... and some days, it isn't even worth coming to work.

Henry Blanco was the last batter both yesterday and today -- with very different results and impact. Yesterday he won the game. Today, he hit a comebacker to Cardinals reliever Brad Thompson in front of about half of the crowd, to end the Cubs' 12-3 blowout loss to the Cardinals, a game which matched the worst margin of loss of the season (nine runs, to the Reds on May 9), and the most runs allowed (also to the Reds, on July 10).

Sometimes these things are going to happen, even to good teams, and it was just "one of those days". How else can you explain Troy Glaus, who was 0-for-29 against Cub pitching so far this year, hitting two home runs off Carlos Zambrano, who allowed four HR today after allowing only ten in his previous 22 starts this year?

You could tell it was going to be one of "those days" when Skip Schumaker hit Z's first pitch off the RF wall for a double; he later scored. Mark DeRosa tied the game with a HR to the CF shrubbery in the 2nd, and after Albert Pujols homered to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead in the 3rd, Z hit his third homer of the year to the opposite field to make it 3-2. It was his 15th career homer, extending his club record, and tying him with Mike Hampton for the most among active pitchers. FWIW, the most HR for any pitcher who played his entire career after World War II is 33, held by Earl Wilson (that link says 35, but two of those were as a PH).

The HR was the only thing Z did right today. To us, it appeared that Z may be back to the old mechanical problems that he suffered last year, that dreaded "low arm slot". We can only hope that there's nothing wrong with the shoulder that put him on the DL for a while earlier this year. Maybe it's not a bad idea to have Z skip a start with the upcoming off days.

Had Lou yanked Z one batter earlier, when it was only 6-2, maybe the game would have turned out differently. Sean Marshall did a nice job of keeping the Cardinals down and so did Chad Gaudin -- at least for one inning; in Gaudin's second inning of work five Cardinals singled, making a 9-3 blowout into the ridiculous final score. In Lou's postgame remarks he said they briefly considered giving Kerry Wood the 9th, just to get him some work, but decided against it. Good idea, I think -- they may need him tomorrow, and that gives Wood an extra day to rest his back, which he said was good to go today if needed.

It was one of those strange days. When the bleacher season ticket holders were let in, as normal, a few minutes before the main gate opening, there were several hundred people already in the LF bleachers -- apparently part of some fundraising event. This was strange and threw off a lot of the regulars. And by the end of the game, alcohol fueled a fight just next to our LF corner -- between two Cardinals fans.

When you lose a game like this, especially when you know you're a good team, you just shrug your shoulders and move on to the next day. Win tomorrow and the Cubs will have accomplished a 6-3 homestand, winning all three series. The Brewers beat the Nats 6-0 tonight -- they haven't given Washington even one run in two games and thrown two CG shutouts -- so the Cubs' division lead is down to four games (man, do the Nats suck or what? Don't forget, the Cubs get to play them at Wrigley in two weeks). We'll get 'em tomorrow.

That's in quotes because it's not my line, it's Mike's -- that's what he said just after Henry Blanco lined a single just over Cesar Izturis' head with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 11th inning, giving the Cubs an excruciatingly exciting 3-2 win over the Cardinals, their third in a row, and seventieth of this incredible season.

Check out the sidebar box showing the team starts through 116 games. The 70 wins is now more than all but ten other Cub teams -- six of those pennant winners. We are witness to things that generations of Cubs fans have grown up not seeing.

Did you ever think you'd see Jim Edmonds get a curtain call after hitting a home run in blue pinstripes? That's what Edmonds got after his second homer of the day tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Edmonds is now hitting .284 in 169 Cub at-bats, with 14 HR and 38 RBI. That'd project to a 42 HR, 114 RBI full season -- something Edmonds did for the 2004 NL Champion Cardinals, but he hasn't come close to that since. He also made an outstanding diving catch in center field.

In fact, defense won this game for the Cubs. After the game was tied up by a Joe Mather (who?) HR in the 3rd, the Cardinals got Cesar Izturis to third after Edmonds made a bad throw following Izturis doubling. But the Cubs sniffed out a possible suicide squeeze with pitcher Braden Looper batting, and Looper couldn't make contact and Izturis was tagged out. On the postgame news conference, Lilly said they had talked about it and if he saw Izturis coming he was going to try to throw the pitch high; instead it was low and inside, but got the job done.

Further good defense helped out the Cubs in the sixth; after St. Louis took the lead on two singles and a groundout, walks filled the bases and Troy Glaus flied to Alfonso Soriano in left -- and Soriano fired a perfect strike to Geovany Soto, who tagged Mather out. It still seems as if Soriano just slings the ball, without getting any real firepower behind the throws, but they are nearly always right on target. Last year he had 19 OF assists; that's his sixth of 2008.

