Jason Marquis stood on the mound at Wrigley Field, alone on the field, tossing a baseball up and down in his hand. Up, down, up, down, several times. He did this while waiting for the umpires to shift positions and gear after plate umpire Jerry Crawford took ill during last night's 10-7 Cub loss to the Brewers.

Cubs players wait in the dugout for play to resume after the umpire delay

Eventually, Geovany Soto came out of the dugout and so did the rest of the Cubs and that's when Marquis, who had been shaky enough in the first couple of innings, completely fell apart. He wound up throwing 98 pitches in five innings, allowing ten hits and five runs, and none of the Cubs' relievers could provide any relief last night -- the only one who didn't have a run charged to him was Michael Wuertz, but he added to the carnage by walking in a run that got charged to Kevin Hart. Even the usually-reliable Jon Lieber got touched for Milwaukee's tenth run, after Mike Fontenot's bases-clearing double had turned a 9-4 apparent rout into a 9-7 "hey, maybe they can come back" score.

It wasn't to be, and although Lou Piniella had sharp words for his bullpen in his postgame press conference:

"Our pitching wasn't good tonight," Piniella said. "We've got to do a better job in the middle before we get to our short people. That's been a problem for awhile."

... that wasn't the main problem. The main issue last night was the fact that Ben Sheets also wasn't sharp after the delay; he wound up walking seven, but the Cubs left most of those runners on base, leaving seven in the first five innings. Had they taken advantage of those opportunities, they could have had Sheets bounced before the sixth, when he was eventually lifted for a pinch-hitter (having thrown 108 pitches), and gotten into the Brewers' 1,325-man bullpen -- which managed to shut the Cubs down in the 8th and 9th after Fontenot's double.

The other important thing last night was... well, let me tell you first about one of the funnier vendors I've seen. He walked by our section, a youngish man I hadn't seen before, carrying the metal hot-dog vending box, yelling, "Who wants a friggin' hot dog??" That generated both laughs and sales (not from me, since I had already had one earlier).

And that's the other thing. Speaking of friggin', it was friggin' cold last night. The official game-time temperature was 38, and though there was some waning sun in the western sky until it dipped below the buildings on Clark about 7:30, that sun never warmed anyone at Wrigley Field yesterday. The wind wasn't too strong -- Derrek Lee managed to loft his 8th HR of April, tying the team record for such things, into the LF bleachers in the third inning, making the score at the time 4-3 -- but it was just enough to make it so feeling my fingers and toes wasn't really possible after about that time. Despite the cold, BCB reader steinmer and a friend of his stopped by in the late innings to say hi. They were some of the few who stayed -- once the score got to 9-4, the place emptied out pretty quickly. Well, except for the Human Air Raid Siren, who decided, since our section was empty, to stand there (mostly in our way) to yell for a few minutes, until we were rescued by a guy wearing a Fukudome sweatshirt who wanted him to come to his section. He left and we didn't see -- nor hear -- him again last night.

Positive note: there's nothing wrong with Geovany Soto. He had two hits last night, including a double, and continues to pound the ball really hard.

There's not much more that can be said about this loss -- the Cubs' first of the season when they have scored four or more runs. Lou, in his press conference, gave credit to the Brewers, who do, after all, have some pretty good hitters, and not just Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who are both off to slow starts. Corey Hart (who I advocated the Cubs acquiring a year ago) had three hits including a double and a triple; Bill Hall singled three times and had two RBI, and Mike Cameron, in his first game of the year following a 25-game suspension, also had three hits. Sometimes you just have to give credit to the other guys.

With Ryan Dempster, who has been solid all year, and Carlos Zambrano, who at last is pitching like the ace we need him to be (and with his sinker working as it did when he first burst onto the scene in 2003), going tonight and tomorrow, I still like the Cubs' chances of winning this series.

Did you know Wrigley Field had a Jumbotron? Well, it doesn't, of course, but it now does have this large monitor on the side of the camera house in CF:

Finally, Felix Pie was involved in a scary-looking collision with Rickie Weeks in the second inning, and didn't get up for a couple of hold-your-breath moments. He probably just got the wind knocked out of him, as he stayed in the game. David caught the aftermath:

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima

Hey, Soriano bashers: hang on a second, I have something for you.

In the meantime, for the rest of you, the Cubs spotted the Astros a 2-0 lead, tied it, gave them the lead back, and then, with a spectacular five-run seventh inning, put the game away, insured it with a run in the 8th, and beat the Astros 9-7 in a game that had as much bad as good.

Since I did the good news/bad news thing yesterday, a little more conventional analysis today. First of all, "spectacular" doesn't apply just to the Cubs' 7th-inning rally. It also describes today's weather, a gorgeous, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky, mid-60's day of the sort that we rarely have in Chicago this early in April. (We're getting another one tomorrow, not quite as nice, but still better than 90% of early-April days.) The wind was blowing out -- to different fields at different times. When Derrek Lee slammed his second HR of the year to right-center, it did have a little help from the wind out that way. At other times it was blowing straight at us in left field., although Carlos Lee's HR to left in the 4th, which gave the Astros a 3-2 lead at the time, didn't need any assistance to leave the premises.

