(with all credit to the late Jack Buck for the headline)

Walking down Sheffield back to my car, I ran into a man wearing a BCB shirt -- sorry, I didn't even get your name -- and we shook hands and hardly even knew what to say about the Cubs' incredible, dramatic, awesome, breathtaking, electrifying, exciting, gripping, intense, moving, riveting, sensational 7-6 win over the Brewers. (Yes, I got all those from thesaurus.com.) We marveled over the comeback, the ups and downs, and he walked one way and I walked the other... and I still almost can't believe it.

There have been quite a number of incredible comebacks this season -- the comeback from being down 9-0 to Colorado on May 30 comes first to mind, along with being down 5-0 to the Marlins in the third on July 27 and winning 9-6. There are others. But I don't think I have ever seen, ever, in all the years I've watched baseball, a last-of-the-ninth comeback that good -- two out, nobody on base, down four runs, and having it capped by a three-run, no-doubt-about-it, first-pitch homer by Geovany Soto. He was the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year anyway; I suspect that clinches it, and it might get him some MVP votes, too. But as Lou said in his postgame press conference, "Let's knock two more numbers down, then we can talk about awards." (And let's stop talking about when we 'want' the Cubs to clinch, too -- just do it!)

Amen, Lou. And here, I was getting ready to write a scathing criticism of Lou for the way he mismanaged the sixth inning into a four-run rally for the Brewers. Not for putting Jeff Samardzija in the game -- although Samardzija didn't have much, it was Mark DeRosa's error that opened the door for the four unearned runs, and that's a play DeRo makes 99 times out of 100. No, it was for not bringing in Neal Cotts to turn Ray Durham around, after Mike Cameron had driven in the first run of the inning. Durham's hitting .305 lefthanded and .224 righthanded this year. Why wouldn't you want a lefty pitching to him?

Lou seems to have an aversion to the LOOGY idea -- and I'm not married to it, like Dusty Baker was -- but this was absolutely, positively the situation to use it. Instead, Samardzija was left in, and predictably, Durham singled in a run. It took two more hits and a walk before Lou finally yanked him for Randy Wells. Wells walked in a run before ending the carnage.

And then it started turning around. Wells retired the next seven hitters he faced; give the guy credit. He's not really a prospect at age 26, and he won't be on any playoff roster (at this rate, neither will Samardzija), but he kept the game close and then, after Cotts finally got into the game in the 9th, he gave up a leadoff double to Prince Fielder -- that's when good defense helped the Cubs out... the Brewers ran themselves into two outs on the basepaths, setting up the incredible bottom of the ninth.

Dave said he had never heard the ballpark that loud -- and that's with about 20% of the crowd having left early, too.

The game moved on, with neither team being able to capitalize on opportunities. Carlos Marmol threw a 1-2-3 tenth, and Kerry Wood had excellent stuff in striking out the side in the 11th -- then he ran into trouble in the 12th, but got out of it in a way you hardly ever see (and having thrown 33 pitches today, won't be available tomorrow. Marmol threw only 12 pitches, and so will likely close on Friday if needed). I hate the pulled-in infield, because so many times you'll see a ball that would ordinarily be an out with normal defensive positioning get through for a hit. Today, two balls were hit right to fielders, one for an easy 4-3 play, the other catching J. J. Hardy off third base in a rundown. The Cubs had a shot at it in the last of the 11th with the winning run on third -- Felix Pie, forced in to pinch-hit after Jim Edmonds was tossed -- but Soto's ball didn't quite have enough to get over Mike Cameron's head.

And that set up D-Lee's heroics, following a leadoff walk to Daryle Ward (it almost didn't seem as if he knew he had walked, with no signal from plate umpire Ed Rapuano. This crew did a horrendous job the entire series -- to assign a crew with two umpires as bad as Joe West and C. B. Bucknor to a series like this was a real, real bad decision by MLB schedulers), and Jason Marquis, pinch-running, scoring the winning run on Lee's single. Before that, D-Lee had gone 0-for-5 and hit into his 26th DP of the year, one short of Ron Santo's dubious 1973 team record. It's nice to see him get a huge hit like that and it just shows, once again, how much of a team this is, with every single member contributing to victories.

