Ben Grieve and Neifi Perez were welcomed into the “Lemons” Wednesday, joining the club of Cubs reserves in time for the stretch run.
Tom Goodwin, one of the charter members of the Lemons, informed Grieve of the group’s nickname before telling him he was “freshly squeezed.”
“I was kind of shocked when they told me I was traded, and then they told me it was the Cubs,” Grieve said. “At first I was surprised they needed me or wanted me. I hadn’t been playing a whole lot over in Milwaukee. I was excited.”
Grieve may be the Cubs’ primary left-handed bat off the bench when they need a home run. General manager Jim Hendry likes Grieve’s ability to hit for power.
“I know I had a couple of good at-bats against the Cubs coming off the bench,” he said. “I had a double off [Carlos] Zambrano that one day. I’m glad [Hendry] was watching. I didn’t know I was hitting that well for them to want me to come over here, but I’m glad he saw something he liked.”
Grieve will be a free agent after the season after signing a one-year, $700,000 deal with the Brewers last winter. The Cubs will owe him only around $117,000 for the remainder of the season.
Todd Hollandsworth’s status (stress fracture in leg) is still uncertain.
October revisited
The actual dates are uncertain because of Hurricane Frances, but the pitching matchups for the Cubs-Marlins series are Zambrano vs. A.J. Burnett in the first game, Matt Clement vs. Dontrelle Willis in the second game and Greg Maddux vs. Josh Beckett in the finale.
Burnett, who was injured last year and didn’t face the Cubs in the postseason, struck out 14 in his last outing. The Cubs and Marlins haven’t played since Game 7 of the NLCS last October.
“It’s real weird,” manager Dusty Baker said. “What’s weird is they had a 20 percent turnover in personnel when the season started, and now they’ll have some added guys in September, so even more guys you don’t really know. I’ve never done this this late in the year, when you go into September without playing a particular team, and then you play them twice in a week, just like us and Montreal.”
Will the series conjure up bad memories of last October?
“We haven’t seen them in so long, at this point I’d say no,” Baker said. “Once we see them, who knows what memories it may bring back. It’s like you don’t see somebody for a long time, and all of a sudden you see them and start thinking about some of the good times and bad times.”
