Hey Z! Next time you're pissed at yourself for striking out, don't break the bat over your knee!!!

Seriously. It was, I suppose, sort of funny at the time and provoked a huge cheer from the sellout crowd of 41,686 (largest of the year so far), but Carlos Zambrano, who didn't have his best stuff in the first four innings, completely lost it in the fifth after he came out following the bat-breaking episode. Three hits and two walks later, Lou had to take him out of the game, and thank heavens for Michael Wuertz, Scott Eyre (who was so anxious to get into the game that he started trotting in from the bullpen at the beginning of the 7th, even though Lou hadn't called for him) and Jon Lieber for throwing four innings of two-hit, five-strikeout relief and keeping the game close.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as Carlos Marmol was touched for a single that -- once again -- might have been handled by Ronny Cedeno at SS, but Ryan Theriot, despite a great effort, couldn't throw Freddy Sanchez out, and then Nate McLouth hit a two-run HR that was the difference in the Pirates' 7-6 win over the Cubs this afternoon, the first time the Pirates have beaten the Cubs since September 9, 2007 in Pittsburgh, ten straight wins for the Cubs over the Pirates; that's the longest such Cub-over-Pirate streak in 117 years (since 1890-91), on a sunny Saturday when the wind shifted from strong-blowing-out-to-RF, to strong-blowing-in-over-RF, which may have prevented Derrek Lee's fly ball from going out in the last of the 9th.

I told Mike after the Pirates took the lead 5-4 in the fifth that it'd be up to the white-hot-en-fuego-any-superlative-you-can-think-of Alfonso Soriano to win the game, and damned if he didn't nearly do just that. In a homestand where Soriano's hit virtually everything in sight, today was his best game of all -- 5-for-5 with two HR and two doubles (13 total bases); he's now 20-for-37 (.541) with 5 doubles, 7 HR and 15 RBI in the nine games played so far in this longest homestand of the year, raising his average to .295 (coming in off the last road trip, he was hitting .188).

And we know that just as quickly, he could turn around and have a bad stretch, so you ride this streak as long as it lasts. Soriano still seems to be running slowly; his ground-rule double into the ivy in the 9th inning would probably have only been a single if it had exited the ivy and been fielded by McLouth, because he rounded first base very slowly. That would have prevented him from scoring on Ryan Theriot's single, not that it really mattered for the final result. Derrek Lee's fly ball looked, off the bat, as if it might make it for an amazing walkoff win, but Xavier Nady caught it just short of the warning track.

Today -- the Cubs just got beat. There's no shame in being beaten by McLouth, who is one of maybe three decent players on the Pirates and who is off to a torrid start himself (his 36 RBI now rank second in the National League). After Z's meltdown, the Cubs seemed to kind of shrink back and Zach Duke, who had been hashed around pretty good in the first four innings (eight hits, four runs), retired the last eight Cubs he faced. Tyler Yates, his relief, had Soriano as his first opposing hitter and he gave Alfonso his 2nd HR of the day. Soriano's so zoned in that virtually all of his HR have landed right near our section -- one yesterday just to our right, close to the foul pole, that second one today just to our left, to section 303 across the aisle in the last row.

It might have been a bit different, too, had Geovany Soto been safe on Mark DeRosa's double in the third inning. It seemed the right call at the time, leading 3-1, to send Soto, even though he's probably the slowest man in the starting lineup. Replays appeared to confirm that he was out. Had he scored, the score would have neen 4-1 and maybe Duke gets yanked right then and there.

On things like this, ballgames can turn. We'll get 'em tomorrow.

Two final notes: I thought having Kosuke Fukudome bunt in the 8th was the right call, especially since he usually handles the bat so well; this was a situation where you're not bunting strictly to sacrifice, but perhaps to beat it out. Dome had that in mind, as he attempted to push the bunt past Damaso Marte, but didn't quite get it far enough, and Marte was able to throw the lead runner, Aramis Ramirez, out at second, effectively killing the rally.

And conspicuous by his absence was Jim Edmonds. Rather than double-switching in the 9th when Marmol came in with Mike Fontenot, Lou could have used Edmonds to bat for Marmol in the last of the ninth. Instead, Edmonds stayed anchored to the bench today, and likely will be again tomorrow with yet another lefty, Phil Dumatrait (who the Cubs have beaten like the proverbial drum), going.

