In the midst of the seemingly hourly updates on a possible Jake Peavy trade (they're getting almost as tiresome as the discussion last year of the deal for Brian Roberts that never happened), I thought it would be useful to post a list of some of Jim Hendry's best deals since he became general manager in July 2002:

• December 4, 2002: sent Todd Hundley and Chad Hermansen to the Dodgers for Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros
• July 23, 2003: sent Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill and Matt Bruback to the Pirates for Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez
• November 25, 2003: sent Hee Seop Choi and Mike Nannini to the Marlins for Derrek Lee
• July 8, 2008: sent Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton and Josh Donaldson to the A's for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin

Now, answer this question honestly: how many of those deals did we hear a single peep about before they happened?

The correct answer is "None", because they all seemingly happened out of nowhere, unexpected either for the player acquired (did anyone really think D-Lee was coming here? He was rumored to be headed to the Orioles, among others), or for the idea that they'd happen at all (how many of us thought Todd Hundley's deal was dumpable?). My point is this: it seems the more we hear about a potential Cub trade, the less likely it is to happen. And I suspect that's what is going on with the Peavy rumors: all smoke, no fire. Peavy will either become a Brave, or go to some other team that hasn't even meen mentioned, but not become a Cub. I believe Jim Hendry is working hard on potential deals, but this isn't one of them. (Granted, that a couple of the deals mentioned above were salary dumps, but Hendry still had to become aware of them and offer the right players, otherwise they might have gone elsewhere.)

Just before the Hendry era, remember the Fred McGriff deal? That one dragged out for three weeks before McGriff decided -- magnanimous soul that he was -- to drag himself away from his family in Tampa to help the Cubs' push to the NL Central title in 2001, which ultimately failed. McGriff's numbers were decent in Chicago, but his attitude sucked. Fortunately, the Cubs gave up very little for him (infielder Jason Smith, who has played for five teams since leaving the Cubs and has a .221 lifetime BA to show for it).

So be a little patient, at least. The open free agent season doesn't start till Friday. I have faith in Jim Hendry -- who has made many excellent moves in the last two years -- to put the right pieces on the field for 2009.

A couple of things that flew under the radar yesterday:

• Geovany Soto says Henry Blanco will be back:

  Soto said he talked to Blanco recently and expects the free agent backup to return to the Cubs, who declined their $3 million option on him in hopes of re-signing him for less. "He wants 100 percent to come back and doesn't want to go nowhere [else]," Soto said.

• Guess who's interested in Bob Howry? The Giants, who have made a cottage industry out of signing the oldest players they can possibly find. The only criticism Brian Sabean probably has about Howry is that, at 35, he's not old enough for the geriatric Giants.

This is the one you've all been waiting for -- the thoughts I have about what sort of 25-man roster, including position players, pitching rotation and bullpen I think the Cubs should put on the field in 2009. I'm also going to make a comment or two on the coaching staff, which by and large did a fine job in 2008 (well, at least until October 1, they did). This is a long post, so I'm going to make you click through to read the rest, rather than show about 3,500 words on the front page. (You're about to find out why this took me so long!)

Continue reading this post »

Put away your dreams, everyone. It's over.

Last night's 10-3 Cubs loss to the Dodgers, which felt like the score was 100-3, was the most embarrassing postseason loss I have seen by any Cubs team, in fact possibly the most embarrassing postseason loss I've seen by ANY team.

Yes, I know. In fact, Manny Ramirez said it in the postgame press conference, which I listened to with little enthusiasm on the drive home: it takes three wins, not two, to win, and there have been seven five-game series in the history of MLB postseason play in which a team went down 2-0 and came back to win. They are:

• This 1981 "Division Series" between the Dodgers and Astros which was played because of the split season due to the strike. The format was 2-3 instead of 2-2-1 and the home team won all five games; the Dodgers shut out the Astros in game 5 to move on to the NLCS.
• The 1982 ALCS between the Angels and Brewers, played in the days when the LCS were five games. Again, a 2-3 split in which the home team won all five games.
• The 1984 NLCS. Nuff said.
• Moving on to the wild card era, this 1995 division series between the Yankees and Mariners. The split in '95 was still 2-3, and once again, the home team won all the games (the Yankees were the wild card).
• By 1999, the series was played in the format we now know: 2-2-1. The Red Sox came back and beat the Indians, losing the first two games at Cleveland, beating them 23-7 in game four at home and then winning game five on the road.
• The Yankees lost the first two games at home in their 2001 division series against the A's, took two games in Oakland including the famous play in game four in which Derek Jeter's relay cut down Jeremy Giambi, who was trying to score standing up.
• And, this 2003 ALDS between the A's and Red Sox; this time the Red Sox lost the first two games on the road before winning the series. Game Three, oddly enough, was started by Ted Lilly (for Oakland) and the losing pitcher was... Rich Harden.