All of this was hours after Rich Harden threw an alarming 115 pitches in five innings, having good stuff but absolutely no command, walking six, but giving up only one hit, a double to Durham in the fifth, and walking in a run in the first inning. After having watched Harden throw 29 pitches to the first five hitters, Larry Rothschild went out to have a word with him. Whatever he said turned on a switch, because Harden retired the next ten hitters he faced, at one point striking out five in a row, and though the Brewers loaded the bases in the fifth, he got out of it with an easy fly to right.

There really are no further superlatives I can write -- I'm all out of 'em. Last winter, sort of on a lark, I did a "top 20 Cub HR of all-time" list. Geo's no-doubt-about-it, first-pitch blast today would jump into the top five. In one week I've been lucky enough to be in attendance at my first Cub no-hitter and the most dramatic last-of-the-ninth rally I've ever seen. And it has to be a devastating blow to the Brewers' wild-card hopes, even with them playing the Reds and Pirates the next six games. At this writing the Mets have a 3-0 lead over the Nats in the 3rd inning; the Mets could take a 1.5 game lead over Milwaukee (or even take over the NL East lead if the Phillies lose).

Ain't this great? Press this one in your memory books forever. Now, on to clinching in the next two days, and getting the job done in October.

Click here and here for my scorecard from today's game; it took two separate sheets to finish!

MILWAUKEE -- We had 'em outnumbered at Miller Park last night, or nearly so.

At least it felt as if there were more Cubs fans than Brewers fans last night during the Cubs' 7-2 win over Milwaukee, the team's fourth victory in a row, moving their division lead back to a more comfortable four games and matching the season high by getting to 20 games over .500.

The Cubs were on base seemingly everywhere, all night long. In fact, they could have scored far more than the seven runs they did; they had 23 baserunners (14 hits, 8 walks and Reed Johnson reaching on a dropped third strike); fifteen of them were left on base and Ryan Theriot was caught stealing, which accounts for the seven runs.

That caught stealing was just about the only thing Theriot did wrong last night. He made a couple of nice plays in the field and had three hits and three RBI, including what was probably the biggest Cub hit of the game, a triple into the right-center field gap that Corey Hart got a really bad read on that drove in two runs in the Cubs' three-run sixth, the inning that broke open what had been a pretty good pitchers' duel between Ryan Dempster and Manny Parra up to that point.

Dempster, as he has been in virtually all his starts this year, was outstanding, mixing up his pitches well and making really only one mistake -- throwing a wild pitch with Ray Durham on third base in the first inning, allowing the Brewers to score the only run they'd get until Prince Fielder homered off Neal Cotts for a consolation run in the 9th. Other than that, Dempster allowed only four other hits, and two of them were extra-base rockets by Parra, who isn't really known as a hitter (he was hitting .179 coming into last night's game).

If Dempster keeps this up he'll get some Cy Young consideration -- and no, I don't think that's hype. Only three pitchers -- Brandon Webb, Edinson Volquez and Aaron Cook -- have won more games; Dempster ranks sixth in ERA, eighth in strikeouts, and has the fifth-lowest WHIP of any NL pitcher currently qualified (with 108 innings or more). Of course, Carlos Zambrano is among the leaders in those categories as well and both Dempster and Z should get Cy Young votes. I wasn't one of those who thought the Dempster-back-to-starter experiment was going to work, but now, exactly two-thirds of the way through this so-far wonderful season, it has been an unqualified success, and is one of the reasons this team has played so well.