Finally, I heard today about some things that are happening to the guy who jumped out of the bleachers last Sunday. He was apparently dared by some of his friends (as is the usual thing in these cases, perhaps fueled by alcohol), and was in the Navy. He's being discharged from the Navy (my guess is, not honorably), and has also lost a chance to qualify for the US Olympic team, and may wind up in prison, convicted of a felony.

That's a lesson, kids. Don't do stuff like that. There are consequences for bad choices. The jumper apparently had everything going for him and has lost a lot due to one bad choice.

Shake this one off.

What else can you do after a loss like this one, 9-0 to the Reds, a game that was over after the second inning?

The Reds slammed seven home runs off the Cubs, including four in that second inning. The last time the Cubs gave up four home runs in an inning was nearly eight years ago, on August 8, 2000 in Los Angeles, which also happens to be the last time a pitcher -- Darren Dreifort, if you must know -- hit two home runs in a game. The four homers in the fourth inning that night were off Phil Norton, who -- and if I'm a regular ol' writer I'm supposed to say "ironically", but it really isn't -- eventually wound up pitching a couple of years of mediocre middle relief for... the Reds.

There's nothing to say about this game. The Cubs never really had any chance of getting back into it, despite drawing seven walks and leaving twelve (!) men on base; their six hits were all harmless singles, and despite having RISP in the third, fourth, fifth and ninth innings, the Cubs never got a man past second base.

I'm not worried about Jon Lieber. Sometimes you just get hit, and he did today. I'm not really worried about Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher or Michael Wuertz, either, and all but Wuertz were touched for at least one home run. Joey Votto hit three of them, one each off Lieber, Marshall and Gallagher, and now has four HR in six games against the Cubs this season, and five of his eleven career HR against the Cubs.

Maybe it's a good thing the Cubs don't see the Reds again till July.

I hesitate to write this, because of the way such things are often viewed, but my copy of Sports Illustrated with Kosuke Fukudome on the cover arrived in the mail last Wednesday. You know, this one:

via i.timeinc.net

The Cubs won 19-5 that day, but since then -- starting Thursday, the day the magazine went on general sale on the newsstands, the Cubs are 2-5, and Dome is hitting .296 in those seven games with only one walk, after hitting .327 with 19 walks in the 26 previous games.

So it can't hurt to say this: Hey, SI. Could you keep the Cubs off the cover? Say, like, forever? Or until after they win the World Series?

It won't be a fun plane ride home for Lou, the coaching staff and the ballplayers this afternoon, but you can bet Lou and Jim will be discussing potential roster and/or lineup moves for the important 10-game homestand (the longest of the season) starting Friday against the Diamondbacks. At 19-15 the Cubs are three games better than they were after 34 games in 2007. But there is still much work to do.

Everybody take a deep breath, blow the stench of this game out of you, and enjoy the day off tomorrow.

Drifting in and out of sleep last night (since I have to get up at 3:30 am for work on Saturdays, and thank you to BCB reader northsider for posting the extra inning comment thread), I woke up just in time to see Skip Schumaker's walkoff HR fly over the RF wall in St. Louis, finishing the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cardinals in 11 innings.

It's got Lou Piniella so exasperated that he doesn't know what to say. In this Bruce Miles article in the Daily Herald, Lou elaborates on his "You think I'm stupid?" remark at Thursday's postgame press conference:

After the game, Piniella took exception to a question from a radio reporter who asked if Piniella had thought about moving Reed Johnson from center to left and replacing Soriano, who had come off the disabled list Thursday after suffering a right-calf strain.

"The question that was asked yesterday, the guy who asked it knew the answer before I had to answer it," Piniella said. "Why ask it? Why can't he report the news instead of trying to create news?

"I'm not going to take Soriano out for defense. He knows it, you know it, and unless there's a double switch, that's the only way he's coming out of the ballgame. Everybody knows that. You don't take superstar players out of the lineup. You don't do it."

But then, in Bruce's game recap from last night, Piniella shows his frustration, which matches all of ours:

"I've got no explanation for the left-field play," Piniella said. "I really don't."