I guess this means it can be done. But not by this team, not the way it's playing. Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe the disastrous second inning last night in which Carlos Zambrano got not one, not two, but three ground balls, the last two of which could have ended the inning as routine double play balls, and none of them were fielded. The first one by James Loney -- that glanced off Ryan Theriot's hand for a base hit into left field -- that one I can understand, because Theriot appeared to be shifting to cover second base on a hit & run. It happens. Teams execute hit & runs all the time, and even to get to that ball was good effort on Theriot's part.

But the easy grounders booted by Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee -- wow. I just can't understand those at all. You can't give a major league team five outs in an inning, especially in a playoff game. Z did the best he could to get out of the inning and his defense failed him, and when Russell Martin cleared the bases with a double, the crowd, which was jazzed up like a playoff crowd ought to be before the game, was silenced. All of us in our section sat there -- I can't even describe the feeling of being stunned that I felt throughout the game. It didn't help matters that by the 9th inning, the bullpen had helped tack four more runs onto the Dodgers' lead, including Neal Cotts allowing a single that scored the seventh (third earned) and final run on Z's record, so that when the Cubs got the remains of the sellout of 42,136 (maybe about half stuck it out to the end) noisy again with a two-run rally, it didn't matter -- maybe if it had been 6-1 instead of 10-1, the Cubs might have pulled off a miracle, but they had dug themselves far too deep a hole. Mike got me to laugh, finally, in the 9th inning when he said, "Maybe we've all been dead for 40 years and this is hell." (Was the fact that each infielder wound up with an error by the end of the game a macabre way of making each one feel better about himself? Or just another cruel joke?)

Yeah, that's what it felt like. Hell. (Although, maybe this movie describes it better.) The Cub offense looked like the 2006 version -- swinging and missing at bad pitches, or bouncing into groundouts. The only walk before the ninth inning was drawn by Z -- and then the second walk was drawn by Felix Pie, who had walked 21 times in his 266 major league plate appearances before last night. It's as if impostors showed up at Wrigley Field last night and put on the pinstripe pants and the blue shirts that Z favors. These guys couldn't be the ones who won 97 games during the regular season. What do you say about this? Management spent a ton of money and virtually every single move that Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella made during the season seemed the right ones, were hailed by most of us here, and almost every day new heroes were made, things Cubs fans hadn't seen in decades happened... and now this?

I received an email from BCB reader mjk83 this morning which read, in its entirety:

I will see you on Tuesday for Game 5.

Rich Harden and Ted Lilly will get this back to Chicago and Ryan Dempster will redeem himself.

..hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

And those of you who have read this site for a long time know that I am, in general, optimistic in nature, want to see the best of things, want to hope against hope (you know, if you are a "certain age", this is the way Jack Brickhouse always was on the air back in the hopeless early '60s, even when the Cubs were down several runs late in the game, always hoping they'd pull it out, even though they never did)... but this one's just about too much for me. I hope mjk83 is right. Really, I do. But that hope is much smaller this morning than it ought to be, and as I write this I'm 99% certain I'm cancelling my trip to Los Angeles... the game tickets I thought I had in hand fell through, and to go out there without tickets to see what feels like it's going to be a series sweep? Why bother?

I hope I'm wrong. If I am wrong and there's a game five on Tuesday, of course I'll be there. I know there are a ton of FanPosts today, far more than usual, and there may be some duplication in topics but at this point, I'm just going to let you guys vent. If this really is the end... yes, we're left with the wonderful memories of a great regular season, but it may be an extremely bitter taste from 2008 that will take a long time to wash away.

Let's hope that isn't the case. Go Cubs.

