Before we celebrate today's exciting 8-5 Cubs comeback win over the Pirates (and yes, I call it "comeback" because they seemed to have it well in hand at 5-2 before a bullpen failure in the 8th inning allowed the Bucs to tie the game), a little more perspective.

The win puts the Cubs 22 games over .500 at 67-45. The last time the Cubs were this many games over .500 was October 1, 1989, the last day of the 1989 regular season, when they beat the Cardinals 5-1 in St. Louis to get to 93-69, 24 games over .500, their high water mark of that division title season.

It's taken nearly nineteen years to get that far over breakeven again. Now, if you choose to look at this negatively, you could discuss the mountains of failure over the last two decades, and there's no question that mountain exists.

But this Cubs team is way over that mountain. Today was a perfect example of how this ballclub wins as a team. There was a pretty bad bullpen failure today -- when Jeff Samardzija had to be lifted after throwing 40 pitches in two-plus innings, Neal Cotts (who gave up two hits in facing three batters) and Chad Gaudin (who gave up the game-tying HR to Andy LaRoche) didn't get their jobs done. Fortunately, Gaudin recovered from his failure by striking out Steve Pearce to keep the Cubs tied.

Then, Lou simply took advantage of an inferior team. After the first two outs in the last of the 8th were recorded easily by Craig Hansen (who I suspect the Pirates will install as their closer eventually), Hansen walked Geovany Soto on a very close pitch that got appealed to 1B umpire Ed Montague. It looked to us in the bleachers as if Soto might have swung, but Montague ruled in the Cubs' favor. Lou sent Daryle Ward up to bat, likely with absolutely no intention of having Ward actually hit. As most of you know, Ward hasn't been all that productive as a pinch-hitter this year, and I suspect all Lou wanted was to get the lefty Sean Burnett in the game to face the hot-hitting Reed Johnson, which is exactly what happened.

Johnson crushed Burnett's second pitch deep into the LF bleachers to give the Cubs a 7-5 lead and Alfonso Soriano followed with his 19th of the season, giving the Cubs back the three runs they'd frittered away in the top of the inning. Carlos Marmol, looking like the Marmol of old (15 pitches, 12 strikes), mowed down the Pirates in the 9th for his sixth save. In his postgame press conference, Lou was asked if he'd use Bob Howry to close tomorrow, and he hedged, suggesting that Marmol might be used four days in a row if necessary, for the first time this season. He also said that it's possible that Kerry Wood, who threw a simulated game this morning and was shagging flies in the OF during BP (but without throwing anything back in), could be activated sometime during the Houston series.

Soriano and Aramis Ramirez both hit their 19th HR today. That doesn't even rank in the top twenty in the NL (it's tied for 25th). Even so, the Cubs lead the NL in scoring by a significant margin (currently, 42 runs more than the Phillies, pending Philly's game tonight vs. the Cardinals) -- further proof that this team has learned how to score runs in other ways besides just whacking the ball out of the yard.

About Carlos Zambrano's seemingly too-early exit from today's game: no worries, said Lou in his postgame press conference. Lou explained that Z, having been extended pretty far in his last two starts (125 and 118 pitches, respectively), was "shortened up" this time. He threw 82 pitches in five innings and will have an extra day off this week due to the off day on Thursday (he'll throw vs. the Cardinals on Saturday). Z was in line for the win until the bullpen meltdown, and also contributed with his bat -- the Cubs tied the game in the 2nd on his double play ball, and then he drove in a run with his fourth double of the season. He's now hitting .354 with a .538 SLG. Today is another example, too, of how individual pitcher wins mean little. Chad Gaudin, the pitcher who threw the worst single pitch of the game, the one that tied it up, got the "win" for his record. It's TEAM wins that matter.

So all is well. Today was Jeff's birthday and we celebrated in the bleachers with gooey chocolate cupcakes with red & blue frosting. It was a day worth celebrating. The Cubs did what they needed to do this weekend -- win the series. Onward to tomorrow, and go Phillies! I'll have some of David's photos from both yesterday and today's wins posted tomorrow morning.

MILWAUKEE -- There comes a time in virtually every season put together by a championship team to which you can look back and say, "That was the play -- or the game -- or the series -- where it all came together."

It is, of course, far too early -- there remain two months in the regular season, and we hope, a month of postseason play -- but if the Chicago Cubs do indeed do what they seem capable of, what we have hoped and dreamed for all our collective lives, it seems clear that this four-game sweep of the Brewers in Milwaukee is that moment.