Soriano dropped a playable fly ball in the 7th inning -- well, "dropped" isn't the right word, because he appeared to never touch it -- that helped the Cardinals eventually extend their lead to 3-1 after Yadier Molina hit a ground-rule double. The Cubs actually caught a break on that play, because the ball bouncing into the seats held a runner at third. Otherwise it'd have been 4-1. At the same time, if Soriano makes that play (or if Derrek Lee hadn't made an error on Rick Ankiel's grounder on the previous play), the Cardinals score NO runs in that inning and then Soriano's two-run HR in the 9th inning would have been a game-winner.

Such is what happens when you're in a bad stretch, and the Cubs are in a really bad stretch (now six losses in the last eight games). I was actually encouraged by that inning, because Bob Howry did his job -- got Ankiel to hit a ground ball and Albert Pujols to hit the popup that Soriano couldn't field. When Troy Glaus struck out, that should have been a 1-2-3 inning. Kerry Wood also threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning, good news after his Thursday meltdown.

All of this wouldn't have been necessary if Rich Hill had just done his job. He walked four batters in the first inning, forcing in a run, at which time Lou had had enough and yanked him, and that may be it for Hill in the rotation for a while:

"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues," Piniella said. "Come on. Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best. I have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is. I can't start him anymore until this thing gets taken care of. I would think that if we did something, we'd put (Sean) Marshall in the rotation, for now."

Give credit, at least, to Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber, who together threw five innings and allowed only one run, keeping the game close. But Lou is right. I can't figure out what's wrong with Hill, who appears to have seriously regressed from his fine season last year. He's walked 18 in 19.2 innings and doesn't seem to have a clue out there. I don't think he's hurt, because his velocity seems OK; is it a mechanical problem? Larry Rothschild has already worked with him on that once this year, and that resulted in Hill's only win of the season. Hill has now thrown 353 pitches in five starts -- not getting past the sixth inning in any of them -- and only 55% of them have been strikes (194). Contrast that with Carlos Zambrano's excellent start this year (after a couple of years' worth of Z walking way too many) -- Z has thrown 723 pitches, 458 for strikes (63%).

Would an all-expenses-paid trip to Des Moines for Rich be useful? I say it would; what's the point of putting Hill in the bullpen? If he's a long reliever, he's likely to come into situations where the team is behind, maybe with runners on base, and if he can't throw strikes -- that's potential disaster.

The Cubs did have their opportunities last night, having nine hits and five walks... but leaving thirteen men on base in 11 innings isn't going to cut it. The Cubs left RISP in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th.

And Chad Fox... well, he threw strikes (14 in 23 pitches), but everyone he faced hit the ball hard (save Brendan Ryan, who bunted). I'm not so sure he's the answer to the Cubs' current bullpen woes, either. Just remember this: Lou won't stand pat if something isn't working, and even with the swap-out of Kevin Hart for Fox, there are still problems with both the rotation and the bullpen.

Perspective: after 29 games a year ago, the Cubs were 15-14, but already five games out of first place. This morning they trail by 1.5 games and are two games better off than the 2007 edition.

Well he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said
Well he's just an excitable boy...
-- Warren Zevon

Those of us who have followed Carlos Zambrano's career from day one know that he's very, very excitable. Last night there were times when I thought his head was going to blow right off his shoulders when he didn't get a couple of close ball/strike calls, as plate umpire Jim Wolf's strike zone did seem a little strange last night. To Wolf's credit, it was at least consistent for both teams. He also had a very slow strike call -- don't you hate that? I know the players do -- in the fourth inning Derrek Lee started to walk to first base on a 3-2 count on a pitch that looked like ball four, only to be called out on strikes. (Speaking of umpires, umpire Kerwin Danley was injured when hit by a Brad Penny pitch in the Dodgers/Rockies game in Los Angeles last night. He was taken to a local hospital and let's hope he's OK.)

The called K was just about the only thing D-Lee did wrong in last night's 7-0 Cub shutout of the Nationals, their first shutout of the season. Lee singled, doubled, walked twice, scored twice and drove in three runs, as Z pitched his best game of the year, allowing only four singles and a double, lowering his ERA to 2.21. He did issue four walks -- nearly doubling his previous total for the entire season of five -- but was never really in trouble, and the Cubs breezed through this game, scoring three times in the first inning on a Lee RBI single and, after Kosuke Fukudome had walked to load the bases, Mark DeRosa singled for two runs. Five of the first six Cubs reached base. It was the Cubs' 16th win in April, tying the club record for wins in April, set in... 1969.