The best news about last night's 7-6 Cubs loss to the Mets is: it wasn't postponed or suspended, which would have forced the Cubs to return to New York on Monday to finish up. And, even though we'd have liked to see the Cubs win on a day when Micah Hoffpauir made his case for the postseason roster by going 5-for-5 with two homers, the wins by the Mets and the Brewers last night reduced the elimination number for the Astros (who also won) to one -- meaning that any win by either the Brewers OR the Mets would eliminate the possibility that the Cubs would have to return to Houston on Monday to make up that postponed game.

Now that we've cleared that up, and now that Ryan Dempster has been named the game one starter next Wednesday -- all eyes are on the last playoff roster spot. Will it be Hoffpauir? Lou says he's at least bought himself another start tonight in Milwaukee. But remember this: Hoffpauir won't be starting games in the postseason. He would be on the bench, to serve as a middle-inning pinch-hitter. As a pinch-hitter this season, he is 3-for-13 (all singles) with a walk and seven strikeouts. He isn't really a good defensive player -- there were a couple of balls that got by him at first base last night that Derrek Lee would have stopped, and you wouldn't want to see him in the outfield in a playoff game -- and so, if I were making the choice, I wouldn't make it based on one spectacular game which isn't likely to be repeated. Felix Pie is my pick for the final playoff roster slot, presuming the Cubs do go with 11 pitchers rather than 12 (and Chad Gaudin is rapidly pitching himself off the roster), due to his speed and ability to play all three outfield positions. I'm more concerned about Mark DeRosa, who now may sit out the entire Milwaukee series with the mild calf strain he suffered on Wednesday night.

The loss took away any chance for the Cubs to win 100 games this season (unless they sweep the Brewers AND the makeup game in Houston is played, an unlikely scenario), but if they can sweep in Milwaukee they'd have 99 wins, the most by a Cubs team since 1935. The 840 runs scored is the most since they scored 847 in 1935; only two Cub teams since 1900 have scored more than 847 (both in high-offense seasons: 982 in 1929 and 998 in 1930).

Also last night, Rich Harden made a decent showing in his final start before the postseason, though the five walks is too many, as were the 98 pitches in six innings. Harden gets at least a week off, as he won't throw till at the earliest next Thursday in game two, or, depending on the opponent (Lou might want to throw Ted Lilly vs. the lefthanded hitting Phillies in game two, if they wind up being the opposition), maybe not even till game three on the road. I was surprised to see Koyie Hill catching last night -- he won't be on the postseason roster and Henry Blanco will, and Blanco could use some playing time, too. I assume Hank White will catch at least one of the games in Milwaukee this weekend.

So the Cubs return to their second-favorite park tonight, where they have won all six games they've played there in 2008 against two different teams, where they'll have a fair number of fans -- a quick check of ticket availability for Miller Park just before this was posted shows Sunday's game a complete sellout and only SRO tickets for tonight and tomorrow. TV and schedule reminders: tonight's game has been moved to CSN Plus for Chicago-area viewers, but has also been picked up by ESPN, so it will be available nationally; and tomorrow's game time has been changed to 2:55 to accomodate Fox. Here's the link that normally carries the market listings for Fox games; as of this morning it hasn't yet been updated for tomorrow's games.

Even when Z pitches poorly, they win.

Even when middle relief fails, they win.

I LOVE THIS TEAM!

Nearly four hours after last night's game began, Derrek Lee dinked a little popup down the right field line, just fair, scoring Ryan Theriot, who had singled and stolen second with two out, and then Aramis Ramirez put the exclamation point on the tenth-inning rally with a two-run homer, his twenty-seventh, and the Cubs beat the Mets 9-6, giving the Mets a body blow in their attempt to win the wild card. This entire series has been somewhat surreal because I think most of you would probably rather have the Mets as a first-round playoff opponent than the other possibilities (now basically reduced to the Phillies and Dodgers), and so the Cubs, having given the Mets two soul-crushing defeats in this series (and clinching the season series, leading 4-1), can turn around and help them get in by beating the Brewers in Milwaukee this weekend.

What a long, strange trip this has been. It may get stranger tonight if the rain that is forecast for the New York area gets there before the game is over -- and even if it doesn't, it looks like the Mets may have trouble getting their weekend series with the Marlins in.

