The Cubs finished up yet another successful homestand with a convincing 6-2 win over the Cardinals last night; they won their fourth straight series and starting with the last game of the Marlins series, when they came from behind to win 9-6, they are 11-3.

It likely won't happen this way, but with 44 games remaining in the regular season, winning two of every three -- as they did on this homestand -- would give the Cubs 100 wins. (Not predicting that here -- I can see them going 25-19 for 96 wins, or maybe 26-18 for 97). In any case, once again the ballclub produced a team win, this time getting key hits from Ronny Cedeno (two-run double before getting thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple), outstanding defense (diving catches by Jim Edmonds and Kosuke Fukudome), and solid pitching from Ryan Dempster, who also made a couple of slick defensive plays. That's one thing we didn't know very well about Dempster before this year -- how well he plays his position in the field. When you're a closer, as Dempster has been the last three years, you don't get many fielding chances (example: in 2007, he had four putouts and seven assists in 66 games).

The inning where the Cubs blew the game open last night could have been even bigger. Not complaining here, mind you, but the Cubs scored five runs while having two runners thrown out at third base. The key play of the inning was Edmonds' grounder, which could have turned into an inning-ending DP; instead, going under Adam Kennedy's glove for an error, it opened up the floodgates for three more hits, capped by Cedeno's double.

Dempster's 13th win gave him the club lead and if Brandon Webb weren't having such a great year, might give him some Cy Young consideration (he might get that consideration anyway, particularly if the D'backs don't make the playoffs -- Dempster's 13 wins are tied for third in the league, his ERA is fifth, and he's seventh in K's). I was one of the skeptics about transitioning him to the rotation. But he worked very hard over the winter getting into shape and has been the Cubs' most consistent starter all year. He has gone at least six innings in 19 of his 23 starts and has had only one truly bad one -- against the White Sox at the Cell on June 27.

On a night that got Septemberish-cool before it was over (the wind blowing in knocked down several fly balls that otherwise might have made the seats), the lines to get into the bleachers stretched for blocks by the time the gates opened at 5:05; the bleachers were full by 6:00, although the announced attendance for the game, 41,268, was the smallest of the series. That brought the season total to 2,525,174, an average of 40,728, with nineteen dates remaining on the home schedule. If that average is maintained -- and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be -- the team attendance record, set last year, will fall on September 19, with two games remaining.

We have all seen amazing baseball at home -- the win brought the home record to 45-17, tying Tampa Bay (whose 71st win, equalling the Cubs' total, set a franchise record yesterday, with 44 games to go) for the best home record in the majors. Like the Rays, the Cubs have had trouble winning on the road, so this upcoming road trip will be a good test for them. They swept the Braves at Wrigley Field in June, and Atlanta's been decimated by injuries and the trade of Mark Teixeira. I'm sure the Cubs won't take anyone for granted, but the Braves are beatable. A bigger test will be the trip to Florida next weekend; the Cubs have not won there since July 10, 2005. Lou and the staff can spend this off day deciding how to work the rotation around the two off days, today and next Monday. They also have to make a decision about Dome, who has virtually stopped hitting (.107, 3-for-28, in August so far). He's still playing excellent defense, has a good .369 OBA and his production is league-average with an OPS+ of 100, but Lou says he has to produce:

"We need him to start hitting," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said before Sunday night's 6-2 win against the Cardinals. "If not, I'm going to have to start looking for other options."

And that was said before last night's game in which he went 0-for-4.

The Cubs play 25 of the remaining 44 games on the road. They're going to have to play better there, especially with the Brewers finishing up a series with the horrid Nationals this afternoon and playing the NL West-trailing Padres at San Diego after that. Enjoy the off-day; you know the Cubs will.

Carlos Zambrano homered last night, his second of the year, the fourth one he's hit in his career in Houston, and his 14th lifetime dinger, breaking Fergie Jenkins' club record for career HR by a pitcher.

