MACON, Ga. - Folks, I gotta tell ya, I've never seen someone so nervous before and during the opening stanza of Tuesday's tussle between your beloved Cubbies and the visiting Diamondbacks.
Holy cow!
This guy was pacing the dugout, rubbing his forehead. I mean his nerves were shot. He looked like he might lose his lunch at any minute...kinda like Ron Cey after a bender.
You see, Dylan Webb made his debut on the mound here tonight. But he wasn't the one in the aforenmentioned dire straits due to his first career start as a pitcher. Instead, it was his father who needed the Rolaids. The young right-hander handled it like a champ, en route to a 6-2 victory.
"I was pleasantly surprised," Brandon Webb, the drained - but proud - papa said after the game, which leaves the Cubs undefeated at 3-0. "He practiced well, but it's a different story when it's for real. A lot of times when you put a batter in the box it all goes out the window."
In a lone inning of work, Webb struck out one and did not allow a hit. Two batters reached on infield throwing errors and one scored an unearned run to give the visiting Diamondbacks an early 1-0 lead. All in all, however, it was a solid debut for the soon-to-be 8 year old.
Offensively, he singled and scored in the bottom half of the first as the Cubs took a 2-1 lead.
Then a fielding error by Webb while playing second base in the second inning allowed the Diamondbacks to even the score. But he redeemed himself in the third while playing shortsop. Webb scooped up a bloop hit and narrowly threw out the runner at first to help end the inning.
Returning to the plate in the fourth, he singled and reached third on a throwing error before scoring again. He is now 6-for-8 at the plate for the season, for a gaudy .750 batting average. He has driven in 5 runs and scored 5 times in the first three games.
The Cubs will be off for a week during Spring Break.