Fukudome was about the only Cub who didn't contribute much last night -- too bad, because he was celebrating his 31st birthday. Geovany Soto also had a tough night at the plate, going 0-for-5 and striking out all five times. BCB reader bluekoolaide's FanPost asks "What's wrong with Soto?" but I don't think anything's wrong other than he's having a rough patch, which can happen to anyone. He'll likely get today off, which would be expected anyway (day game after a night game) and thus can rest till Tuesday night when the Cubs come home to face the Brewers. Incidentally, the Yahoo AP recap of the game says:

Cubs C Geovany Soto struck out five times, each time against a different Washington pitcher.

That's a pretty good trick, considering the Nats used only four pitchers last night.

Other good things last night: Michael Wuertz, who has struggled, threw a scoreless inning, issuing a leadoff walk but then inducing a double-play ball; Jon Lieber threw an efficient ninth (14 pitches, making him probably available today again if needed), and ONEDEC had three more hits. When Alfonso Soriano comes off the DL and DeRosa returns to 2B, Lou will have a choice to make between ONEDEC and Ryan Theriot at SS. The logical thing would be to play ONEDEC, but Theriot has also hit. I don't want to start the Theriot firestorm again, but Lou likes playing the hot hand. There will be some choices to be made, and isn't that a nice problem to have? It's clear that Ronny Cedeno has, perhaps at last, figured out what he needs to do to be a solid regular major league player. He's earned playing time.

Once again, I commend all of you to BCB reader 08cubs' FanPost; he was at the game and has an excellent recap including photos.

Note about the Nationals: I have seen plenty of big men on a baseball field. But there is no way around this: Nats catcher Johnny Estrada is FAT. I know that's not a politically correct way of saying it... but geez, how does that guy crouch 100+ times a game? No wonder the Brewers dumped him. In 15 games he's 7-for-32, but has failed to score a run. Do you think he could go through an entire season scoreless?

So, Ted Lilly will take the mound this afternoon, trying to build on the good outing he had last Tuesday at Wrigley Field; win this game and you've had another successful road trip.

Finally, for those of you who have been so outraged about more advertising at Wrigley Field or the proposals for possible sale of the naming rights to the ballpark, during last night's game there was advertising that was genuinely annoying: during one of Fukudome's at-bats (and maybe elsewhere, too; that's the only one I actually saw) an ad for a movie opening on May 9 flashed across the CSN screen, then vanished. Unlike advertising at the ballpark, or naming rights, which can easily be ignored and don't interrupt the action, this ad DID get in the way. (And was pretty ineffective, as I can't even remember the name of the movie.) I know CSN wants to squeeze every ad dollar they can out of these telecasts, but that one was pretty ridiculous.

I'll have a game thread up later this morning. Keep the winning going.

I wasn't in favor of the Jon Lieber signing when it was announced last fall. "What do we need him for?", I thought. "We already have plenty of starting pitchers."

If not for Lieber the Cubs might have lost two of three in Pittsburgh -- he threw 7.1 scoreless innings in the series in two appearances, racked up wins in both of them, and currently leads the team in wins (tied with Kevin Hart), and is third in innings pitched despite not having started a game, and has allowed only two runs, both unearned, this season so far.

That's what we need him for... and pretty soon, if Rich Hill doesn't get his act together, Lieber may wind up in the rotation. And that's not just me or you talking, it's Lou:

Asked whether he might take Hill out of the rotation to let him work out his issues, given a wealth of starting depth in Lieber and Sean Marshall, Piniella suggested that would be an option.

"I'm going to sit down and talk to our pitching coach about that," Piniella said. "I want what's best for Hill. We've got to get him straightened out. That's the important thing."

With Lieber -- and Sean Marshall, who may throw on Sunday if Jason Marquis isn't over his case of strep -- in the bullpen, the Cubs do have options if starters fail.

Hill failed last night, walking four and allowing three hits and three runs in three innings, throwing 72 pitches, but Lieber held the Pirates down while the Cubs exploded for five runs in the sixth inning; Geovany Soto's two-run HR off Matt Morris gave the Cubs a 4-3 lead and they never looked back, winning 7-3, and I was a little surprised to see Kerry Wood in the 9th inning in a NON-save situation. Closers often have trouble when they can't put up that counting stat (Ryan Dempster was an excellent example of this when he was the closer), but Wood had no trouble putting the Pirates down. Soto, for his part, had three other hits -- two doubles and a single -- and raised his average to .333. Mike Fontenot also homered. Where does a guy that small get that much power (lifetime SLG .415)?