In addition to Johnson and Dempster, Alfonso Soriano was one of the "stars of the game" last night, with three hits and a stolen base; he appears to be running well, perhaps for the first time since that first injury with the Cubs on April 17 of last year. The forced rest for his legs for six weeks while his broken finger healed was apparently a very good thing; Soriano stole third base last night (foolishly, I thought at the time, as ball four was being delivered to Derrek Lee, but he made it) and seemed to be running the bases much better the other four times he was on, five times on base in all via three hits and two walks; the Cubs drew eight walks and forced five Brewer pitchers to throw 190 pitches.

I ran into BCB reader hoppy91 in the Metavante Club, where I went to eat before the game. That's amazing -- naming rights sold off for a team's club eating area -- up to this year it was called the ".300 Club"; there are tons of ads all over Miller Park. I counted, in addition to the ribbon board and other "moving" ads, thirty different fixed ads in the outfield. Anyway, hoppy99 is in Milwaukee for this series from Manitoba, Canada, and made it on ESPN's telecast wearing the BCB shirt. Also had a talk with BCB reader Shanghai Badger, who stopped by my seat in section 225 before last night's game.

As noted above, the crowd seemed to be more than half Cubs fans; maybe that was because I was looking for them or maybe because Brewer fans had little to cheer about last night; starting after the 7th inning, the place started to empty out and after the Cubs' two-run 9th that put the game away, virtually everyone left was wearing Cubs blue. Loud cheers erupted on the ramps exiting the park; I doubt any of us could have imagined that the first three games of this series would go so well.

Only one discordant note -- Kerry Wood was going to throw a simulated game yesterday, but didn't and is not "close" to returning. And if you read Lou Piniella's typically cryptic quotes in that link, you'll be even more confused:

"Initially, they had talked about a simulated game, bringing a few hitters here, and let him get some work in with a pad on his finger," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "That didn't happen, because he's really not close to coming back, so why risk it?"

Not close?

"When I say 'not close,' it's not imminently close," Piniella said.

Fortunately, the rest of the bullpen has picked up the slack; Chad Gaudin, who threw another scoreless inning last night, has been excellent and can step right in to an 8th inning setup role, which is where he pitched last night. Both Jeff Samardzija and Carlos Marmol got last night off and so are available today.

Rich Harden, who has pitched extremely well in his three starts as a Cub without a victory to his own credit yet, goes today. He has struck out ten in each of the three games -- 30 in all in 17.1 innings, with only eight hits and eight walks allowed for an ERA of 1.04 and a WHIP of 0.92. Some SABR research has found that only one pitcher -- Jake Peavy from April 25-May 11, 2007 -- has struck out ten or more in four straight starts in the last four years (both Randy Johnson and Johan Santana did this in 2004). But more importantly, let's get Harden a win. The pregame thread will be up at 11:30 CT.

Ryan Dempster was just outstanding today, and he needed to be... this is exactly the sort of thing that winning teams do, have one guy pick the other up when the team is struggling, and Dempster threw 73 strikes out of 104 pitches and I thought Lou should have let him finish. The Cubs haven't had a complete game shutout since May 9, 2007, thrown by, of all people, Jason Marquis, and today would have been a fine day to give the bullpen a rest and let Dempster get his first CG shutout since July 3, 2001 -- long enough ago that it was against a team that no longer exists, the Expos.

I know, I complain too much, and shouldn't after an outstanding team performance today, a 9-0 shutout of the Astros. Virtually everyone contributed, if not offensively (three more hits from Ryan Theriot, two doubles from the slumping Kosuke Fukudome -- good to see -- a HR and two singles from Mike Fontenot, and I still can't figure out how he hits baseballs that far), then defensively (fine plays by Aramis Ramirez and Mark DeRosa in the field), and a quick and efficient inning from Carlos Marmol. That latter is just what the ballclub needed, too -- Marmol has been so bad the last month, and was so good before that, that seeing him back on track both in the All-Star Game and today is an exceptionally good sign.

