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.

When, in the third inning last night, Carlos Zambrano stalked around the mound briefly, causing trainer Mark O'Neal and Lou Piniella to run out and check him out, we figured it might have been another cramping episode and that they'd have to send him back to the clubhouse for a banana break.

Turned out to be something much more prosaic, as revealed in the postgame news conference: in his last start in Cincinnati, Z had scraped his arm diving back into first base after his fifth-inning single, and the scab had come off. That, plus the rather biting cold last night, caused Z to come back for the next inning wearing long sleeves.

That solved the problem, though Mike thinks he might just need more bananas (along with some thoughts about how D-Lee and Dome might approach a Cub fan's loyalty test):

Click on cartoon to open a larger version in a new browser window

It was that kind of night, as the Cubs had yet another laugher of a win, 12-3 over the hapless Padres, and yet another amazing thing about this team, first revealed by Len Kasper on the telecast (and repeated by Cory Provus on the postgame radio show, if you're wondering where I heard this): the Cubs have now had thirteen different innings in which they've scored five or more runs.

We're simply not used to this kind of thing. They're leading the major leagues in runs scored with 223 -- by a considerable margin over the Red Sox, second with 209. The nine walks drawn last night give them 183 for the season. That's almost half of what they drew in 2006, Dusty Baker's last season, 395 -- in fewer than one-quarter the number of games. I'll make sure to make note here when they pass the '06 team -- it may be before the end of June. And if you're wondering: the club record for walks in a season is 650, set in 1975 (yeah, I was surprised to find that out too, as that team finished badly after a hot start; no one on that team walked 100 or more times, though six walked 60 or more). Right now the average of 4.8 walks per game would shatter that record; they are on pace for 780. The 5.86 runs per game average would mean 950 runs over a full season.

Ain't this fun?

The Cubs came from behind again last night; Z just couldn't keep the Padres bats totally silent, and they went into the bottom of the fifth with a 2-1 lead. Z led off with a double off the wall that looked, at first, as if it might be his 2nd HR of the year. No matter, Alfonso Soriano followed with his fourth HR of the season and after that... well, everyone hit. Or walked. The only one of the starting nine who didn't get a hit last night was Kosuke Fukudome. But he had three walks, scored twice, and got an RBI when he walked with the bases loaded. Ryan Theriot had three hits; Derrek Lee two (and a stolen base, which, like Aramis Ramirez' on Sunday, looked like it came off a missed sign). Ramirez had an RBI single, a walk, and scored twice. And after Kevin Kouzmanoff couldn't beat Aramis Ramirez to 3B, making Ramirez safe and giving Mark DeRosa a hit, Kouzmanoff threw the ball in the general direction of the corner of Addison & Sheffield, allowing three runs to score. Padres manager Bud Black then yanked Kouzmanoff from the game. Yes, I know it wasn't for that reason -- Kouzmanoff had made the last out of the previous inning and was the obvious choice for a double-switch for Black's pitching change -- but it wound up being unintentional humor.

Ain't this fun?

Lou must be having fun, because he sounded exhausted on the radio during the postgame press conference, almost as if he had spent the evening running around the bases himself.

While the Cubs are clicking on all cylinders -- five out of their last six, 15-6 overall at home -- I wanted to comment here about the latest Jim Edmonds rumor. Bruce Miles reports:

The Cubs are having serious internal discussions on whether to sign center fielder Jim Edmonds, cut loose by the San Diego Padres.

General manager Jim Hendry could not comment Monday on Edmonds, who must first clear waivers, much as Reed Johnson had to during spring training before the Cubs signed him after Toronto let him go.

Some quarters in the Cubs' front office are taking a "why not?" approach to taking a flyer on Edmonds, all the while wanting to know about his health, whether he can still play and how good a fit he will be in the clubhouse.

I'll tell you "why not": he's done. I guess I can't fault management for doing their due diligence, but obviously, he'd be signed to replace Felix Pie on the roster. And why is this? Because Lou clearly doesn't trust Pie, doesn't want to give him a shot, and if you look at Pie's record so far in the major leagues, the answer to the question "Can Pie hit major league pitching?" is, "We don't know yet!"

