Chicago Herald-American

The Tribune's Phil Rogers gave former Cubs reliever Scott Eyre a chance to gloat over his good fortune of helping the Phillies win the World Series last year after pitching his way out of town with the Cubs in this story in Monday's paper. 

"I'm going to get a big old ring," Eyre said. "I get to be a defending World Series champion all season, until we're eliminated. I know some guys have played in a lot of World Series, but just to win one ... yes, this has worked out all right."

Eyre had a 7.15 ERA in 19 appearances with the Cubs in 2008. After being traded to the Phillies on Aug. 7, he had a 1.88 ERA in 19 appearances with the Phillies. He allowed one earned run in 3 innings in the postseason. In the World Series, he faced one batter in Games 3 and 4 and got them both out.

What made the difference? "Hell, we just have him the ball," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told Rogers.

If only it were that simple. Piniella gave Eyre the ball quite often at the start of the 2008 season. In fact, its only when he seem to give him the ball too much that Eyre lost his effectiveness. Eyre pitched 10 times in a 19-game stretch from May 30-June 19 and only got worse. In a five-game stretch over eight days he allowed the first batter he faced to reach base four times.

It all came to a head on June 19 in Tampa Bay, when Eyre, protecting a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning but pitching for the sixth time in 10 days, allowed a crushing grand slam to Carl Crawford, then a triple, double, sacrifice fly and another double to all but put the finishing touches on a three-game sweep that clearly took the wind out of the Cubs' sails. Prior to that series in Tampa Bay the Cubs had won 16 of their previous 20 games. After the Tampa Bay sweep, they would not be that hot again until September, when they won nine of their last 11.

That game officially put Eyre in Lou Piniella's doghouse. He didn't pitch for a week, retiring one of three batters while mopping up an 11-4 loss to the Orioles. Then he didn't pitch for another month when, facing the heart of the Brewers' order, got one out then allowed three consecutive singles in the ninth inning of an 11-4 victory. He was traded a week later.

Maybe Piniella overreacted to Eyre's relatively small stretch of poor performances in June (Rogers' column would have been even better if he had gotten response from Piniella on the subject -- did Lou think in retrospect that he gave up too soon on Eyre?). But considering the pressure-cooker Piniella lives in with the Cubs, you can see how it happened.

Regardless, Eyre has to take some of the blame for his stroke of good fortune.