That, however, isn't the Cubs' problem. What is the Cubs' problem is yet another pitching meltdown by Carlos Zambrano. Z threw two good innings before blowing up in the third, walking nearly everyone in the state of New York before giving up a grand slam to Carlos Delgado. Z gave up only two hits other than the homer -- a one-out single to Argenis Reyes in that third inning and another single to David Wright in the fifth, at which point Lou had had enough and yanked him.

The bullpen did OK until Jeff Samardzija decided to do his Z impression (maybe that Second City thing he did last week was on his mind and he's auditioning to be an impressionist?) and walk in a run. That tied the game in the 8th, and no wonder the game was so darn long -- there were sixteen bases on balls issued by both teams, nine by Cubs pitchers and seven by the Mets.

And darned if Bob Howry didn't help save the day by throwing a scoreless bottom of the ninth, getting out of a jam he started by allowing a leadoff triple to Daniel Murphy, setting up D-Lee's and A-Ram's heroics. Kerry Wood finished up with his 34th save.

All wins are good; this one, though it meant nothing to the Cubs in the standings was particularly impressive because it shows that they have maintained their focus even while playing out the string, and they beat a team that is desperately trying to hang on to a playoff spot, and one they may face next week. We can be a little worried about Mark DeRosa, who strained his calf and had to leave the game; he'll sit for a couple of days to rest it, although Lou was going to give him two days off anyway. And Bruce Miles tells us that Lou appears to be leaning toward Ryan Dempster starting game 1 next Wednesday -- and I'd agree with that assessment, and I'd probably go with tonight's starter, Rich Harden, in game 2, starting Z in game three on the road.

We, as always, await developments. Finally, one development you should know about: the games tonight in New York and tomorrow night in Milwaukee, originally scheduled for CSN, will now be on CSN Plus (CLTV in Chicago; if you watch via EI you will not be affected, but I know that some Chicago-area viewers don't get CLTV) -- the White Sox games, more important in the pennant races, have been moved to CSN's main channel.

It NEVER gets old!

Maybe fans in Atlanta got blasé about playoff appearances after a long time -- and they shouldn't have, because they are always precious and special -- but I can tell you that I haven't, and I'm sure you haven't, and clinching the NL Central title this afternoon with a 5-4 win over the Cardinals would have been a special moment regardless... but it becomes even more special because now you, and I, and Cub fans everywhere have experienced something that no Cubs fan has in one hundred years:

Back-to-back postseason appearances.

Should we celebrate that century of failure? Heck, no. What I say by mentioning this event that hasn't happened since my grandfather was 18 years old and still living in London, England, is that maybe, just maybe, the team that we have lived and died with (mostly died) over the course of our collective lives as baseball fans, has turned the corner from failure to future success, and that we'll be celebrating many, many more of these postseasons in years to come.

However.

We have been here before, as recently as last year, and some of us in the season ticket bleacher line were trying to remember some details about last year's lone home playoff game and, as you know, it was so bad that we had all blocked it out of our memories. As have most of you, presumably.

One year later, we, and the Cubs, get a fresh chance to put eleven more wins on the board and remain, as I have written before, "the last ones standing".

If I had told you in March that the last out of the Cubs' playoff-clinching win in September would be caught by a blue-pinstripe wearing Jim Edmonds, you'd have had me put away. And yet, didn't that feel exactly right, against his old team, no less? And who more appropriate to be on the mound than Kerry Wood, who has been through so much in his ten seasons as a Cub, nailing down his 32nd save after Carlos Marmol had an easy 8th inning, and Ted Lilly had thrown seven strong innings, making only one mistake (grooving one that Troy Glaus hit about six rows right in front of us for a three-run homer, making a close game into a 5-4 nailbiter). Edmonds also hit a double that started the Cubs' three-run rally in the second inning.

That's the way Lou and the staff and all the rest of us envision it happening, isn't it? And that, to me, would be the key to success in the postseason -- to have the starting staff of Z, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden and Lilly (and yes, I would do it in precisely that order) go deep into games and have Marmol and Wood finish it off, with the rest of the pen in reserve in case the starters get into trouble. To me, the only weak spots right now involve right field, where Kosuke Fukudome got a start today, presumably to try to get him back on track, and though he did walk and score once, he also struck out and looked bad doing it in the sixth inning, and must have missed a hit-and-run sign, because Geovany Soto was a dead duck at second base -- and Geo doesn't steal; that was his first career SB attempt. Now that the Cubs have clinched, I'd play Dome every day to see if he can start hitting again.