Pie has played 117 major league games over a season and a quarter. The longest stretch of games he has started and finished during that time is nine (last June). This season, his longest such stretch is four games -- the first four of the season.

Now I ask you -- how can ANY hitter get any consistent rhythm going if he doesn't play? How can Pie learn how to face major league pitching and see enough pitches and different pitchers to hit if they won't give him a chance?

He needs to be out there every day at least against RHP. If the Cubs insist on signing a washed-up, injured, 38-year-old centerfielder who was released by a team in desperate need of hitting, at least send Jim Edmonds to Iowa for a week or two first, and let Pie play.

The bottom line is: the Cubs are 23-15, winners of four in a row and five of six, and scoring metric buttloads of runs. Why mess with success? Please, Jim. Don't do it.

Finally, to discuss this screaming Sun-Times headline from today:

... go to blackhawk24's FanPost.

Through yesterday's games, only five complete games had been pitched in the National League in 2008 -- the CG may, at some point, become a thing of the past. (In 2007, three teams -- Washington, Texas, and Florida -- had zero CG, the first time any team had gone through a whole season without one.)

You know that Carlos Zambrano wanted to finish tonight's 3-0 Cub shutout of the Reds -- their second shutout of the year -- but it was left to Kerry Wood, who registered his fifth save of the year, and in easier fashion than many of his previous outings, including a real nasty slider to strike out Edwin Encarnacion for the second out of the 9th. And so, ten years to the day after Kid K's 20-K game, Kerry strikes out two of three in the 9th inning to get a save. Who'da thunk it?

I was out for a while tonight and while listening to the game on WGN radio, Pat and Ron (well, mostly Pat, since Ron had a cold and could barely talk) were commenting that Z didn't have very good velocity, had "hardly thrown a good fastball yet", Pat said in the third inning.

No matter. Z threw 113 pitches, 69 for strikes, and allowed only three harmless singles and three walks, and was never in serious trouble in this fairly swift game that ran only two hours and thirty minutes. In so doing he became the first Cub pitcher this season to go eight innings.

Meanwhile, ONEDEC, who finally managed to get off the bench and into the starting lineup (I'd give BCB credit, since we've been lobbying for this for several days now, but that would be pretty presumptuous. Let's just say Lou made the right call, and gave Mark DeRosa a day off to clear his head), drove in two runs with a single and played good defense. I think we'd all like to see him get more consistent playing time, and the same for Felix Pie, who had a single in four AB, his average creeping up to .232.

If I were making the lineup decision, I'd start ONEDEC again tomorrow, and give DeRo another day off, which would let him rest till Friday. Or, maybe tomorrow would be a good day to give Kosuke Fukudome a day off, since he went 0-for-3 today (and didn't look real good doing it), and let DeRo play RF.

While the Cubs haven't quite righted the ship yet (they're still only 4-8 since hitting the high-water mark for the year at 15-6), it is significant to note that they haven't lost more than two in a row yet this year, and this despite having less than consistent starting pitching. What this tells us, I think, is that they've been able to use multiple weapons to win games. Sometimes they do get good starting pitching. Other times the bullpen holds the opposition down till the offense gets going. Still other times, the offense bludgeons the other side. And sometimes they just get lucky.

All of those things are elements of building a championship team. The Cubs, clearly, are not yet there, and they probably need to change or add some parts, depending on how certain players perform over the next couple of months. But at 19-14, win tomorrow afternoon and they'll have a .500 road trip (yet another mantra of winning: win 2/3 of your games at home, play .500 on the road, and you'll win your division easily), and come home Friday to what shapes up as a terrific matchup with the hottest team in baseball, the Diamondbacks.

Last night BCB reader Unique challenged me to write a recap in the evening if the Cubs came back to win. They didn't, so I didn't. But with the quick win tonight, and a day game tomorrow, I figured I'd take care of this one while it was still fresh. Nicely done, men in blue. See you all tomorrow.

Well, did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now
Do you know how to pick up the pieces and go home?

-- Fleetwood Mac, "Gold Dust Woman"

David Kaplan of WGN radio put it best, I think, in his postgame comments, as I heard them while driving home from the toughest Cub loss of this young season, 4-3 to the Brewers this afternoon, a game that seemed "hard fought and won", as that old saw goes.

