Two plays.

One ball hit by Jeff Keppinger that Aramis Ramirez couldn't handle, and which went under his glove for a first-inning error.

And another, one bad pitch from Carlos Zambrano to Adam Dunn that was deposited into the center-field juniper bushes for a brief 1-0 Reds lead in the second.

Other than that, Carlos Zambrano was perfect last night, retiring all 20 batters he faced after the Dunn HR. So what would you have done? The Cubs had, thanks to a Ramirez HR and some other timely hitting, extended the lead to 5-1 (which would be the final, a 5-1 win over the Reds, the Cubs' third in a row), and Z was at 103 pitches. Do you leave him in to finish what would have been the first CG one-hitter of his career?

There are conflicting reports. Bruce Miles writes that Lou felt 100-105 pitches was enough:

"He wanted to go out and finish it, but it was only his second time out since being off the DL, and we were on a game plan of 100-105 pitches," Piniella said. "We let him hit (in the eighth). That appeased him a little bit."

But, even Z himself acknowledged, in Carrie Muskat's cubs.com recap, that taking him out was the wise thing to do:

"I was thinking about that," Zambrano said about going the distance. "It's been a long time since I pitched a complete game. But not in this situation. I came off the DL one start ago, and it's too soon. Hopefully, in the second half of the season, I will have a chance to throw a complete game."

It was a near-perfect weather night, too, the kind you want to bottle up and let out on some blustery January day when you think it's never, ever going to get warm again. Unlike Tuesday night, the wind had pretty much died completely not long after game time, and just a few clouds on the horizon made the sunset pink and orange over the Yard. While Z was firing blanks at the Reds -- and in his best 2003-style form, not trying to blow hitters away, but instead getting ground balls, eleven of the twenty consecutive outs being on the ground -- the Cubs were methodically putting up runs. Dunn's HR was matched in the bottom of the 2nd when Jeff Keppinger's error on Mark DeRosa's grounder allowed Geovany Soto to score.

Later, Ramirez homered to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead, and then in the seventh, the Cubs batted around and extended it to 5-1 on RBI hits from Kosuke Fukudome (double), Derrek Lee (single), and A-Ram again (double). It could have and should have been more -- Z had attempted a sacrifice bunt after Reed Johnson led off the inning with a single, and replays showed that Z was safe after Cueto double-clutched. (It wasn't even close; 1B umpire Eric Cooper must have taken his eyes off the play.)

But that last is nitpicking. This isn't: we hope Carlos Marmol isn't hurt. He got the first two outs in the 9th easily, including one on a spectacular stop by D-Lee on Paul Bako's grounder past 1B, but appeared to have been spiked. He took a few warmup tosses and stayed in the game, getting the second out (a fly ball from PH Corey Patterson, who was roundly booed), but then on a similar play to Bako's, Jay Bruce was ruled safe (that one, unlike the one on Z, appeared to be a correct call). Then Marmol fell apart, throwing a wild pitch and walking the bases loaded, forcing Lou to summon Kerry Wood to finish it off.

Which he did, running the club record at Wrigley Field to -- how many more superlatives can you find? I can't -- an absolutely stunning 35-10, the best home winning percentage in baseball in a year when many teams have played exceptionally well at home.

Finally, after his news conference welcoming him to Chicago, new Cub Rich Harden (who will start on Saturday vs. the Giants, despite the headline on Bruce Miles' article that says "No word yet on Harden's first start") came out to left field to throw a few pitches in front of Larry Rothschild and a couple of his teammates:

Photo by Tim Shockley. As Tim said in his email: "We told him to take it easy and not throw so hard..." Amen. (Click on photo to open a larger version in a new browser window)

Finally, the Cubs picked up a game on both Milwaukee and St. Louis -- the Cardinals lost Mark Mulder again after 16 pitches, and the Brewers lost a pitching matchup (Ben Sheets vs. Glendon Rusch) that "on paper" was a no-brainer for them. But that's why they play the games. Today's pregame thread will be up at 11:30 am CDT.

This recap is going to be pretty short because: a) my computer kept crashing this morning any time I opened IE, so I finally gave up and am using Firefox for this; b) there's going to be another game thread up in a couple of hours for the day game today; and c) the Cubs made quick work of the Orioles 7-4 last night.

That's not completely true -- Ted Lilly kept trying to put Baltimore back into the game by giving up two-run homers to Jay Payton, a pair of them; but the six runs the Cubs scored in the first two innings were enough to compensate for that. Lilly didn't have his "A" game, or as Mike said to me last night, even his "B" game -- but his "C" game was enough to make it through seven innings, allowing only five hits (two of them the Payton HR) and four runs.

