Big

That's the name of that old Tom Hanks movie which I came across part of on cable the other day.

It's also a good description of how important today's win was. It started out like yesterday's game -- down 5-0 after two innings. Normally you don't see Dusty Baker make the first trip out to the mound, but he did in the first inning, probably to remind Shawn Estes how tired the bullpen was, and that no matter what, he was going to go six innings today.

And darn if Estes didn't turn it right around and throw four pretty good innings, and the bullpen, particularly Mike Remlinger, was lights-out, setting the stage for the dramatic bottom-of-the-9th 6-5 win over the Cardinals this afternoon, on an absolutely gorgeous day.

Moises Alou started out like he was going to tie the ML record (5) for HR in consecutive games, homering on the first pitch he saw, and he also doubled and walked. It's a sign of how hot he is, that in that 9th inning, the Cardinals opted to pitch to Sammy Sosa and intentionally walk Alou, to pitch to our favorite walk-off guy, Alex Gonzalez, who beat out the bases-loaded infield hit for the win.

This team showed a lot of heart today, and that may be a cliche but I haven't seen Cub teams of the last few years play like this when things have started to go bad. That's a good sign for tomorrow, when Mark Prior gets to play ace of the staff. If he can beat Woody Williams, then it's a series win (the first since the Baltimore series) and back to a first-place tie.

Jeff came back to the bleachers after being in the terrace yesterday for the annual SIU day at the ballpark (they always do this when the Cubs and Cardinals play, since most SIU grads are fans of one or the other). I also brought my son Mark, who hadn't seen the Cubs win at home since last year. And Phil decided to regale me with silly stuff like "the Stones are playing the new Soldier Field" and "the Cubs are getting Ron Coomer back to play 3B". Laughing his head off, he was, during such a tense game. Sheesh.

We should be grateful that about halfway through the game, the wind, which was blowing out strongly at gametime, shifted and came in off the lake, because that's the only reason that Albert Pujols' deep fly ball stayed in the park.

And let me take this opportunity to say -- Lenny Harris must have compromising photos of Dusty or something. Why on Earth this guy ever gets a start is beyond me. Dave told me that apparently he had some career success against Matt Morris, and yes, he did have a single off him. So then why was he allowed to bat in the sixth off lefty Lance Painter? Of course, two batters later, Jose Hernandez, the obvious pinch hitter for Harris, batted for Shawn Estes, and I told Howard I wanted to write the strikeout down before he even batted. He asked me, "Swinging or called?" I said, "Swinging, of course, Jose doesn't go for those wimpy called strikeouts." Sure enough, that's exactly what he did.

I also questioned at the time, the pinch-hitting of Alex Gonzalez for Hee Seop Choi (against lefty Jeff Fassero), though of course that worked out when Gonzalez won the game. If Hee Seop is ever going to learn to hit lefties, he's got to start sometime, and also he can't sit on the bench half the time and expect to get his hitting stroke back. Incidentally, Choi and Ramon Martinez combined for some nifty defensive plays today on tough grounders, particularly off the speedy Bo Hart in the sixth.

So, for today at least, the ship seems to be righting itself.