Kaplan said that instead of slotting Felix Pie in the game for Reed Johnson, Lou Piniella should have put Pie in CF and moved Johnson to LF, replacing Alfonso Soriano... because Johnson probably would have caught Gabe Kapler's long drive to left that Soriano misread and misplayed.

And he's right. I know Soriano is maddening at times and today was one of his worst days as a Cub, making that bad play and going 0-for-4 at the plate, grounding out three times and popping up in the 7th after Mike Fontenot had singled.

It was shades of Opening Day. Kerry Wood, who's been quite good in the closing role this year, hit Craig Counsell with the first pitch he threw today, just as he hit Rickie Weeks with his first pitch of the 2008 season on March 31... and the result was the same, a disastrous three-run inning highlighted by Kapler's double that should have been an out. After Jason Kendall singled in the second run, the Cubs still had the lead at 3-2, but then Ryan Braun (who Dave calls the best right-handed hitter in the NL after Albert Pujols, and he's likely correct) smacked a double that the wind took away from a frantically reaching Fukudome, scoring the tying and lead runs. Wood got Prince Fielder to ground out to end the inning with the Cubs only down by one.

Now what would you have done after Ronny Cedeno walked? Would you have had Geovany Soto bunt? Dave said he would. I wouldn't have, but Eric Gagne threw offspeed stuff to Soto (unlike the fastballs Soto hammered last night) and got Soto on a called third strike on a pitch that you can't, simply cannot, look at. Pie then hit into a double play to end it. Should Cedeno have been running? Had he been running on Soto's at-bat, he'd at least have stayed out of the DP. And we all know how bad Jason Kendall is at throwing out runners (though, he has been better so far this year, throwing out nine of 22 runners trying to steal).

All of this on a day we should have been celebrating. Carlos Zambrano launched a ball into the left-field bleachers (opposite field, hitting left-handed, no less) for his 13th career HR, tying Fergie Jenkins for the most career HR by a Cubs pitcher -- and Fergie had 893 AB as a Cub, Z has accomplished this in fewer than half as many AB, 430 after today. Z also threw a good, if a little pitch-heavy (111), six and a third innings, lowering his ERA to 2.11 by allowing only one run -- a HR to Braun that tied the game in the sixth. An error on a miscommunication between Johnson and Fukudome on the next batter, Fielder, threatened to untie the game, but Z got Corey Hart to strike out and then Fukudome nailed Fielder at the plate on a perfect throw (I think we could feel the ground move underneath us as the 260-pound Fielder crashed into the 230-pound Soto at the plate, Soto hanging on to the ball for the out).

Tougher losses you will not find. It's especially bad when:

a) the game seemed well in hand, and

b) the opponent is one of your biggest divisional rivals.

The loss drops the Cubs 1/2 game behind the idle Cardinals into second place, and the Cubs are only a game ahead of the third-place Brewers, who won four of the first six meetings between the teams -- but remember this. Two of the games, today and Opening Day, were tough games that could have gone either way. These two teams won't meet again until the last week of July, nearly three months from now, and by then the divisional race should be taking shape much more clearly than it is today. I don't expect the Cardinals, off to a good start, to be able to maintain their pace -- but Milwaukee is a good club (even if their defense and bullpen are a little shaky) and will stay there.

There were a lot of Brewer fans in Wrigley Field for this entire series, unusual for a time when schools are still in session and the weather can be iffy (though it was pleasant today, no rain and a game-time temperature of 70); I'd say perhaps 5,000 to 7,000 fans chanted "Let's Go Brewers!" through that 9th inning rally. Unlike past days there didn't seem to be any Brewer/Cub fan incidents, and those really are unfortunate. I think part of it stems from the fact that over the last few years, Cub fans have taken over Miller Park during Cub/Brewer series and Milwaukee fans have developed a bit of a chip on their shoulders as a result.

Maybe I'm off base, but that's how I see it. It doesn't have to be this way. These were hard-fought games and there's a nascent rivalry that might, in time, be close to the Cub/Cardinal rivalry for proximity and team competition. To any Brewer fans out there -- I respect your team and how it's been built. Let's have a GOOD rivalry, not the Yankee/Red Sox kind where the fans genuinely despise each other.