Both the radio and TV broadcast teams referred to Alfonso Soriano's upcoming rehab stint, scheduled to begin tomorrow (in a 10 am game, played early in the day to minimize the desert heat) with the AZL Cubs and to continue, presumably, for Iowa at Tucson on Tuesday and Wednesday. But both broadcast teams also hinted -- just hinted, mind you -- that if everything goes well with Soriano in tomorrow's morning game, he could be activated as soon as tomorrow night.

Just sayin'. The club misses him, no matter how infuriating his strikeouts and misplays in the outfield can be at times. He came off the DL in May on fire, and did so also last September. The Cubs really do need him to do that again.

I thought Brandon Backe's little tantrum after he was called out on strikes in the fifth on an admittedly borderline call is going to work against him in the future. What umpire is going to ever give Backe a close call from now on?

Nitpick with the offense, and this is hard to do on a day when the Cubs had 13 hits and 9 runs: the Cubs were walkless for the second consecutive game. That's OK if they're hitting, but I'd like to see them resume their patient ways tomorrow.

Nitpick with the radio broadcast today: I happened to be out at first pitch time, and had the game on the radio in the car. If you didn't hear it, they missed the first play of the game entirely while running another in their endless series of commercials, and Ryan Theriot had by then led off the game with a fly to right. If missing the play wasn't bad enough, Pat then had to read some sort of ad that said that IF Theriot had gotten a hit, some sponsor would have given some sort of donation to some charity (you can see how much impact that made on me, because I can't remember either the name of the sponsor or the name of the charity).

The reason I was out early this afternoon was to see my son Mark's Park District game, a makeup from a rainout yesterday. I mention this because he's on the Astros this year. They lost 10-5 -- a harbinger of another Astros loss this afternoon.

As I was writing this, Troy Glaus hit a three-run homer for the Cardinals and they took a 5-3 lead over the woeful Padres. But I decided to wait to post, and amazingly enough, the Padres came back and tied it up in part because of a bad misplay by Rick Ankiel in CF, but then they lost anyway when Aaron Miles, of all people, hit a walkoff grand slam. Stupid Cardinals. And the Brewers, who acquired Ray Durham from the Giants this afternoon, are leading the Giants 2-0 early in their game. Durham has hit very well against the Cubs in his career, including in the seven Cubs/Giants games already this season, and with ten Cubs/Brewers games left, the Brewers clearly are trying to take advantage of that. Rickie Weeks, hitting .218, wasn't cutting it for Milwaukee and they're obviously looking at Durham as a short-term fix.

Site note: you may have noticed that some avatars and images are missing today, and you may be having trouble posting images. There are issues with the server hosting images; it's being worked on.

So if those leads hold up, the division lead will remain at 2.5 games, and the Cubs need to go into Arizona and take care of business. Fascinating pitching matchup tomorrow: Rich Harden vs. Randy Johnson. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Onward to tomorrow.

If the Cubs' attempted comeback in the 9th inning today -- they did manage to get the tying run on base with one out -- had been successful, I'd have thrown up my hands in amazement, and there's already been a sufficient amount of amazement in this so-far-wonderful season.

They didn't, and you know what? Some days the other guy is just better than you. When facing a pitcher as good as Tim Lincecum -- and he had one of his better days today, giving up six hits and striking out nine -- you have very little margin for error, either, as Jack Brickhouse used to say, errors of commission or errors of omission, and the Cubs made just enough mistakes to result in a a 4-2 loss to the Giants, which, oddly, didn't feel quite as bad as yesterday's win.

Strange, I know. Here's where the game turned: on Mark DeRosa's ill-advised attempt to scoop Lincecum's sinking liner with a runner on first and one out in a scoreless game in the top of the third inning. Most other runners would have circled the bases for an inside-the-park HR as the ball went all the way to the wall, but Lincecum was held up with an RBI triple. It could have been charged an error (of "commission"), but wasn't, since DeRo never touched the ball. After a walk, a stolen base and a popup, the second error -- this one of omission -- happened.

