I shouldn't complain, not after the Cubs win again, 11-7 over the Astros on a muggy afternoon that had hints of yesterday's rainfall even while the sun was shining most of the day.

But I'm going to anyway, just for a moment. What were Lou and Bob Howry thinking? With two out, a runner on second and Carlos Lee at bat and the Cubs hanging on to a precarious 6-5 lead in the top of the seventh, it's an absolute no-brainer. Put Lee, who came into today's game with a .698 SLG and 14 HR in 44 career games at Wrigley Field, on first base with an intentional walk and summon Sean Marshall to pitch to Geoff Blum.

But no. Either Lou told Howry to "go get him" or Howry had Lou convinced that he could get Lee, so instead of doing the obvious, Howry laid a fastball right in Lee's proverbial wheelhouse and Lee deposited it far into the LF bleachers (or maybe even on the street, I didn't see where it landed) for a 7-6 Houston lead; the Cubs had thus frittered away an early 6-1 advantage, hitting the ball all over the yard against Wandy Rodriguez.

The complaint department is now closed. Mike said he wasn't worried even after that; he said the Cubs had been hitting the ball hard all day (they had) and figured they had a few more runs in them. He was right -- they hit relievers Chris Sampson, Wesley Wright and Doug Brocail just as hard if not harder than Rodriguez, tying the game on a couple of hard-hit balls by Reed Johnson and Mark DeRosa and a Kosuke Fukudome sac fly, and then after Daryle Ward drew his second pinch-intentional walk in the last week (giving him three pinch IBB for the year and ten pinch walks; the ML record for a season is 18), Alfonso Soriano won the game with his 20th HR of the year into the second row in left field.

This made a "winner" out of Howry -- well, he gets credit for the victory, yet more proof that individual pitcher wins are meaningless. The team win -- and this was yet another win with virtually everyone contributing -- is, of course, the goal every single day and to me, it doesn't really matter how they get there. Incidentally, the win made the Cubs 42-16 at home and thus clinched a winning home season -- with 23 home games remaining.

Rich Harden had his worst outing as a Cub and it still wasn't all that bad -- eight strikeouts, but two HR allowed, including a two-run job by Blum that cut the lead to 6-5, after many hits and walks by virtually everyone in the lineup in the first two innings had brought six Cubs home. Reed Johnson got hit by a pitch for the eleventh time this year in the first inning, loading the bases for Mark DeRosa, who doubled home two with a bloop; in the second it was Harden bunting -- attempting a sacrifice -- but winding up with a hit, his first as a Cub, and Soriano and Derrek Lee (who went 4-for-5) contributing with key singles.

And then it almost got away till Soriano's blast. After that, Kerry Wood made his return from the DL. Let's be honest -- he wasn't really fooling anyone today, as all four Astros hit the ball fairly hard off him, but three of them hit it right at Cub fielders. Wood threw only seven pitches, six of them strikes, and looked just fine; this was a good tuneup for his eventual return to closing. Carlos Marmol threw 15 pitches (11 strikes) in finishing up today in a non-save situation; he could probably go again tomorrow, or Jeff Samardzija could close if needed. Scott Eyre was DFA'd to make room for Wood, and that gives the Cubs a week to work out a trade. Eyre has cleared waivers and there's apparent interest in him from several AL contending teams. The Cubs will likely have to eat about $1 million of his contract -- that's fine with me, as long as some sort of useful prospect comes in return.

One more small quibble with today's game: Astros catcher Humberto Quintero walked again. That's two days in a row after 65 PA this year without a single base on balls. How do you DO that?

After last night's deluge it was nice to see the sun today, and after a cold front passes through the area tonight, the rest of the homestand should be played in delightful weather conditions, perhaps muting the recent calls for more night games. It truly has not been a hot summer in Chicago -- there's been quite a bit more rain and storms than usual, although until last night, there hadn't been many rain delays and no rainouts, and last night was the first Cub home game shortened to less than nine innings by weather since a 5 1/2 inning, 4-2 win over the White Sox on July 3, 2004.

Note to all: at the last minute I have available two bleacher tickets for tomorrow afternoon's game. Price $45 each. Email if interested -- I will meet you at the ballpark tomorrow. My email link is on the left sidebar. Thanks for your emails -- tickets are gone.

Onward to tomorrow and let's win another series. Go Reds! Go Dodgers!

Len Kasper said it best, right after Hunter Pence hit the grand slam that held up for Houston's 4-2 win over the Cubs last night. It wasn't "one bad pitch", as is often said when an opposing player hits a key home run.

In the case of last night's game, it was the eight pitches out of the strike zone that Ryan Dempster threw in the Houston fourth inning after Miguel Tejada had led off the inning with a double.

They were the only two walks Dempster issued -- not terrible for a six-inning outing -- but that was the difference in the game, all six runs scoring as the result of home runs; Aramis Ramirez had hit a ball way up on the outfield facing to give the Cubs a two-run lead in the top of the fourth inning. This has been Dempster's problem throughout his career -- too many walks.

The Cubs didn't leave too many men on base last night -- only seven -- but did leave RISP in the 5th, 7th and 9th, and the 7th was the inning that they should have gotten to Chris Sampson and Doug Brocail, who relieved Sampson, because in that inning there were two singles and a walk. Unfortunately, in between the two singles, Jim Edmonds hit into a double play, and then after Micah Hoffpauir reached base for the first time in his brief ML career by drawing a walk, Brocail was summoned and he struck out Alfonso Soriano to end the inning. Edmonds is now 2-for-12 as a Cub with a walk, two strikeouts, and one DP ball. He'll have to do better than this to justify the move.

Funny game, baseball. Soriano and Lance Berkman came into this series as the two hottest hitters in the game. They are a combined 1-for-15 in this series so far.

Good news: Jose Ascanio, just recalled, made his Cubs debut, and despite walking two Astros, managed to get through two innings without allowing any runs. The Astros out-walked the Cubs four to two last night, and that, essentially, was that. I have confidence that Sean Gallagher, who has thrown well in both his starts so far, can beat Houston and Shawn Chacon (who has the unusual distinction of making nine starts this year so far, all no-decisions) and win the series tonight.

More good news: Derrek Lee had three more hits last night and seems to be coming out of his slump. There was some talk about starting Hoffpauir tonight to give D-Lee two days off in a row, but maybe now he doesn't need that.

Finally, the controversy over Geovany Soto's HR Monday night (was it really officially "outside" the park based on ground rules) prompted a major meeting of MLB umpiring and other officials early Tuesday:

In response to a somewhat controversial call made during Monday's series opener between the Cubs and Astros, officials reworked one of the yellow lines that indicates a home run, located just to the right of the "bmcsoftware" sign above the visitors' bullpen in left-center.

Bob Watson, MLB vice president rules and on-field operations, called it a more "umpire-friendly" line, which will better differentiate between a home run and a ball in play.

A yellow wood board that served as a home run indicator was removed, and in its place is a simple yellow painted line, drawn on the inside part of the wall.

via chicago.cubs.mlb.com

The Cubs maintained their two-game division lead when the Cardinals lost late last night in San Diego. That's really all there is to say -- sometimes, you just get beat. Until later today.