And for those of you who suffered here at BCB (a couple of BCB readers, Bartlett Bob and zambranofan, joined us in the bleachers today)... I guess all I can say is, it's early, apart from today the team has played consistently well. As Z said himself in his postgame comments, they just have to pick up and play tomorrow in St. Louis and get back to winning.

Speaking of the next Cub/Brewer series, it is during that series that Wrigley Field will host their Midwest League affiliate Peoria Chiefs taking on the Kane County Cougars, at 7:05 pm on Tuesday, July 29, and for people who can't get Cub tickets because they are either unavailable or unaffordable, this is a chance to see the Cubs' future at a reasonable price:

Tickets will be available tomorrow at 9 a.m. on www.cubs.com and will range from $10 for Terrace Reserved seats, Upper Deck Reserved seats and the general admission bleachers; $12 for terrace box seats; and $15 for club and field box seats, bleacher box seats and upper deck box seats. A total of 280 designated premium seats, priced from $25-$30, will also be available as part of tomorrow's on-sale event.

Also note that:

If the Cubs sell more than 10,000 tickets for the game, it will count as one of the team's night games.

There's no preference given to Cub season ticket holders for this event, so I intend to be online tomorrow at 9 am (CDT) along with the rest of you, because I want to be part of this event, too. Besides seeing Cub prospects, it will mark the return of Ryne Sandberg to Wrigley Field in a baseball uniform for the first time since 1997, as the Chiefs' manager:

"It's an opportunity for everybody involved," Sandberg said Thursday at Wrigley. "It's a chance of a lifetime for some of these players to come here and play a game at Wrigley Field. I'm excited about it, and I know the fans will have some fun with the game."

Fleetwood Mac sang the lyrics at the top of this post. The Cubs will have to pick up the pieces and instead of going home, go on the road and win, starting tomorrow. I have faith in this team that they can do it. Till then.

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've got pieces of April; I keep them in a memory bouquet... -- Three Dog Night

Right after Felix Pie hit his improbable three-run homer, putting tonight's 7-1 Cub win over the Mets into a "memory bouquet", Mike said to me, "When have the Cubs ever had an April like this?"

My first instinct was to say, "2004", but that isn't quite right. In nineteen games this Cub team has won games that previous Cub teams would have lost. They've won blowout games. They've won games with good pitching; they've won games with good and timely hitting. The literal answer to the question is: "1985", because that's the last time a Cub team started 13-6. That team, as most of you know, the defending NL East champs, started out 35-19 and had a four-game lead on June 11, before a disastrous 13-game losing streak and having all five starters spend time on the disabled list caused a collapse to a 77-84 finish. But that's not the right answer either, because the 2008 Cubs are winning games that most Cub teams in my lifetime would have found ways to lose.

So let's not dwell on losing. Instead, let's celebrate yet another solidly played victory, even on a night when the hot-hitting Ryan Theriot wasn't available due to back spasms. Mike Fontenot started in his place, with Ronny Cedeno moving from 2B to SS on this early-starting game (for ESPN purposes). Fontenot walked, but Cedeno had a stellar day. More on that later.

Carlos Zambrano came out as he has in every start so far this year -- aggressive (so said Lou in his postgame press conference), throwing strikes (61 of 101 pitches), and handling the Mets easily. Even in the one inning where they scored their only run of the game, Z survived a mistake by Geovany Soto. Endy Chavez led off the sixth with a double, and pitcher John Maine, up next, squared to bunt. He laid down a good bunt, and Soto tried to get Chavez at third -- something he had absolutely no chance to do. Fortunately, Z didn't let this get to him -- as he might have in the past. Instead, he bore down on Jose Reyes, getting him to hit into a double play, scoring Chavez. Chavez might have scored anyway, had Soto made the right play (going to first to get Maine).

Maine and Z had matched up very well through six; Maine's only mistake was a fastball that Aramis Ramirez hit into the LF bleachers for a two-run homer. That, and the above-mentioned Mets run, were the only runs through seven, and the tight game had Carlos Marmol replacing Z and throwing an excellent nine-pitch inning, finishing off with a flourish of a strikeout of Mets catcher Raul Casanova on one of Marmol's patented sliders -- the ones that no one can hit.