There's no way Ryan Dempster should have pitched to Ray Durham. It wasn't a favorable matchup, Durham had had a good series so far (4-for-9 with a walk and two runs scored before today); Lou should have ordered him intentionally walked. Yes, in the third inning, because that early in the game, down 1-0 to a pitcher as good as Lincecum, you've got to keep the damage to a minimum. With the bases loaded and the unbelievably slow Bengie Molina due up next, you've got a real good shot at a forceout to end the inning.

Instead, Durham ran the count full and singled in two runs. The Cubs got one back on Jim Edmonds' double following a DeRosa walk, but that was it till Dempster got into trouble in the seventh, allowing the fourth and final run.

That set up a possible rally in the last of the 8th -- two singles brought Aramis Ramirez to bat with one out, and today's giveaway was a blue T-shirt with A-Ram's name and number on the back. Perhaps you saw virtually everyone in the bleachers waving the shirts, a sea of Cubbie blue -- very cool sight. Unfortunately, this time A-Ram had no drama for us, hitting into a double play.

Chad Gaudin showed us today why Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella wanted him so badly -- he threw two solid scoreless innings, keeping the team in the game till the bottom of the ninth, when a walk to Edmonds and two singles, including one by Geovany Soto as a pinch-hitter (thank you, Lou, for giving him the day off from catching today!) generated the second run, and brought up Daryle Ward, who's been so good as a pinch-hitter this year. He took two very close pitches after 0-2, both called balls, and then watched strike three go right down the center of the plate. Ryan Theriot grounded out to end the game... but give this team credit for at least getting that tying run on base in the 9th against one of the league's better closers, Brian Wilson, who was throwing 98 MPH and who, with today's save, passed Kerry Wood to take over the league lead with 25.

Wood, for his part, won't pitch in the All-Star Game, resting his blistered finger (an excellent idea), and has been replaced by Carlos Marmol, giving the Cubs a record-tying eight All-Stars. Now, only four, maybe five (Kosuke Fukudome, Soto, Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano and Marmol) will play, since Wood isn't available, and neither is Alfonso Soriano, and with a 118-pitch outing today, neither will Dempster. It seems very likely -- since Lincecum threw 116 pitches today, and Brandon Webb also pitched today -- that Zambrano, who last pitched on Wednesday and who won't go until at least next Saturday or Sunday, could be the starter for the National League on Tuesday. The choice of Marmol is odd, with Lou wanting him to rest and his poor June and July, but wouldn't it be even odder if he got his act back on track throwing an inning in the All-Star Game?

The old saw "You can't win 'em all" is so true today -- the Cubs ran into a really good pitcher and he beat 'em. It happens. They finish the first half with a 37-12 home record and remain 4.5 games in first place. Really, could we ask for better than this, at this moment in time?

Today, BCB reader drewishdruid and his lovely bride joined us, with their sign (did any of you spot it? They were holding it up at every inning break), along with BCB reader nside and his family, up from Indiana. They got nice weather and nice company, even with no victory. We move on to the second half after all of us take a much-needed break, with high hopes for the rest of this season. It's been wonderful. Hang on for the rest of the ride -- the best is yet to come.

I'll open threads for the Home Run Derby tomorrow and, of course, the game on Tuesday night.

It just doesn't get much better than this.

(Well, actually, it could, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves).

Today's weather forecast was for hot, humid conditions with the wind blowing out -- not a good portent for Jason Marquis. But about an hour before gametime, low clouds blew in off the lake, cooling the temperature off 20 degrees; just before gametime the clouds lifted, the sun came out -- and the wind was blowing out of the east at 12 MPH, a good mark for Marquis, and he rose to the occasion, throwing seven outstanding shutout innings.

But the hero of the day, as he has been so many times before, was Aramis Ramirez, who came up with two on and one out in the bottom of the 8th and hit Tyler Walker's first pitch, a 92-MPH fastball up and out over the plate, just inside the LF foul pole, over our heads onto Waveland (where it appeared to have been caught by a kid -- ballhawk, perhaps you can provide details), and despite some sketchy play in the 9th inning, the Cubs had enough to hold on for a 3-1 win over the Giants.

