Reed Johnson dominated Jays-Cubs series
* Whether he was with the Chicago Cubs running amongst the birds or playing for the Blue Birds, Reed Johnson's team won six of nine meetings between the Cubs and the Blue Jays. ....
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By Bob Elliott
As the Chicago Cubs arrive at the Rogers Centre for their 10th career game against the Blue Jays, it’s easy to pick the top five games ever played between Toronto and the Cubs.
Management of both teams might spend Monday morning trying to do is acquire outfielder Reed Johnson from the Miami Marlins. Just kidding.
But man Johnson enjoy the first three Cubs-Jays series. Playing for Toronto in 2003 and 2005, then with the Cubs in 2008, he hit .353 (12-for-34) with a double, triple, five home runs and 10 RBIs. The team Johnson played with won six of nine games.
The top 5 ...
1. June 14, 2003, SkyDome
Jays 5, Cubs 4
Johnson led off the bottom of the 10th hitting a 2-0 pitch from Mark Guthrie for a walk-off homer. Troy O’Leary grand slam off Cory Liddle had tied the score 4-4. Earlier in the game Johnson homered off Cubs starter Shawn Estes.
2. June 8, 2005, Wrigley Field
Cubs 2, Jays 0
Sergio Mitre, Michael Wuertz and Ryan Dempster combined on a three-hit shutout (singles to Frank Catalanotto Aaron Hill and Johnson). It was one of Mitre’s four wins in his 18 starts for the Cubs.
Roy Halladay pitched seven innings allowing two runs in the second to be tagged with the loss. After a Todd Hollandsworth double, Mitre doubled him home and a Corey Patterson singled in a run.
3, June 14, 2008, Rogers Centre
Cubs 6, Jays 2
Johnson hit a three-run homer off Halladay, who allowed six runs -- two earned -- as shortstop David Eckstein had a two-out clank on a Ronny Cedeno grouder. Matt Stairs tripled for the Jays while Kevin Mench tripled and Brad Wilkerson doubled.
4. June 13, 2003, SkyDome
Jays 5, Cubs 1
Chris Woodward, Greg Myers and Johnson, all hit solo homers off Kerry Wood as Kelvim Escobar was impressive pitching 8 1/3 innings. Despite allowing 12 hits, Escobar struck out 10,
It was the first meeting between the Cubs (est. 1876) and the Jays (est. 1977).
5. June 15, 2008, Rogers Centre
Cubs 7, Jays 4
After turning down the Jays money to re-sign as a free agent, Ted Lilly pitched six scoreless for the Cubs.
Gregg Zaun homered against reliever Neal Cotts.
The others, in 2003: Mark Prior pitched 5 2/3 innings allowing two unearned runs in a 4-2 win with Doug Davis taking the loss (four runs in six innings) as Carlos Delgado homered, Howie Clark tripled and Vernon Wells had two hits.
In 2005: Gustavo Chacin pitched seven scoreless beating the Cubs 4-1, allowing five hits and striking out six. Miguel Batista picked up the save. Johnson hit a three-run homer against John Koronk. Aramis Ramirez homered against Vinnie Chulk. Michael Barrett homered twice against Josh Towers and Jason Frasor in a 6-4 loss. Hill and Zaun had run-scoring singles to make a winner out of Scott Schoeneweim as Batista picked up the save.
In 2008: Stairs hit a two-run homer and Scott Rolen followed with a homer as A.J. Burnett pitched five innings and B.J. Ryan closed it out for a 3-2 win.