Jason Marquis was... well, OK. He allowed a run in the first, on a single that just got up the middle, a stolen base (Hey, Geovany Soto! What happened to that arm you showed us last September?), another infield single that Aramis Ramirez couldn't field, and a 1-6-3 DP (the first of two such DP's -- Marquis fielded his position well today). Marquis slogged into the 6th inning, trailing 3-2 and having gotten 11 outs on ground balls. But after back-to-back doubles followed an error given to D-Lee (couldn't figure that one out, it looked like a throwing error to me), and a hard line drive by Miguel Tejada at Kosuke Fukudome, Lou had had enough. Marquis did OK at the plate today, hitting a double and driving in a run in the 2nd, and then reaching on a throw that Ty Wigginton bounced off the tarp into the stands. (Last year that ball would NOT have made the seats, as the tarp was not there; the ball would have bounced off the bricks and back to the first baseman.) Marquis wound up at second, and ill-advisedly took off to third on a fly ball by Soriano, and was thrown out.

I can't say enough good things about Kevin Hart. He took over, striking out Wigginton and Mark Loretta, and despite giving up a triple in the next inning, escaped unscored-upon. For that he got his first major league win when the Cubs put up their five-spot in the 7th.

The five-run inning was a beauty to behold. Never mind the poor at-bat by Soriano in that inning, the rest of the inning was well-done by everyone. Ryan Theriot worked a walk. Pinch-hitter Mike Fontenot singled. Even Soriano's out resulted in two bases advanced, and then Reed Johnson's deep grounder to short scored a run. D-Lee singled in the tying run, and then, to me, the key at-bat of the inning occurred. With two out Cecil Cooper replaced Roy Oswalt with Oscar Villareal and Aramis Ramirez worked him for a walk. Now, you'll say of course that was key, because if he makes an out, the inning's over, and you'd be right, but the walk brought Fukudome to bat -- again, it's only five days, but I do not think I've seen Fukudome have a bad at-bat yet -- and he doubled in two runs. (Dome had also bunted for a hit in the sixth, on his own according to Lou's postgame press conference, and that advanced Lee, who had doubled, to third, where he scored on a wild pitch.) Mark DeRosa's double completed the scoring; even though Geovany Soto struck out to end the inning, it was one of the best long-sequence offensive explosions I've seen from this team in a long time.

So stop worrying about the offense so much! 14 hits, two walks, nine runs. Works for me. (Roy Oswalt didn't strike out anyone today and is 0-2 so far this year with a 6.00 ERA. And if he's not "on", the Astros staff is in big trouble.)

Bob Howry -- will someone tell him to pretend it's August? His fastball was flat today, and he gave up three hits and two runs before Carlos Marmol bailed him out, and Kerry Wood finished up with an uneventful (but no-strikeout) ninth, again hitting 96 on the ballpark speed pitch meter.

Now, about Mr. Soriano. Dave, who thinks Soriano is overrated and "not a team player", said that tomorrow would be a good day to give Soriano a day off. We all know he's a streak hitter, and he had a bad start like this last year, too. A day off, just to keep him from pressing, is, I think, an excellent idea. Give Daryle Ward the start in LF against Brandon Backe.

Win tomorrow, with Z on the mound, and you have a 3-3 homestand -- not ideal, but far better than we might have guessed a couple of days ago.

Finally, Fukudome got a standing ovation, as you might imagine, after his two-run double in the 7th. When he returned to RF, he bowed politely to everyone in the bleachers. Five days and he's already a fan favorite. He's exactly as advertised. I can't think of a better signing that Jim Hendry could have made this offseason.

4/5/08 Scorecard

Back in Chicago and back to work early tomorrow morning, I won't get to see much of this televised game, maybe the first couple of innings.

Hope the rest of you can fill in the details.

• Matt Murton's headed to Iowa. Or a deal to another team -- Jim Hendry is actually well-respected among players because he does try to find another situation for someone he can't fit into the Cubs. That article also says Kevin Hart's likely made the team:

  [Lou] Piniella hasn't said anything to pitcher Kevin Hart, who also appears to have made the final 25. Hart figures he'll get on the bus with the team until he's told to get off.

  "That's a good way to look at things," Piniella said.

• TCTSNBN today says that MLB should investigate A-Rod and Magglio Ordonez for steroid use. Why? Because Jose Canseco said so. Great logic there.
• Bruce Miles says Piggy may have turned Lou's head. To which I say, "Good! He's earned the spot."

Tonight, Ted Lilly goes against Seattle's Carlos Silva. The Cubs will be the "home" team tonight and bat last. It's on radio in Chicago (WGN) and Seattle (KOMO), on WGN-TV and on MLB Audio at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)