And that was the sum total of the Cub offense last night as they lost their third in a row, 4-1 to the Astros. Z must have felt as if he had to do everything himself, and he was uncharacteristically wild (for this year, anyway -- the six walks he issued is a season high), probably overthrowing, getting back into bad habits from years gone by. Z acknowledges he may have lost control:

Zambrano dropped to 5-1 in 10 starts against the NL Central this season. He often seemed exasperated and [Lou] Piniella wants his fiery ace to work on controlling his emotions.

"There is no reason to show your frustrations," Piniella said. "All you can do is pick up the other team and hurt yourself. He’s a really good competitive guy, he loves to win. All that does is take away from his greatness."

Zambrano conceded that Piniella might be right.

"I wasn’t controlling myself. That’s the most important thing," he said. "You can be mad at yourself, you can be mad at the batter, but you have to stay in control."

The Cubs had plenty of chances to take the lead or even break the game open early -- they left RISP in the second, third and fifth innings (not that I'm complaining about a Z home run, but it would have been more productive with two men on in the second inning), and all seven LOB for the game were in the first five innings. Meanwhile, of Z's six walks, two of them scored as the Astros went out to a 3-0 lead by the end of the third.

And essentially, although I, and most of you probably too, followed or watched the rest of the game, we might as well have done something else with our Saturday evening.

Speaking of which, if you were watching Baseball Tonight after the Cubs game last night, the 2003 game that they were all discussing -- and I hadn't seen the "highlights" from that eventually rained-out game since then -- that was what I've called the "Typhoon Game", played on Mother's Day, May 11, 2003 (there's no boxscore or recap link because they called it, with the Cubs down 11-9, after four innings, so it wasn't official and wound up being rescheduled to September, helping to create the memorable five-game series vs. St. Louis at that time; the Cubs won four of the five, helping send them to the NL Central title). The wind and rain really were that bad, blowing balls that should have landed foul in the seats into the middle of left field. It was raining sideways and so windy that I couldn't even hold up my umbrella. Here's what I wrote about it at the time, and I stand by that five years later. That game should never have even been started -- conditions were appalling, and the Cardinals' Eli Marrero suffered a serious ankle injury, which may have been the impetus for finally calling the game. Check out Marrero's career stats -- after 2003, except for one year as a decent part-timer in Atlanta, he was never really the same player. I have to say that Eduardo Perez was pretty funny on BBTN, expressing how much he did NOT want Tony LaRussa to send him into that game!

One more TV-related event: after BBTN, I flipped on the Orioles-Tigers game on EI, which had, rather comically, gone into extra innings tied 10-10. Luke Scott hit a walkoff HR, went around the bases to his teammates awaiting him at the plate, flipped off his helmet as players now do when they do that (because otherwise it hurts when the happy team bashes you on the head!) -- and then slid into home plate. I thought that was an appalling display of showing up the other team. Wouldn't be surprised to see Scott get knocked down today by a Detroit pitcher.

This recap is just about done. What more can be said? This, for one: Chad Gaudin threw well in relief, and that's a good thing, because you can never have too many capable relief pitchers. For all the criticism he sometimes gets, and yes, he can be extremely maddening -- this team badly misses Alfonso Soriano. Including the game in which Soriano was injured (since he didn't play past the bottom of the first that day), the Cubs have treaded water at 16-16. He appears on target to return next Thursday at home vs. the Marlins (and I am going to bring our secret weapon, my son Mark, whose personal record is 8-0 this year, back to at least one, hopefully two, games in that series). Thanks to Jessica for pointing out that the Cubs catch a break the next week because they won't have to face Dan Haren or Brandon Webb in Arizona, usually a house of pain for Cub teams (they are only 13-25 in the former BOB, and that doesn't even include the two NLDS losses last year), and won't face Ricky Nolasco, Florida's best pitcher, next weekend.

Enough. Salvage one from this series and move on. It's hard for just about any team to win on the road these days -- just look at Tampa Bay, who looked horrid while losing seven in a row on the road (including being swept by the Indians at Cleveland, not a good team this year), and who have righted their ship at home. The pregame thread will be up at 11:30 am CT.

If the Cubs' attempted comeback in the 9th inning today -- they did manage to get the tying run on base with one out -- had been successful, I'd have thrown up my hands in amazement, and there's already been a sufficient amount of amazement in this so-far-wonderful season.