The eighth inning was one of the best innings I've seen the Cubs have in recent years. The normally-solid Reyes bobbled Derrek Lee's leadoff grounder and then Ramirez got hit on the arm with a pitch (said Lou in his postgame conference: "He's OK"). Kosuke Fukudome had yet another terrific at-bat -- does this guy ever have a bad one? -- working the count full and fouling off three pitches before he got the one he wanted, singling up the middle. Lee prudently was held at third with nobody out, and the crowd groaned as Mark DeRosa struck out and Soto popped up.

That brought up Cedeno, the guy we have loved to bash for almost three years. Kudos to whoever here came up with the tag "ONEDEC" for him, because it does appear he really IS "turning things around". Ronny also had an excellent AB against Mets reliever Aaron Heilman before lining a two-run single up the middle, giving the Cubs some breathing room, and then, after Willie Randolph pulled Heilman for Jorge Sosa, Felix Pie slammed a pitch into the RF bleachers for his first HR of the season (and first career HR at Wrigley Field).

Kerry Wood, who had been warming up in anticipation of having to save a tight game, instead came in with a six-run lead. We all know many closers have trouble at times with this sort of situation, but Wood not only finished off the Mets, but did so by throwing only six pitches, thus keeping him available tomorrow if necessary.

So the Cubs make a statement against one of the "good" teams in the National League, win their fourth in a row, and oh yes -- for those of you who didn't believe me when I said the Pirates are a really bad team: they gave up ten runs for the third game in a row, tonight losing to the Marlins 10-4. The Pirates ARE a really bad team.

That's not really important, though the Cubs can look forward to playing the Pirates again in less than four weeks, as this year's wacky schedule continues. In the meantime, what a nice way to celebrate the milestone of my 2000th Cub game (and thanks, ballhawk and others who stopped by to offer congratulations). There was a juggler outside on Waveland tossing four balls up in the air from time to time all evening. Let's keep that festive, winning atmosphere going tomorrow. At this writing, the Giants are leading the Diamondbacks 2-1. If that score holds up, the Cubs and D'backs will be tied for the NL's best record. Onward and upward.

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

Sometimes things just go your way and it doesn't make any sense and when that happens... well, you just smile and take it, and be happy.

The Cubs had absolutely no business winning today's game. But here it is, clickable: the Cubs beat the Phillies 6-5 in 10 innings, their third extra-inning win of the season.

Read that carefully, too. Third extra-inning win of the season -- in twelve games. All of last year, the Cubs won only two extra inning games (of ten played). Had they split those games, they'd have been 88-74 instead of 85-77, and would have been only one game worse than the other playoff teams, and we wouldn't be hearing about how "weak" the NL Central was in 2007.

That's an aside to today's game, but has a point, too: in 2007, the Cubs, good as they were, would have probably found a way to lose it. Instead, despite a tremendous amount of really bad play today, they won anyway.

Just how much bad play? Let us count the ways:

• Jason Marquis struggled through five innings, throwing 86 pitches and was lucky to only give up two runs.
• Michael Wuertz was awful. Just awful.
• Alfonso Soriano went 1-for-6. He's hitting .175. Bad as he was last April, after 12 games he was hitting .234.

Instead, the Cubs took advantage of every single break that happened in today's game:

• Mark DeRosa hit a home run. Well, at least that's what the umpires said. The ball was foul, and it wasn't even close. Every single replay (and hundreds of Phillies fans in the seats pointing "FOUL!") showed it was foul. We'll take it.
• Geovany Soto didn't want to swing at a pitch, pinch-hitting in the 8th. But the ball hit his bat and flared into right field and drove in the tying run.
• Carlos Zambrano had to pinch-hit in the 10th inning because Lou had, through various pinch-running and pinch-hitting appearances, run out of position players on his bench (Attention! This is what 7-man bullpens do to you!). Z hit an absolutely tailor-made DP ball. But Chase Utley, one of the best-fielding 2B in baseball, threw away the relay and Ronny Cedeno -- who, amazingly enough, didn't do anything wrong today -- scored what wound up as the winning run.
• Utley tried to redeem himself in the bottom of the 10th; his fly ball hit about six inches short of a game-tying HR, bouncing off the wall and Kosuke Fukudome's glove for a double. After an intentional walk to Ryan Howard, (He Is) So Taguchi grounded out to end the game.