Just five days ago, after the dispiriting 3-2 loss in 12 innings to the Marlins on Saturday, at which time the Cubs found themselves barely hanging on to first place and having gone 3-6 since the All-Star break, that many here were ledge-jumping and worrying and panicking... but the players never did. The turnaround started with the win over Florida on Sunday, and continued through this dominant rampage through Miller Park, where the Cubs outscored the Brewers 31-10 (and it really could have been 31-7, a football-type score; the last three runs were a sloppy gift from Scott Eyre, who hadn't pitched since being activated eight days ago) and, apart from the close game on Monday, were never challenged.

The heroes of today's 11-4 Cubs win over Milwaukee included Jim Edmonds, who homered twice including a grand slam, which got a rousing standing ovation -- and Edmonds was given another standing O from the more-than-half-Cubs-fans crowd when he came up to bat in the seventh inning. The grand slam was particularly rewarding because it happened after the first two batters in that fourth inning were retired easily by Dave Bush; a two-out walk drawn by Aramis Ramirez started the rally, continued with a Kosuke Fukudome double and then Mark DeRosa being hit by an 0-2 pitch from Bush.

After that it was Rich Harden, relaxed and dominant, blazing through the Brewers lineup like they were minor leaguers. Just one mistake -- a HR pitch to Prince Fielder, no shame there, since that guy can hit -- was the only thing marring Harden's outstanding effort, and one of the keys to his success today was the total in the "BB" column. ZERO. He threw 71 strikes in his 105 pitches and it seemed effortless.

After leaving 15 men on base Wednesday night -- and I'm certainly not complaining, because there were baserunners galore then and seven of them scored -- the Cubs didn't leave a runner on base until the ninth inning today, when Mike Fontenot drove in the final two runs with a single and then was stranded. All the runs prior to the 9th inning had scored as a result of homers; Alfonso Soriano, hot right now just as he was the last time he came off the DL in May, hit his 18th, and Fukudome slammed a rocket to right for his 8th. It seems, after a long funk perhaps partly due to the calf injury he suffered in June, that Dome is back on track; he also doubled today and his average has poked back above the .280 mark.

What a special, wonderful season this has been so far. By the end of the game virtually all the Brewers fans had departed, so the remaining part of the 45,346 -- Milwaukee's 11th straight sellout, pushing them past 2 million on their 55th home date -- were Cubs fans, and we all gave the club a roaring sendoff after Sean Marshall struck out Rickie Weeks to end the game, after Eyre couldn't keep the Brewers down. Lou didn't seem very pleased to have to come out and yank Eyre; since it's past the trading deadline Eyre's probably staying a Cub, at least for now.

About the ejections of Eric Gagné and Prince Fielder in the 9th -- well, frankly, I think Doug Eddings isn't a very good umpire. If Gagné had wanted to throw a purpose pitch at Edmonds, why did he wait till the count was 3-0? I think Gagné just didn't have any command today. Still, perhaps the ejection was justified; Eddings did warn both benches after that, in an effort to prevent future bad blood between the teams. The ejection of Fielder may have been more justified -- after flying to left, Fielder came back and jawed at Eddings repeatedly, continuing after Eddings had tossed him. A fine is likely to be in Fielder's future. You can understand the frustration of the Brewers, I suppose, after getting swept in their own park where they had been 32-19 before this series. Meanwhile, the Cubs improved their road record to 26-30, better than it was -- and remember, there are only four teams in MLB with winning road records this year (Yankees, Angels, Phillies and Cardinals).

While this series was a huge statement, remember that 53 games remain in the season and that's a long time, and the Brewers are a good team and aren't going anywhere -- if the Cubs do win the NL Central, it's a pretty good bet that the Brewers will be the wild card team, setting up a possible matchup in the NLCS. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, because there is much baseball left, including a tough road schedule for the Cubs in September (after September 3, they will play 16 of their final 22 on the road, although three of them will be in Miller Park, where they just swept, and three others in St. Louis, where they have played well this year).

So, onward to August and early September, where between tomorrow and Sept. 3, 22 of the next 31 Cubs games will be at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs have dominated this year. That'll have to continue, and the Cubs will be facing the Pirates minus Jason Bay, who was traded to Boston in the three-way deal between the Red Sox, Dodgers and Pirates that sent Manny Ramirez to LA. Make no mistake, the Pirates got some good young players, including Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen from the Red Sox, and uniting Andy LaRoche, acquired from LA, with his brother Adam, the Pirates' first baseman.

Bring 'em on. Till tomorrow. What a week, what a year. Each day, remember where you were, what you were doing, who you were with, when you remember each of these wins... because if the Cubs do reach the Promised Land, you will want to remember these moments forever.