The Cubs have now won six straight against Pittsburgh (including a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field last September), and this is good news because nine of the next 41 games will be against the Pirates. This year's wacky schedule has the Pirates at Wrigley Field next weekend -- and then again the third weekend of May, followed by a return visit to PNC Park the weekend after that.

Speaking of PNC, it's a beautiful place, as those of you who have been there know, an excellent spot to watch baseball. But the Pirates franchise is going to be in trouble if they keep drawing like they did the last two games of the series. Despite good early-April weather, less than 10,000 attended each game (9,798 last night, 9,735 the night before, which tells you what the Bucs' season ticket base must be) -- and a fair number of those were Cubs fans. Even some of the Cubs noticed:

"I wouldn't say it's difficult, but it's not as enjoyable," Derrek Lee said. "You like the crowd excitement, the noise. Opening Day here was great. But [the small crowds] are kind of different."

With only a few thousand fans in the stands near the end of Wednesday's 15-inning game, almost every voice could be heard in the dugout. Manager Lou Piniella even had to have some words with some rude fans.

"About the 14th inning, I think three young men had had enough beers," he said. "I just told 'em to watch the game, nothing more."

Lee was used to playing in front of small crowds in Florida and admitted, "it's easy to fall flat in that atmosphere."

I would have posted this recap last night, given that the game was only about half as long as the previous two, but, having gotten used to extra-inning games, I got interested in watching a couple of them on... Extra Innings. (They're sure getting enough of those so far this year!) And in one of them, the Mets' 4-3 win over the Phillies in 12, ex-Cub Angel Pagan drove in the winning run with a two-out single. Pagan is hot right now, hitting .370 with 9 RBI, but don't expect that to continue.

Finally, after Soto's HR, he came out to catch the next inning and I got a good look at his chest protector, which has the large letters "GEO" right on the top. What's up with that?

At 12:30 this afternoon, I sat down to watch today's game, enjoying watching the sunshine in Pittsburgh and figuring that by 3:00 or so, I'd be able to go run the errands and do the rest of the things I needed to do today.

Four hours and forty-seven minutes later, I finally went out to quickly drop some mail off. That was OK, because... I really didn't have anything to do today.

Oh, wait. Yes, I did.

The Cubs beat the Pirates 10-8 in 12 innings in a game that perhaps is best not described at all, because both teams crammed enough bad baseball into this afternoon to last at least a month.

There were errors. Of omission and commission. There were walks. There were stolen bases (four by the Cubs). There were walks. Did I mention there were walks? Eighteen of the freakin' things, for heaven's sake.

And finally, it was walks that undid Pirates rookie pitcher Evan Meek, and as bad as Carmen Pignatiello threw in his brief appearance in the sixth inning (when the Pirates tied the game at seven, and Piggy threw eight pitches, none of them near the strike zone), Meek's appearance cost the Pirates the game. In order: walk, stolen base, walk, wild pitch, groundout, intentional walk, sacrifice fly, wild pitch, intentional walk, walk with the bases loaded, two runs on NO hits.

Man, that's bad. Fortunately, that all was FOR the Cubs.

However, before all that, we got a BCB exclusive. After all the photos you've seen of the first homestand, we got this exclusive photo of Ronny Cedeno's bases-clearing double in the third inning that gave the Cubs a 7-0 lead:

Today was WGN-TV's first road HD telecast, and it was pretty much a TV disaster. First, the audio wasn't synced with the picture; for most of a sporting event that doesn't matter because the faces speaking aren't on TV. But Len and Bob looked odd in the pregame show, lip-flapping their way through the game intro. Then they lost audio altogether and had them on a phone line... and then they lost the picture. Inertia took over; I could have switched to Pat & Ron on WGN radio, but left the phone-line quality audio (it sounded like the basketball games I used to call for my college radio station 30 years ago) up and that image on the screen.

Almost to the minute when the video feed returned, the Pirates started knocking the ball around PNC Park. Ted Lilly got knocked out and Kevin Hart wasn't much better. It took the Pirates till the 7th inning, off Michael Wuertz, to tie the game -- mostly as a result of a Mark DeRosa error.