They didn't, and you know what? Some days the other guy is just better than you. When facing a pitcher as good as Tim Lincecum -- and he had one of his better days today, giving up six hits and striking out nine -- you have very little margin for error, either, as Jack Brickhouse used to say, errors of commission or errors of omission, and the Cubs made just enough mistakes to result in a a 4-2 loss to the Giants, which, oddly, didn't feel quite as bad as yesterday's win.

Strange, I know. Here's where the game turned: on Mark DeRosa's ill-advised attempt to scoop Lincecum's sinking liner with a runner on first and one out in a scoreless game in the top of the third inning. Most other runners would have circled the bases for an inside-the-park HR as the ball went all the way to the wall, but Lincecum was held up with an RBI triple. It could have been charged an error (of "commission"), but wasn't, since DeRo never touched the ball. After a walk, a stolen base and a popup, the second error -- this one of omission -- happened.

There's no way Ryan Dempster should have pitched to Ray Durham. It wasn't a favorable matchup, Durham had had a good series so far (4-for-9 with a walk and two runs scored before today); Lou should have ordered him intentionally walked. Yes, in the third inning, because that early in the game, down 1-0 to a pitcher as good as Lincecum, you've got to keep the damage to a minimum. With the bases loaded and the unbelievably slow Bengie Molina due up next, you've got a real good shot at a forceout to end the inning.

Instead, Durham ran the count full and singled in two runs. The Cubs got one back on Jim Edmonds' double following a DeRosa walk, but that was it till Dempster got into trouble in the seventh, allowing the fourth and final run.

That set up a possible rally in the last of the 8th -- two singles brought Aramis Ramirez to bat with one out, and today's giveaway was a blue T-shirt with A-Ram's name and number on the back. Perhaps you saw virtually everyone in the bleachers waving the shirts, a sea of Cubbie blue -- very cool sight. Unfortunately, this time A-Ram had no drama for us, hitting into a double play.

Chad Gaudin showed us today why Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella wanted him so badly -- he threw two solid scoreless innings, keeping the team in the game till the bottom of the ninth, when a walk to Edmonds and two singles, including one by Geovany Soto as a pinch-hitter (thank you, Lou, for giving him the day off from catching today!) generated the second run, and brought up Daryle Ward, who's been so good as a pinch-hitter this year. He took two very close pitches after 0-2, both called balls, and then watched strike three go right down the center of the plate. Ryan Theriot grounded out to end the game... but give this team credit for at least getting that tying run on base in the 9th against one of the league's better closers, Brian Wilson, who was throwing 98 MPH and who, with today's save, passed Kerry Wood to take over the league lead with 25.

Wood, for his part, won't pitch in the All-Star Game, resting his blistered finger (an excellent idea), and has been replaced by Carlos Marmol, giving the Cubs a record-tying eight All-Stars. Now, only four, maybe five (Kosuke Fukudome, Soto, Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano and Marmol) will play, since Wood isn't available, and neither is Alfonso Soriano, and with a 118-pitch outing today, neither will Dempster. It seems very likely -- since Lincecum threw 116 pitches today, and Brandon Webb also pitched today -- that Zambrano, who last pitched on Wednesday and who won't go until at least next Saturday or Sunday, could be the starter for the National League on Tuesday. The choice of Marmol is odd, with Lou wanting him to rest and his poor June and July, but wouldn't it be even odder if he got his act back on track throwing an inning in the All-Star Game?

The old saw "You can't win 'em all" is so true today -- the Cubs ran into a really good pitcher and he beat 'em. It happens. They finish the first half with a 37-12 home record and remain 4.5 games in first place. Really, could we ask for better than this, at this moment in time?

Today, BCB reader drewishdruid and his lovely bride joined us, with their sign (did any of you spot it? They were holding it up at every inning break), along with BCB reader nside and his family, up from Indiana. They got nice weather and nice company, even with no victory. We move on to the second half after all of us take a much-needed break, with high hopes for the rest of this season. It's been wonderful. Hang on for the rest of the ride -- the best is yet to come.

I'll open threads for the Home Run Derby tomorrow and, of course, the game on Tuesday night.