What can you say? Some days the breaks just go your way, and here's how I feel about it: we have 99 years of breaks coming to us. We'll take them.

Some good things came out of this mess of a game, the fourth already this year to go over 3 hours (and opening day's time of game was 2:59, and the duration was longer with the rain delay that day):

• Kerry Wood showed that he could throw two innings without any trouble; he threw only eight pitches in the 8th, then 15 more in the 9th, allowing a hit and a walk. Now, he (along with the rest of the ballclub) are off until Tuesday night.
• Bob Howry, who's been pretty terrible this year, had a nice confidence-builder for his first save of the year (despite that long drive by Utley putting a scare into every one of us).
• Derrek Lee had a fine, fine day, with three hits including a two-run double, and a slick defensive play in the last of the 9th that likely saved the game.

There are problems that still need to be solved, and some of them were extremely evident today. For one day, they don't matter, because even with all the problems, all the not-so-great-play... the Cubs won anyway. They can use the day off to regroup and recover and think about ways to fix what's wrong.

In the meantime, enjoy.

Finally, on Tuesday, baseball will again celebrate the legacy of Jackie Robinson by having players wear his #42 jersey, which is retired for all teams. Derrek Lee, Daryle Ward, and coaches Gerald Perry and Lester Strode will wear #42 when the Cubs face the Reds... and Dusty Baker... and Corey Patterson... for the first time this year.

I know that quite a few BCB readers were at last night's 5-3 Cub loss to the Phillies in Philadelphia, and hopefully later today someone will make a FanPost with a few more details than I can write about from my television-viewing perspective.

The Cubs' five-game winning streak was snapped, but that's no reason to panic (I didn't have a chance to see the game threads last night, but I imagine there was quite a bit of teeth-gnashing going on). We are ten games into a 162-game season; Baseball Prospectus has the Cubs ranked third in their current "power ranking" ($), although I think that might be a little bit too high (and strange, because they have the Reds, Cubs and Brewers ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th behind the Diamondbacks).

Last night's game, in my view, turned on the strange play in the fifth inning. With two out, a runner on first and the game tied 2-2, Greg Dobbs hit a ball that Kosuke Fukudome (playing CF for the first time) ran down and caught. But then:

"I did catch the ball," Fukudome said through an interpreter. "As I ran past Soriano, the tip of my glove hit his leg or torso. Once it popped out, there was nothing I could do."

Not only can Dome play baseball (although he failed to reach base for the first time), he can succinctly summarize what happened. Lou Piniella came out to argue that Dome held on to the ball long enough for it to be an out, and having seen the replay several times, I agree. However, the umpires didn't, and the Phillies took a 3-2 lead. Who knows what might have happened if that was ruled an out and the game stayed tied?

It didn't, and even though Soriano homered in the 6th to tie the game at 3, Z didn't have it last night, and that was evident in the first inning, after he was staked to a 2-0 lead on homers by Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. He struggled into the 4th with that lead, then coughed it up, and wound up giving up all five Phillie runs and threw 107 pitches in six innings, recalling the bad Z from the first half of last year (only one walk, though).

Sean Marshall and Michael Wuertz kept it close, but the Cubs couldn't score off the Phillies bullpen. And frankly, this offense is in trouble if all it's going to score is on solo home runs. However, I liked the lineup selection last night (Fukudome 2nd), and Dome says it's fine with him. (That notes column also says Tim Lahey cleared waivers and has been returned to the Twins, so if the Cubs want him back, they'll have to make another trade.)

Today, however, is another day, one of the best things about baseball -- if you lose, you don't have to wait too long to make up for it. Rich Hill, however, will have to wait a while to make up for his bad start the other day -- the Cubs will use Monday's off day to skip his turn and he'll be in the bullpen till at least late next week.