That helped save most of the bullpen (Scott Eyre has thrown about 500 pitches there this homestand without getting into a single game), and things seem to be getting back to normal for Carlos Marmol -- he was far closer to the strike zone last night, looking like the dominating Marmol of the first two months (16 strikes in 21 pitches) and Kerry Wood was completely unhittable, hitting 98 a couple of times on the perhaps admittedly biased Wrigley radar gun, striking out the side in the 9th for his 20th save.

Every starting Cub reached base at least once last night and only Eric Patterson (who walked for his only on-base appearance) didn't have a hit. The biggest blows were Geovany Soto's two-run single in the first inning and another HR from the apparently-rejuvenated Jim Edmonds, who is now hitting .305/.376/.622 as a Cub in 82 at-bats, including six doubles, a triple and six home runs.

A few things, though, worry me about a win that looks real good statistically: first, as good as the offense looked, they stranded a ton of runners -- fourteen men left on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the second and eighth. With 12 hits and 10 walks, the Cubs ought to have scored at least three or four more runs and put the game far out of reach. Derrek Lee grounded into another double play -- that's sixteen for him, on pace for 32, which would be third-most in major league history (Lee is tied with the Dodgers' James Loney for the most in the majors so far this year). And, Kosuke Fukudome, who was in the original starting lineup (last night, former Vine Line editor Jim McArdle, who's working on a book for this season, came to sit with us and had the early lineup on his scorecard -- I copied it, but it changed by the time it was announced; also had to switch Baltimore's starter when the original starter from the preview, Brian Burres, was switched out for Matt Albers, who didn't make it past the fifth Cub hitter before he was lifted with shoulder trouble), had to be scratched with tightness in his left calf. In his postgame news conference, Lou said that rather than starting today, Dome is "day-to-day", which could mean anything. I doubt you'll see him today and given that statement, he might wind up missing some time this weekend on the South Side, too.

I guess we shouldn't complain too much, right? Did you ever think you'd see me thank Gary Sheffield here? Thanks, Gary. Sheffield's 9th-inning single gave the Tigers an 8-7 rain-delayed win over the Cardinals, increasing the Cubs' lead to 4.5 games.

Two more notes from around baseball, passed along without further comment, and then I'm done and on to the pregame thread, which will post at 11:30:

• Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon has been suspended by the team for physically assaulting GM Ed Wade when Wade wanted to discuss Chacon's demotion to the bullpen.
• Barry Bonds won't play for an independent league team and his agent now claims he'll play for the minimum salary, with proceeds donated to "buy tickets for children". No, sorry, I have to comment here. You believe that? I don't.

Onward. Let's win this series.

Before I mention last night's wicked weather conditions, a little lesson, kiddies.

One is good. Two is funny. Three is still... mostly funny. Even one of the Cubs chimed in:

"I thought it was hilarious," Ryan Theriot said. "I thought it was awesome. I actually was hoping it would kind of continue."

Well, yeah, sort of, Ryan. Fifteen isn't funny. What am I talking about? The 15 baseballs that were thrown back from the bleachers and the street after Adam Dunn's monster home run onto Sheffield off Kevin Hart in the 8th inning of the Cubs' 12-3 win over the Reds last night. Some of those balls weren't that far from hitting Cubs outfielders in the head (I can just see Kosuke Fukudome looking at this spectacle and thinking, "What the heck have I gotten myself into?").

Beyond that, as Mike quickly mentioned, "Do you all want the score of this game to be 9-0?" (That's the official score of a forfeit game, if you didn't know.) I don't think it ever got quite that far, but that is an option for umpires if they think behavior in the stands has gotten so out of hand that the Cubs couldn't control it and the game couldn't continue.

The bottom line is -- have fun. But don't get stupid, especially on a night when the Cubs did practically everything right. It was the first blowout win of the season, on an night when the wind was blowing out at near-gale force (the "official" wind speed was 14 MPH, but it was far stronger than that most of the night; I'd estimate gusts at over 35 MPH, strong enough to send trash flying through the bleachers and for the Cubs to not even put the retired number flags and team standing flags up).

The Cubs took the lead in the first inning off Josh Fogg (whose ERA, a bad 7.00 coming in, jumped to 13.09 after he allowed the first nine runs), hitting three doubles and a single sandwiched around a HBP to Aramis Ramirez. That's been one of the best things about many of the Cubs' offensive outbursts this year so far -- they've been done without home runs. Of the 13 Cub hits last night, only one -- Derrek Lee's sixth of the year, matching his total from the entire first half of 2007, was a home run. Apart from that, they had six walks (including getting the bases loaded on walks in the 9th off Reds closer Francisco Cordero, scoring on Soto's groundout), seven singles and five doubles, including a double laced down the line by Carlos Zambrano, who had his first three hits of the year.