And on it went into the late-afternoon shadows in Pittsburgh. The Cubs left RISP in the 10th and 11th innings before basically letting Evan Meek give them the game in the 12th.

Kudos -- BIG ones -- to Jon Lieber, who came in the game in the 9th inning and slammed the door shut. He threw three innings and gave up two harmless doubles and two walks (both intentional). He threw an efficient 35 pitches (23 strikes) and probably could have thrown five more innings if the Cubs had needed him to (and thank heavens they didn't, because I still wouldn't have run my errands!). Carlos Marmol finished up, and looked the best I've seen him all year, including the spring. That's good news, too.

There will be calls for Lieber to go into the rotation, and I can see this. But in some ways, he's more valuable to the team as a long-man like this; even though he threw three innings today, I'll bet he could do it again on Wednesday night, he throws so effortlessly. In 1998, the Cubs had Terry Mulholland fill a role like this -- check out his gamelogs from that year; he started six games but relieved in 64 others, often throwing two innings. That's a very valuable guy to have in your bullpen. Obviously, if one of the current rotation really starts throwing bad on a consistent basis, you'd have to think about putting Lieber in the rotation. But I'd give it at least four times through the rotation before even thinking about doing this.

I finally went out to run my errands when the Cubs scored the two runs in the 12th, and listened to the rest of the game on the radio. Pat Hughes said, "The best thing to do after a game like this, after you win, is to completely forget about it."

Sound advice, I think. It was ugly. The Cubs won. They've got tomorrow off, and most of Wednesday till the night game. Be happy.

Good news: the sun came out today right about game time.

Bad news: The Cubs lost to the Astros 4-3, and it easily could have gone the other way.

I'm going to do the entire rest of this recap as a good news/bad news thing, because despite the loss, there was plenty of good to go around today. (Plenty of bad, too, and I won't hold back, either.)

Good news: Rich Hill threw six solid innings and gave up only two runs.

Bad news: Hill couldn't "close the deal" (as my friend Phil would say) in the fourth inning, after striking out the first two hitters, he walked Mark Loretta and then threw his "one bad pitch", a 2-run HR to J. R. Towles that wound up as the difference in the game.

Interlude: If you changed around the fourth and fifth letters in Towles' last name, you'd have the perfect catcher for a certain Former Employee of the Cubs. Right?

Good news: Mark DeRosa homered in the ninth inning, his first of the year.

Bad news: DeRosa bobbled a Lance Berkman grounder leading off the 8th, and Berkman later scored. If he handles this ball, Miguel Tejada, who tripled, maybe doesn't get the same pitch sequence from Jon Lieber.

Good news: Alfonso Soriano, forced by double-switch to 2B because Mike Fontenot wasn't available today, handled two grounders flawlessly. (I wouldn't have wanted to see him try a DP pivot, though.)

Bad news: Soriano waved at Tejada's ball in the 8th as it bounced off the wall and went by him. Had Soriano handled this ball, Tejada would have likely stopped at second and NOT scored on Ty Wigginton's fly ball. Lou Piniella said in his postgame press conference that he couldn't see the ball from his spot in the dugout. From where we were -- right behind Soriano -- it looked like he took his eye off the ball for just long enough for it to scoot by him.

Good news: Kosuke Fukudome had two more hits, keeping his early-season average at .500. Does this guy EVER swing at a bad pitch? I don't think I've seen him do that yet this year.

Bad news: None here. Fukudome's been absolutely rock-solid consistent through four games. The Cubs did their homework and got a terrific player, I think. (Yes, I know. Small sample size. Still, he seems to be playing exactly as he did in Japan.)

Good news: Jon Lieber threw really well, effortless as always, in his first outing. Had his batting order slot not come up, I have no doubt Lou would have sent him out for the 9th inning.

Bad news: The Cubs were playing Dustyball -- hackalicious. In the fifth inning we looked up and Chris Sampson's pitch count was 39.

Good news: Reed Johnson smacked a ball deep to left field in the 6th inning, pinch-hitting for Hill, for a double.

Bad news: Johnson's ball got knocked down by the wind and could have been a HR. Instead, he died at third base.

Good news, then bad news: many of the outs were hard-hit. The wind knocked down several fly balls, including all three balls hit to Astros CF Michael Bourn in the 4th inning.