Finally, Josh77 posted this link in his Minor League Wrap, but I thought it was good enough to mention on the front page -- former Cub (and Phillie) Doug Glanville, a thoughtful sort who has an Ivy League degree (from the University of Pennsylvania) wrote this excellent NY Times op-ed piece on the Roger Clemens situation, and his ideas on why he thinks Clemens acted the way he did, saying that ballplayers put a "protective shell" around them:

To those outside Clemens’s protective shell, he seems to be fighting ghosts. We must understand that he stopped listening to the outside world a long time ago, partly because ignoring those voices was integral to his survival. So if he seems out of touch, it’s probably because he is out of touch. To "clear his name," he has cast shadows over his immediate family and his closest confidantes with implications of their complicity in tainting his golden-egg status. All for a principle of honor that I am sure he firmly believes in because, like most players, he has been reinforcing it in his own head throughout his career out of self-preservation.

I think Glanville has hit the nail on the proverbial head here. Clearly, this isn't the way most ordinary human beings, you & me, relate to each other. But Roger Clemens has been out of touch with "ordinary" for so long, he doesn't know how to act when faced with reality.

The Cubs beat the Astros 3-2 this afternoon on another gorgeous, sunny early-April day, evening their season record at 3-3.

So what have we learned so far this year? Let's examine not only what's happened with the Cubs, but elsewhere in baseball:

• Kosuke Fukudome is as advertised. Works counts. Does good situational hitting. Plays right field like it belongs to him (well, except for overrunning Brandon Backe's pop fly today -- Backe wound up with a gift double).
• It's nice to see Carlos Zambrano get off to a good start instead of the scuffles he's had the last three years. Especially notable today: no walks and 72 strikes thrown in 106 pitches. Miguel Tejada homered off him. OK, that's going to happen at times. (Plus, the strike zone was really strange today.)
• Derrek Lee: proof that hitting .194 in spring training means exactly zero. D-Lee has been pounding the ball all week; even his outs are hard-hit and his HR today nearly left the premises.
• Alfonso Soriano still looks lost, despite the home run, his first of the season (that puts him 13 games ahead of last year, when he didn't hit his first until his 19th game, and after missing a week with an injury). The ball clanged off the bottom of the railing, just inside the LF basket in our section. It may have been helped a bit by the crosswind. We were surprised that Lou didn't move Reed Johnson to LF when he put Felix Pie in CF for defense in the 8th inning. (Could he have been stroking Soriano's ego?)
• Kerry Wood has been rock-solid since he began pitching in actual closing situations. He has saved all three Cub wins and in those three appearances has faced ten batters, allowed one hit and no walks, and struck out three, including Tejada on a nasty breaking ball (a splitter?) to end today's game.
• The Orioles are 4-1. Obviously, they're the best team in baseball.
• The Giants are 1-5. Obviously, they're the worst team in baseball. (Oh, wait. Yes, they are.)
• So much for the Mets going 34-0 in games Johan Santana starts, as all the MSM columnists were bleating when they signed him. Gee, you mean he could lose some games?
• Watch out for the Blue Jays. Seriously. They just swept the Red Sox, and if they get consistent starting pitching, they will contend.
• What's with the blue jerseys again? I guess with John McDonough gone (he was the one who issued the pinstripes-only at home edict last year, one I applauded), they've given the starting pitchers the choice again. Sorry, I'm a uniform traditionalist: white or pinstripes at home, gray on the road. The Astros didn't wear road grays at all during this series. And now, I'm afraid we'll have to look at those awful red Pirates sleeveless abominations sometime this week.

Bottom line, everyone: things are good. The Cubs will be just fine. With a break or two this week, they could have been 5-1 on the homestand despite having Soriano play poorly and getting good starting pitching out of only three pitchers (Z, Rich Hill and Ryan Dempster). Today's crowd of 40,929 gives the Cubs an average after six games of 39,663; virtually no one left the close game, wanting to see Wood close it out. I was also pleased to see Carlos Marmol have a solid inning in relief, finally putting the ball over the plate (12 strikes in 19 pitches).

Finally, today produced one of the nicer giveaways of recent years, an Ernie Banks plaque, similar (obviously, not identical in wording) to his Hall of Fame plaque:

Yes, I know. Too many teeth showing. Till tomorrow.

Click here for my 4/6/08 scorecard