Marquis had his sinker working early, as nine outs in the first five innings were recorded on ground balls, but even then, signs of weakening showed -- there were three or four flyouts that yesterday would have been deposited on Sheffield, but were held up by the stiff wind blowing in over the RF wall today. Marquis took full advantage before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the 7th. That was Kosuke Fukudome, who popped up and then remained in the game -- Fukudome and Jim Edmonds were both given the day off, and Fukudome didn't have a good at-bat, either. He stayed in the game to play right field and his arm was needed in the 9th.

Meanwhile, Matt Cain was matching Marquis, only with more strikeouts -- nine of them to Marquis' four, and Cain also had to be lifted after seven, due to a pitch count of 118. That was all the Cubs needed, as the Giants' bullpen, apart from closer Brian Wilson, has been a disaster area most of the year. After Ryan Theriot led off the 8th with a single to left-center, Mike Fontenot laid down a perfect sacrifice (nearly pushing it past Walker, too).

And then Bruce Bochy did something that absolutely stunned all of us -- he ordered Derrek Lee intentionally walked. In a scoreless game. To pitch to Aramis Ramirez. After having intentionally walked Ramirez two innings before. I just don't get it. Ramirez has consistently risen to such occasions; why would you do that? Yes, I know. It set up a possible double play.

And then why would you have your pitcher throw A-Ram a first-pitch fastball?

The answers to these questions are ones we like, of course, since Ramirez won the game with a homer, but this partly explains why the Giants are as bad as they are -- as bad as they looked when I saw them in spring training. They don't have a single player in double figures in home runs; their bullpen is in shambles, and their shortstop -- who some here would like to see the Cubs acquire, I have no idea why -- is hitting .153 and really ought to retire after a stellar career.

Good news today: Bob Howry threw an efficient scoreless inning. If he can build on this the Cubs will have many more options in the late innings.

Kerry Wood had a shaky 9th; it wasn't all his fault, but I'm not going to blame Mark DeRosa for having Ray Durham's fly ball go over his head for a double. The ball seemed to take off on him after he had it scoped out pretty well; what Lou might have done is to leave Edmonds, who had batted for Howry, in the game in CF, and move Reed Johnson to LF for defense. Doing this, though, would have left the bench with no one but Henry Blanco had the game gone to extra innings.

Which is one more reason not to have a 13-man pitching staff!!!

Rant over. The staff had one turnover today; Michael Wuertz was optioned to Iowa (surprising me, and others too, who assumed he had no options left) and Kevin Hart recalled. After the All-Star break, I assume either Hart or Sean Marshall will go to Iowa and a hitter will be recalled (Micah Hoffpauir seems the most likely, though BCB reader mrcubsfan, in from Des Moines for the weekend, told me Hoffpauir's been playing almost exclusively 1B there) until Alfonso Soriano returns, which is now tentatively scheduled for the Arizona series. (Soriano was in uniform today, shagging flies in the OF during BP.)

Finally, some Deep Goat rumors heard today: there were definitely scouts at the ballpark watching Jason Marquis today, and there is interest from more than one team. After this performance, which lowered his ERA to a not-unreasonable 4.44, interest might heat up. Cub scouts have been dispatched to watch at least one minor league team in order to gauge possible prospects the Cubs might want in return. (Sorry, can't tell you who at this time.) Also, the Cubs are still seeking left-handed relief help, so although there aren't any deals (that I know of) in the works right this minute, Jim Hendry may not be done dealing, and of course there are three weeks remaining.

A reminder: tomorrow's game is at noon, not the 2:55 on the original schedule. Since Fox blacks out EI broadcasts before 7 pm EDT on Saturdays, the only way you can see this game outside of the Chicago area (or SF Bay Area) will be on MLB.TV. If you voted in the Final Ballot All-Star voting, you should have received an email giving you a one-week free trial of MLB.TV, starting today.