And then, with two out in the tenth inning, Jeff Samardzija caught Albert Pujols napping off first base and threw him out at second. Nice heads-up play, and Samardzija threw two good innings today, dropping his ERA to 1.59. The only thing that I will criticize about the Shark is that he occasionally seems to lose focus -- today, walking the nearly-unwalkable Izturis on four pitches. But I nitpick -- he's been a great addition to the pen. Even Bob Howry threw well today -- after Jessica left our section, unable to watch, she came back and reported there were a ton of people in the back of the bleachers also afraid to see what Howry Hath Wrought. Today, he was good -- getting the hot-hitting Ryan Ludwick on a groundout and then striking out Glaus and Yadier Molina.

And then the winning rally started on something that's been a great weapon for the Cubs this year, a walk, to Derrek Lee. After Aramis Ramirez singled him to third, the obligatory intentional walk was issued to Kosuke Fukudome (who I worry about -- he just doesn't look very good at the plate any more), setting up Blanco's heroics.

It's a team effort -- new heroes every day. Lilly threw very well. Carlos Marmol did his job, getting the Cubs out of a jam in the 8th, and they beat their biggest rival on an absolutely gorgeous, blue-sky, 75-degree, low humidity afternoon, with about 20% or so of the crowd wearing Cardinal red (and some wearing Red Sox red -- as there are some Boston fans in town this weekend for their series on the South Side). I ran into two Cardinal fans in the 7-11 getting my Super Big Gulp -- they asked me "is this the year?" After the obligatory, "Hope so!" they responded, "If we can't win, we hope you guys do." Civilized -- that's why I like this rivalry so much. Mutual respect, and tightly played games like today's. Now go get 'em again tomorrow. And go Nats.

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.

It was really considerate of the city of St. Louis to shoot off fireworks for the Cubs' 2-1 win over the Cardinals, wasn't it?

Just as Kerry Wood was finishing off the victory, the grand finale of the downtown St. Louis 4th of July fireworks show splashed across the sky -- you could hear the "booms" loudly on TV, so I can only imagine how loud they must have been at Busch Stadium. For more firsthand information from St. Louis, see 08Cubs' FanPost, containing a short recap and photos from an excellent lower box seat (how'd you score that one, anyway?).

Everything went right last night... yes, everything. Carlos Zambrano threw six solid innings, going 87 pitches (Lou had said he'd be limited to 85-90, and despite batting in the top of the 7th and having a rather animated discussion with Lou in the dugout, Z was lifted to start the 7th) and allowing two walks and four singles, two of which were infield dribblers. Z was apparently "livid" (a quote from an article whose online link I cannot find right now) when they told him he was going on the DL, because he felt he didn't need the two weeks off. The team treaded water (losing one game off its division lead) during that time, but clearly, Z is fine, and he has pitched some of his best games in St. Louis. Last night was no exception, and his ninth win of the season keeps him in the running for an All-Star spot. He seemed focused and not too over-the-top; he threw strikes and wasn't trying to make up for the two weeks off all in one night.

Bob Howry, Neal Cotts and Kerry Wood all did their jobs last night -- I was especially pleased with Howry, even though he gave up the solo HR to Albert Pujols, because he got five outs on sixteen pitches. If Howry can throw this way every time out, there will be less pressure on Carlos Marmol. Cotts did the job he was asked to do -- retire one lefthanded hitter, Rick Ankiel.

One of the reasons I really enjoy watching Wood pitch is that he works quickly. He'll get the ball back and be ready to throw right away, and that keeps fielders ready, keeps the pace of the game at HIS pace, and I think is one of the many reasons he's been so successful. The WGN speed meter had him at 96-97 MPH. Second in the NL in saves, Wood should also be an All-Star selection. We'll find out on Sunday. Incidentally, and maybe this sounds like a homer comment, but Troy Glaus' histrionics when he was called out on strikes by plate umpire Ted Barrett seemed a little over the top and I'm surprised he wasn't ejected. The pitches were close, but on TV at least, appeared to be strikes.

The Cub offense wasn't great yesterday, but the two solo HR by Kosuke Fukudome (who had a terrific at-bat before slicing the ball into the RF seats) and Geovany Soto (who had three hits and nearly hit two HR off Braden Looper) were enough. Say, do you do this? If the Cubs lose, I switch the TV off right after the last out. When they win, I'll leave it on for a while to savor it.

Finally, a tip o' the BCB cap to Cardinals fans, who gave Jim Edmonds a long, warm standing ovation on his first at-bat last night. This is, I think, what distinguishes the Cub/Cardinal rivalry from, say, the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. For me, at least, it is a healthy respect for the other team and for the long rivalry between the two teams -- and there really is nothing better than a pennant race between the Cubs and Cardinals (especially when the Cubs come out on top). Did Red Sox fans welcome Johnny Damon back in Yankee pinstripes? I doubt it. Those people seem to really hate each other. I'd like to think Cubs and Cardinals fans are better than that.

That said, nice win. Go get 'em again today.