really don't mind getting hit, but when it's at my head, I feel like it threatened my health. I don't know what his intent was, but it was at my head and he said some things to me I didn't like. It just escalated."

Many playing on the field thought the beaning was payback for Cubs outfielder after the brawl.Alfonso Soriano's exaggerated homerun trot the day before where he took a few moments to admire his shot off Padres lefty David Wells.

However, the drama certainly didn't leave the playing field with Lee and Young. The Cubs powerful righty Carlos Zambrano was mirroring the performance of the Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander, who had thrown a no-hitter earlier this week. At least Zambrano was for the first 7 and one-thirds innings. That is until Hiram Bocachica hit a high chopper off Zambrano's glove and onto the Wrigley grass for the Padres first hit. Zambrano was able to escape the inning with no further damage.

Unfortunately for Zambrano, the Cubs offensive punch left with Lee when he threw one at Young. They were only able to scrap out a couple of hits all day and only had one real scoring chance when Ryan Theriot was thrown out at home when trying to score off a Zambrano sac fly in the fifth. In the ninth with Zambrano still pitching, Russell Branyan hit a solo homerun on a low pitch near the dirt into the left-centerfield stands. The one run would hold up for Padres closer Trevor Hoffman who set the Cubs down in order in the 9th. Zambrano pitched a complete game giving up just hits but was still handed his sixth loss of the season.

The Cubs have seemed to have a season's worth of drama and controversy in just the last two weeks.Starting with the Zambrano-Michael Barrett fight in the dugout two weeks ago, the Cubs have constantly found themselves amidst controversy. Pinella has since been ejected once and suspended for a few games and both Barrett and Zambrano have been fined since their scuffle in their own dugout. Soriano was hit by a pitch by Atlanta Braves pitcher Tim Hudson last Sunday night, many believed to have come as a result of Soriano's three-homer game just a couple of days earlier. This prompted Cubs lefty Ted Lilly to hit a Braves batter and immediately get himself ejected. And just yesterday two Cub fans were ejected for interfering with two possible homerun balls hit right in front of the "homerun baskets" just above Wrigley's trademark ivy walls. So today's wild game at Wrigley seemed to be just a microcosm of the Cubs past two weeks. Fortunately for all of us fans at home, their is still tomorrow's game to look forward to.