Interlude: if Bourn ever became a really good player, and Nike created a shoe line to honor him, would it be called "Air-Bourn"?

Enough. Lou discussed the cold weather in the postgame news conference, and said it wasn't an excuse. It's not. Today was actually fairly nice while the sun was out, and the announced crowd of 37,812 was likely about 28,000 in the house, several thousand more than yesterday. Tomorrow and Sunday will be gorgeous, sunny days, with temperatures in the 60's.

Don't worry and don't panic. This team will be just fine.

Click here for my Friday scorecard

MESA, Arizona -- NOW will the naysayers stop dumping on Felix Pie?

Pie singled, doubled, laid down a nice sac bunt and tripled with two out in the ninth inning, and two pitches later scored when Eric Patterson bounced a ball up the middle, giving the Cubs a 7-6 win over the Rangers before another sellout, 12,757 at Ho Ho Kam Park this afternoon.

Total attendance for the 13 dates so far is 155,926, an average of 11,994. The Cubs won't break their season attendance record (which is also the all-time spring training record for any ballpark, Arizona or Florida) set in 2004, 193,993 (an average of 12,125 per date), but with another sellout expected Thursday, the average will go over 12,000.

Today's lawn crowd included several other friends from the bleachers who had just arrived, including Ken and his two sons, who like to shag baseballs during BP at Wrigley. The kids had just walked away when Mark DeRosa's three-run HR in the first inning flew over our heads and landed against the back fence, one-bouncing into the parking lot, a blast of about 410 feet. DeRo also played half the game at third base today. I'm sure that must have started the speculators going ("Geez! If he's playing 3B, that must mean he's going to be a supersub! I bet TTTSNBN is gonna happen!") No, that wasn't it at all -- it was just a half game just to give DeRo a few innings at 3B (something he did last spring, too), and to give Aramis Ramirez the rest of the day off.

Most of the regulars were out of the game after the sixth inning, except for DeRo and Pie. Alfonso Soriano had a nice day at the plate, drawing a walk ahead of D-Lee's single and DeRosa's HR, and in the sixth inning had an excellent at-bat, fouling off several pitches before poking a fly ball deep enough into center field to score Ronny Cedeno (who had singled, stolen second and gone to third on a throwing error), which at the time gave the Cubs a two-run lead, and with Jon Lieber throwing strikes in relief, that looked like it was enough.

Lieber, who almost never walks anyone, walked pinch-hitter Nelson Cruz ileading off the eighth, and one out later, one-time Cub farmhand Adam Melhuse smacked a two-run HR off Lieber, tying the game, and setting up the heroics in the 9th. The Cubs had a shot in the 8th, after pinch-hitter deluxe Daryle Ward doubled with one out, but Sam Fuld, sent in to run for Ward, died there when Mike Fontenot and Matt Murton struck out.

About Lieber, frankly, I was not happy to hear that Jason Marquis was named to the last rotation slot and Lieber shunted to the bullpen. This is being further discussed in this FanPost posted earlier today. It was the consensus on the lawn today that Marquis might be being showcased for a trade -- not necessarily a deal to be made before next Monday, but maybe a deal that could happen sometime before Marquis blows up in the second half of the season. (Not now, no, and especially not TTTSNBN, which, as I have been saying all along, is probably dead.

Lieber, of course, is a trooper and won't complain about a bullpen assignment, either. It has been a long time since the Cubs have had a pitcher like that in the pen, too -- a guy with many years of experience as a starter. The last one was probably Terry Mulholland, who started six games and relieved in 64 others in 1998, posting a 2.89 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and a 151 ERA+; Mulholland was a key part of that pitching staff and perhaps Lieber can serve the same role this year.

Further, Ryan Dempster wasn't all that sharp today, and it's the usual reason -- too many walks. I don't have a pitch count, but Lou had to yank him with two out in the fifth, after he had walked three and given up eight hits, several of them rockets into the gap. So to me, even though Lou has "set" his rotation, it may very well still be in flux once the season actually begins.

Incidentally, if you were one of those hoping the Cubs would get Joe Nathan by trade later, forget it. Today, Nathan signed a four-year, $47 million extension with the Twins. (Nice work if you can get it.) Anyway, the official anointing of Kerry Wood as closer does, in my opinion, solve that problem. Wood is healthy, threw back-to-back days with no trouble (I'm presuming he'll go tomorrow, to pitch 3 of 4 days, as a closer might during the year), and is throwing 98 MPH with nasty breaking stuff. He seems eminently suited by temperament to close, and that gives the Cubs two excellent setup men in Bob Howry and Carlos Marmol (who looked much better today in getting the Cubs out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth).