Onward. I am, as I'm sure you are, excited to see Rich Harden's Cub debut tomorrow.

a) A glass half empty
b) A glass half full
c) When is it going to spill?

That's an old Cub fan joke, and maybe it isn't that funny, especially after another bad-looking loss, 8-3 to the Giants, but if you're getting that "sky is falling" feeling this morning, think about this: You could be a Brewers fan, having just watched your team blow a five-run ninth inning lead to the Diamondbacks and lose 6-5 when three Milwaukee relievers faced seven Arizona hitters in the 9th and got none of them out.

Or, you could be a Cardinals fan, having just watched your team get blown out 11-1 by a mediocre Mets team (remember? the team the Cubs beat 7-1 and 8-1 in Chicago in April?) and having Tony LaRussa treat one of his kid starters, Mitchell Boggs, like he did Jason Marquis two years ago and leave him on the mound for six innings to take an 10-hit, 6-walk, 11-run pounding.

Feel better now? Since Carlos Zambrano walked off the mound in Tampa on June 18, making all of us cringe as he called the coaching and training staff out to look at his right shoulder, the Cubs are 6-8. Yet, they have lost exactly one game of their division lead since that date, and tonight Z takes the mound in St. Louis in a matchup of the teams with the two best records in the National League, in a series the Cubs really have to win, if for no other reason than to actually prove to themselves that they can win a series on the road -- they haven't since the series I attended in Toronto three weekends ago.

They should have won the series in San Francisco instead of splitting it -- especially after scoring three runs off Tim Lincecum, a run total he's allowed only six times in his 18 starts this year. Sean Gallagher had one bad inning, the second, in which he allowed all four of his runs, and the last one scored when Geovany Soto dropped a Ray Durham popup that allowed the fourth (unearned) run to score. In fairness, the wind was howling pretty good yesterday and that took the ball from foul to fair territory, away from Geovany. Still, if he catches it, Mark DeRosa's two-run double in the sixth would have tied the game instead of just making it 4-3 and then who knows?

What I do know is that Jose Ascanio is likely headed back to Iowa today when Z is activated (and Gallagher's headed to the bullpen). Despite having a good arm, Ascanio has had a penchant for helping turn close games into blowouts. He did it last Sunday at the Cell when he allowed a two-run HR by Jim Thome that turned a 3-1 deficit into a virtually insurmountable 5-1 lead, and again yesterday when he misplayed Omar Vizquel's bunt. Vizquel is an excellent bunter, but the one in the 7th yesterday might have been turned into a double play with a better-fielding pitcher. At the very least it should have resulted in an out; Lou had very little patience with his bullpen yesterday, pulling Ascanio right after that and then yanking his replacement, Carlos Marmol, after Marmol threw exactly three pitches to Rich Aurilia, the third of which was deposited in the LF bleachers to make the score 7-3, effectively ending the game.

You want to worry about Marmol? Go ahead, because so am I (and so is Lou). Including his meltdown in Tampa on June 19, Marmol in his last seven appearances has pitched five innings, allowed five hits, seven walks and three HR for ten earned runs and an 18.00 ERA. I don't know what's wrong with him; if he's hurt he needs to get to the DL, and if he's not, something has to be turned around quickly because the Cubs can't win games without him.

The shadows at Phone Holding Company Park weren't a factor till about the seventh inning; at game time the entire field was still in bright sunshine, but that didn't help the Cubs hit Tim Lincecum that well. He still struck out eight in his six innings.

So while you might think things are collapsing, take heart. Z returns tonight. Alfonso Soriano's going to start hitting off a tee tonight, in anticipation of a rehab assignment and possibly a return by next weekend. The Cubs still have the third-best record in baseball, behind the Rays and Angels, and maintain a 2.5 game division lead.