So my question is, did Prior's freak injury cause a sense of urgency in the Cubs? When the liner came back and smacked Prior on his throwing arm, causing a bone to fracture and every Cubs fan to roll their eyes and say to themselves, "Oh no, here we go again," the Cubs started hitting the ball.  Perhaps at that point they felt they had to start winning games for a guy that has been gutting it out, working through injuries, and throwing well but ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps the Cubs got angy after this and said "Enough!" and this anger energized and focused them leading to an offensive rhythm that had up to then been absent. Perhaps when Mark went down the Cubs realized that they weren't going to be able to rely on their pitching staff the way everyone has expected them to be able to. Whether it was anger or urgency, I don't care.  The Cubs went into Petco Park last night and smacked the Padres around for an 11 to 5 win.

This post must be short as we're going to brunch for my fiancée's birthday and then off to the ball park to see the day game. But, for those who couldn't stay up to watch the game - Maddux was 2005 Maddux, hanging in there, not consistently hitting his corners, but eventually getting them in there. I'm sorry if you didn't stay awake through the 5th inning. It seemed like it was never going to end and we were hoping it wouldn't (sort of).  That is, I got out of the middle of my row to wait in an aisle so I could run to the restroom after the Cubs third out of the inning - and it just wouldn't come!  I was afraid to leave in case I'd miss - oh, there it is! - another hit. It just kept going and the Cubs fans were ecstatic as you might imagine. The seven run fifth was all we needed.  Then even my Red Sox buddy and his wife said, "Looks like you're bringing in the third string."

I'd like to write more about (corporate name) ballpark and baseball in San Diego, but we're off to brunch and then to the ballpark for a day game we're very excited about.  So I'll blog more later.

Clay