Les Walrond... is still around. Threw an uneventful 9th and qualified for the win today. Lou has said Walrond still has a shot at making the team, but I just don't see it. What can he do that Carmen Pignatiello can't? And, Walrond is a nonroster guy, which means someone would have to be dumped from the 40-man roster to make room. I... just... don't... see... the... point.

Finally, we had another table selling Wrigley Season Ticket before the game; about 30 copies were sold, and autographed by Fergie Jenkins, who I assume many of you saw during the game telecast, promoting the book, among other things. I have a favor to ask: if any of you who are more adept at this than I am, could take a video clip out of the MLB.TV archive (or elsewhere, if you have it) and email it to me, of Fergie's appearance, I would be grateful.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- It was a gorgeous, not-a-cloud-in-the-evening-sky night in the Valley of the Sun.

A full house, nearly half Cubs fans, at Scottsdale Stadium. (Including a mother and daughter who sat down in front of us, downed about 8 beers between them -- probably at a cost of over $50 -- and then left in the 6th inning, having not watched more than a play or two.)

And while the likely Opening Day starting lineup failed to win Wednesday afternoon in Mesa, a lineup cobbled together with exactly one regular (Geovany Soto), a few backups (Daryle Ward, Matt Murton), a couple of guys who are trying to make the roster (Eric Patterson, Ronny Cedeno), and assorted others, defeated most of the regular Giants' lineup 4-2, in a game that was, well, mostly yawn-inducing.

Jon Lieber didn't have his best stuff but threw well enough to give up only one run in five innings. He was helped by two slick double plays started by Cedeno -- and the second one, Ronny should have asked for help because he was almost bowled over by Ray Durham when he decided to take the play at second by himself instead of flipping to Mike Fontenot.

The rest of the bullpen did a fine job -- Scott Eyre, Bob Howry and Carmen Pignatiello gave up two hits in three innings.

Note that I left someone out in that description. More on that in a moment.

Cedeno, who singled, doubled and tripled yesterday, hit a booming two-run HR in the fifth inning that provided the margin of victory. It landed about 20 feet to our right on the LF berm. With Alex Cintron hurt -- and it must be serious, because had Cintron been healthy, I assume he would have started at 3B in this game -- it seems likely that Cedeno may have played himself onto the roster with his performance the last two days.

Ronny Cedeno has talent. He can hit -- he's hit each of the last two springs, although that hasn't translated to the regular season -- and he can make the spectacular, Web Gem type plays, while occasionally screwing up in the field on what should be routine grounders. As we saw last season, he occasionally lacks basic baseball smarts (really, how can you get thrown out oversliding second base on a walk??). But if he can smarten up and not play for getting on SportsCenter, he might be a valuable addition to this team.

I said I'd come back to the bullpen, and Jose Ascanio, who also has talent, came in to a save situation in the 9th and nearly blew it. He walked the first two men he faced -- barely getting near the strike zone, he had no command at all -- and after getting the next two hitters to fly out, he gave up a double down the line to Rajai Davis that scored the Giants' second run and put the tying run in scoring position. A visit to the mound by Larry Rothschild -- in which he probably said something along the lines of, "Hey kid! It's late, let's get out of here!" -- produced a popup to Murton in foul territory to end the game. Talent isn't going to be enough for Ascanio -- he's going to have to learn to throw strikes, and will likely be doing so at Iowa this year. I was surprised to not see Neal Cotts tonight, given the fact that I have heard teams want to scout him. He hasn't pitched since Saturday, and tomorrow is the deadline to cut players and not have to pay them their full salary. I see some moves coming. (No, not THAT move, although there was a Roberts sighting tonight. DAVE Roberts, the Giants' left fielder.)

Night games in the spring seem -- well, a little odd. The crowds seem more subdued, and tonight, of course, no "regular" Cubs (save Soto) played. Still, it was a pleasant way to enjoy an Arizona evening, and a win is a win (I'm sure Lou was pleased at that, anyway). Off to sleep. It's late, and that "Yawn" in the headline is overtaking me.