Offseason player movement, up to now reeeealllly slow, started to pick up yesterday with a few minor transactions (and two more that are about to happen).

Transaction: Mike Hampton signs a one-year, $2 million deal with the Astros

Comment: Hampton played for Houston a zillion years ago; he had a great year there in 1999, which helped get him his huge free-agent deal after he spent 2000 with the Mets. Among his teammates his last year in Houston were Paul Bako, Daryle Ward and Ken Caminiti. Hampton's 36 and likely on the decline; it costs the Astros little, and that's probably what they'll get.

Transaction: Russell Branyan signs a one-year deal with the Mariners

Comment: If some team had just installed Branyan at DH 7 or 8 years ago, he might have put up a couple of 50-homer seasons. He has hit a HR about every 15 AB in his career, 133 in 2000 AB. He strikes out a ton, which is why most teams won't touch him. He might do OK in Seattle, especially if they DH him part of the time.

Transaction: Cardinals sign LHP Trever Miller to a one-year deal that could be worth $2 million with incentives

Comment: Yawn. Miller has a career ERA of 4.43 and a career WHIP of 1.499. He'll be 36 in May.

Transaction: Cardinals to acquire Khalil Greene for two minor league pitchers

Comment: This one isn't official yet, but apparently will be today. Double yawn. I know a lot of people here salivated after Greene, but he had a really bad year last year before being shut down after July. He's 29 years old and isn't going to be getting any better.

Transaction: Giants to sign SS Edgar Renteria as a free agent

Comment: Another one that isn't quite done yet, but supposedly will happen. What is with the Giants' fetish with older, declining players? Five years ago, acquiring Renteria might have been a good idea. Now -- why bother?

On September 30, 2004, as the wild-card contending Cubs were melting down, they had to, absolutely had to, beat the Reds at Wrigley Field to keep any sort of postseason hopes alive (after having lost the previous day, they had fallen half a game behind the Astros).

And in the twelfth inning, after Mark Prior (can't even call him The Former Employee here -- it was one of his finest Cub moments) had pitched nine magnificent innings, striking out sixteen, Javier Valentin stood in the batter's box against Kyle Farnsworth with two out and a runner on second base. Valentin smacked a double down the right field line, breaking a 1-1 tie, and the ballpark fell silent; though the Cubs did get the tying and winning runs on base in the last of the twelfth, you just knew the fight had gone out of them. The 2-1, 12-inning loss finished any realistic hopes that Cub team had of the postseason, and since then Valentin has been a particular nemesis of the Cubs; his lifetime averages against the Cubs coming into today's game are .303/.384/.566 with 6 HR and 20 RBI in 99 AB, his best marks against any team that he's faced for more than 28 career AB.

So when Valentin stepped into the batter's box at Wrigley Field today with two out and a one-run Cub lead in the ninth against Kerry Wood, one of only four Cubs remaining from that 2004 team, I worried.

No worries! Wood caught Valentin looking, his second strikeout of the inning, posting his 26th save in a 3-2 Cubs win over the Reds, putting them back at 29 games over .500 and registering their seventh consecutive series win, done in two hours and fourteen minutes, the fastest game of 2008 -- and maybe that was because of the little rainshower that had the umbrellas up and down most of the game, reminiscent of the rain that fell during Wood's 20K game on May 6, 1998. It never rained very hard, but maybe the players picked up the pace a little bit because they didn't want to be out there too long if it did begin raining any harder.

The Cubs scored all their runs in the first three innings off Josh Fogg -- whose ERA went down despite giving up three runs in four innings -- one at a time, scoring on another DP-Lee ball. Part of the reason for the 24 GIDP for Lee is Ryan Theriot's .394 OBA -- if there are more people on base ahead of a hitter like Lee, he's going to hit into more DP. The major league season record holders in GIDP -- Jim Rice and Henry Aaron -- are good hitters, as is the club record holder, Ron Santo (27 in 1973, and that's probably going to fall soon).

Mark DeRosa hit a solo HR in the 2nd, increasing his career-best season total to 15 (DeRo is only one RBI short of tying his career best set in 2006 with Texas, and also made a slick defensive play today, saving a first-inning run), and then Z slammed his fourth of the year and 16th of his career, putting him one ahead of Mike Hampton as the leader among active pitchers, and tying him with Jim Kaat, Schoolboy Rowe and Jim Tobin for 15th place on the all-time pitcher home run list. (Note: both Rowe and Tobin hit other HR not as pitchers.) Z's season average went up nine points, from .357 to .366.

The Reds chipped away with a Jay Bruce HR in the sixth and then Joey Votto hit a Carlos Marmol pitch somewhere into orbit -- OK, just onto Sheffield, but it was quite a blast, making it 3-2. Marmol got hit pretty hard today; fortunately, all but Votto's ball were caught.

Z threw pretty well today; his command was shaky in the first three innings, when he issued two walks, but he settled down and gave up only six hits in all and four walks, including one to the nearly-unwalkable Corey Patterson (11 walks in 274 PA coming into today's game). He and Lou both said in the press conference that they were satisfied, but that Z would continue to work on mechanics. The win today was his first in August in almost two years, since August 24, 2006.

Today was my son Mark's 13th birthday and his personal record moved to 11-1 (yes, he will be at all three games of the Nationals series). Also, nice to meet BCB reader SteveABQ, in from (as you might have guessed) Albuquerque for three games. He told me he's always lived there, never in Chicago; he's one of the many of you who became Cubs fans because of the nationwide reach of WGN. Cubs Nation celebrates tonight, 5.5 games in first place. Onward.

... 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.