Z's double was in the 7th, after the Cubs had an 11-2 lead; we were all surprised to see him stay in the game on the bases, since it was obvious that Kevin Hart was going to come in the game anyway. Why risk getting Z hurt? I thought that with the wind blowing at gale force, Z would be trying to hit every ball into Lake Michigan, but he had really good at-bats in raising his season average to .250 (3-for-12). He now has 16 career doubles.

The Cubs also got good performances out of Ryan Theriot (two hits, raising his average to .280), Geovany Soto (only one hit, but it was a two-run double, and he drove in another run on a groundout), Kosuke Fukudome (does he EVER have a bad game? Two hits and two walks), and a two-run double from Mark DeRosa.

The booing for former Cubs Corey Patterson and manager Dusty Baker subsided a bit last night as people were much more interested in reveling about the Cubs' fine evening. They'll go for the sweep this afternoon, when it'll be a little less windy. I'll have a separate game thread up in about three hours. Finally, David and I have an all-Fukudome selection of photos this morning:

Top to bottom: Kosuke Fukudome throws a ball to the RF bleacher fans in the 1st inning; Fukudome rounding first base on his 1st-inning double; Fukudome making a catch up close and personal with Reed Johnson; Mike Fontenot's over the shoulder catch near Fukudome (latter two both in the sixth inning). Click on photo to open a larger version in a new browser window. Photos by David Sameshima

On a night when many players and some entire teams -- nine of them -- honored the legacy of Jackie Robinson by wearing his retired number 42, Derrek Lee, who you see above (along with the Reds' Ken Griffey, Jr., also wearing 42), smashed a three-run homer in the fifth inning, bringing the Cubs from behind (they trailed 3-2 at the time), had two other hits, and sparked a 9-5 Cub win over the Reds, their eighth win in their last eleven games after starting the season 0-2.

That one felt good, although the wind howling out at 20+ MPH didn't feel so good once the sun went down. None of the three Cub homers -- by D-Lee, Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot -- needed any help from the wind, though. It wasn't just home runs, either -- in addition to the three HR, the Cubs pounded out 11 other hits, drew three walks and in general, had a fine offensive day. I hesitate to say so, but D-Lee's starting to look as he did in his great 2005 season -- and is now tied for the league lead in HR (5), three off the lead with 12 RBI, 2nd in SLG (.737) and 3rd in OPS (1.159).

Also "offensive", in a different sort of way, was an injury to Alfonso Soriano after one of his "bunny hops" on catching a routine fly ball. His former manager at Washington, Frank Robinson, predicted this would happen:

Soriano, an infielder until the Washington Nationals converted him to the outfield in 2006, has done the hop since making the switch, and his manager then, Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson, cringed when he watched it -- but was reluctant to try to break him of it.

"I kept saying one of these days he's going to go up there and it ain't going to be there," Robinson said last fall.

Soriano had a MRI last night on the leg and may be headed to the DL. (Which, I suppose, will please those of you who are Soriano bashers. However, please remember the Cubs would likely would not have made the playoffs without his performance last September.) I presume Matt Murton would be recalled from Iowa, though it could also be Eric Patterson (since Patterson can play more positions than Murton can, and hits lefthanded). The Cubs may mix-and-match lineups while Soriano is out, but even what they did last night -- move Mark DeRosa to LF and play Mike Fontenot at 2B -- might work on occasion. They could also play Patterson in LF, or Patterson in CF (if it's really decided that Felix Pie has to go back to Iowa, and he looked pretty bad last night, even as the rest of the team was smacking the ball around the yard) with Murton in LF. I suppose also, that the calls to sign free agent Kenny Lofton may begin again.

There are worse ideas. We'll see. I also hope that if Soriano is out, Lou will entertain the idea of leading off with Kosuke Fukudome, who seems ideally suited for that spot, with his excellent plate discipline. Anyway, once Soriano does return (presuming he does have a DL stint ahead), let's hope someone convinces him to stop hopping.

Ryan Dempster threw a pretty good game, though a defensive lapse by Carlos Marmol cost him a "quality start" -- Marmol inexplicably threw to 2B in an ill-advised attempt to get Corey Patterson (who was booed every time he came up, as was Dusty Baker when he made two pitching changes. That's all I have to say about that). Hey Carlos: when the other team gives you an out, take it! Instead, the bases wound up loaded, and when a run scored on a force play, that left Dempster, who left with nobody out in the seventh, with four earned runs. Marmol, however, recovered to get an inning-ending DP, and then threw a strong eighth, striking out the side and hitting 97 on the ballpark speed meter. Would you have guessed that after 13 games, three pitchers would be tied for the team lead with two wins -- and the three would be Dempster, Jon Lieber and Kevin Hart?

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his 595th career HR and then (photo above) shared some laughs with bleacher fans in RF who were heckling him. The Reds' Joey Votto finished the five-total-HR barrage last night by homering off Michael Wuertz (hey, what's up with that? Suddenly, Wuertz seems eminently hittable), and when Wuertz followed that with a walk to Paul Bako, Kerry Wood was summoned to finish up, even though it wasn't a save situation. Kerry threw 15 pitches (12 strikes), so ought to be available tonight (even though he was up two separate times to warm up; he'd have come in to start the 9th had Theriot not homered to make a 7-4 lead a 9-4 lead).

We were joined last night by BCB readers Sarah Hope (who recently moved to the Chicago area from Cincinnati to take a job with the Schaumburg Flyers) and some co-workers, and also BartlettBob (who says he rarely posts, if you haven't seen his name much). They gave out knit caps last night -- they were needed. It's supposed to be warmer, but just as windy, tonight, so expect more balls to leave the yard.

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

Longtime readers of this site will remember that I was a defender of Dusty Baker long past the time when it was reasonable to do so. In retrospect, that was a big mistake, and I acknowledge all of Dusty's failures with the Cubs -- and we don't have to rehash them here. Baker was a success with the Cubs up until a certain fateful inning in 2003. After that, the litany of mistakes is huge.

Again, this post isn't meant to recap, but to look forward to tonight, when we will see the return of Baker as manager of the Cincinnati Reds; it will be his first visit to Wrigley Field as a former Cub manager

This is a very rare event. Here is the complete list of Cub managers (besides Baker) who held another managing job after they left the team (years they managed the Cubs in parentheses):

• Bob Ferguson (1878); managed several other teams from 1879-1887
• Tom Loftus (1900-01); managed Washington Senators in 1902 and 1903
• John Evers (1913 and 1921); managed Chicago White Sox in 1924
• Fred Mitchell (1917-20); managed Boston Braves from 1921-23
• Bill Killefer (1921-1925); managed St. Louis Browns from 1930-1933
• George Gibson (26 games in 1925, after Killefer); managed Pittsburgh Pirates from 1932-34
• Joe McCarthy (1926-30); managed New York Yankees from 1931-46 and Boston Red Sox from 1948-50
• Rogers Hornsby (1930-1932); managed Browns from 1933-37 and 1952 and Cincinnati Reds in 1952 and 1953
• Bob Scheffing (1957-59); managed Detroit Tigers from 1961-63
• Harry Craft (16 games in 1961); managed Houston Colt 45's from 1962-64
• Bob Kennedy (1963-65); managed Oakland A's in 1968
• Leo Durocher (1966-72); managed Houston Astros in 1972 and 1973
• Jim Marshall (1974-76); managed Oakland A's in 1979
• Lee Elia (1982-83); managed Philadelphia Phillies in 1987 and 1988
• Jim Lefebvre (1992-93); managed Milwaukee Brewers for the last 49 games of 1999

That's not a very inspiring list -- only McCarthy had success after he left the Cubs (and the Cubs probably should never have let him go), and over the last 50 years, the only former Cub managers to have returned to Wrigley Field in the opposition dugout are Durocher, who as an Astros manager seemed bored and out of it (though he did manage Houston to their second winning season, 82-80 in 1973), Elia with the Phillies, and for one series as interim manager of the Brewers in late 1999, Lefebvre. Even before that, only Mitchell, Gibson and Craft (whose Cub tenures were brief and forgettable), and Hornsby came to Wrigley Field as visiting managers.

So we are witness, this week, to something that's happened rarely in Cub history. Will I boo? Probably not. Indifference, in my opinion, is the best reaction. Jay Mariotti, who I often criticize here, has it exactly right today:

This is a man who never quit as much as he never fit in. Baker should have done more homework about Cubdom and its indigenous demons and frustrations before he quickly grabbed general manager Jim Hendry's offer late in 2002, when he was looking for work after the Giants lost the World Series and didn't want him back. Actually, Hendry should have done more homework on Baker, too, instead of falling in love with the marquee name.

I'm more interested in seeing the reaction to former Cub prodigy Corey Patterson, also returning to Wrigley Field for the first time since being unceremoniously dumped (for minor leaguers Carlos Perez and Nate Spears, neither of whom is likely to ever wear a major league uniform) at the end of his horrid 2005 season.

It'll be an interesting night. Most importantly, the Cubs are looking to start winning home series. I'll have a game thread up later this afternoon.