Conversely, I'd sit Ryan Theriot. Like last year, when Theriot hit .202/.257/.263 after September 1, Ryan has hit the wall in this year's final month. Coming into today's game he was hitting even worse, .196/.250/.250 in September, and although I know he very badly wants to finish with an over-.300 BA (he's now at .298), he also very badly needs some rest. Start Ronny Cedeno, to give him some AB's that will be very valuable to him for the postseason, and rest Theriot. And no, I don't want this to start another firestorm of Theriot discussion as we have had on this site a zillion times -- just stating what seems obvious.

Tomorrow, I'm guessing Lou will start the regulars -- only because it's the last home game and maybe the last chance for many to see the Cubs play at home -- give them one AB each and then clear the bench. As of now Ryan Dempster is scheduled to pitch and I wouldn't change the rotation, as it's set up to start the postseason -- but I'm guessing that all the starters will be on either an inning or pitch count, or both, until October 1. That includes Z, whose head clearly wasn't in the game yesterday. And despite rumors that Z had returned to Venezuela, he was in the outfield during BP, wearing a glove on his right hand and flinging balls around the field lefthanded (he's got a pretty good arm lefty, incidentally).

It was a festive day -- people stayed in the ballpark long after the last out of the quick (two hours, twenty-one minutes) game, the first time the Cubs have clinched a playoff spot in my lifetime at home in a true day game (the 2003 clincher, in the second game of a doubleheader, was technically a "day" game, but by the time the game was over, it was after sunset and pretty dark). The rest of the clinchers since 1984 have all been at night. Even so, right after the game ended the lights went on, obviously in anticipation of the festivities on the field. And even Dave, who rarely shows outward emotion in watching games in the bleachers, stood and applauded the Cubs for their terrific season's performance.

But the players, and we, know there is still much work to be done, beginning a week from Wednesday. There are some goals remaining for the regular season: the Cubs can still win 100 games if they go 7-1 (presuming the one makeup game vs. Houston isn't played, and that looks unlikely at this point); even if they don't do that, going 5-3 would make 98 wins, matching the 1945 team for the most wins since the 100-win 1935 team. 4-4 would make 97, the most since that '45 club. If Carlos Zambrano can win one more game, that'd make three fifteen-game winners for the first time since 1989. The Cubs set a season attendance record today, with the paid crowd of 41,597 making the season total 3,259,649, and if they draw 40,351 or more tomorrow (which seems likely) that'd make 3.3 million for the first time in Chicago baseball history. I have added two more boxes to the sidebar: most wins at home in a season (the Cubs can get to 55 wins at home tomorrow, which would be second-most in Wrigley Field history -- the only higher total was the 58 wins at home at West Side Grounds in 1910). The other addition is "most wins, two consecutive seasons, since 1945" -- three more and the 2007-08 Cubs will break the mark of 180 set in 1945-46.

That's a lot of numbers. There are two more significant ones: two, which would clinch home field throughout the first two rounds, and eleven.

Eleven. That's the number of wins the Cubs need for the championship we have all dreamed of. Today, they took the first step there. We await, with hope and excitement, the next step, to begin at Wrigley Field on October 1.

The Cubs have now played four straight one-run games. Last night's heartstoppingly exciting 3-2 win over the Cardinals evened their one-run game record at 21-21, gave them their first series win in two weeks, expanded their division lead to 5.5 games over the Brewers, who lost 6-3 to the Phillies, and reduced their division title magic number to Don Kessinger.

Yes, I think that's how I'll refer to the magic numbers from here on out, and that's who is currently appearing on the right sidebar, the best Cub to wear #11 since the last pennant in 1945.

There were many heroes last night -- Rich Harden threw a solid six innings, though as Bruce Miles tells us, his velocity was down to the low 90's. It didn't matter because Harden changed speeds extremely well, something that is the key to victory for almost every pitcher. From Bruce's article:

"I don't know why everybody puts so much on velocity," Harden said. "Location's always the most important thing, change of speed."

That's a moment where you picture a lightbulb over Harden's head suddenly going on, or watching him hold his hand out flat and then smacking his forehead really hard. It took him this long to figure that out? Note that I'm not criticizing Harden, who has been an effective major league pitcher, when healthy, over the last few seasons. But there's more to that quote from Harden in Phil Rogers' column:

"I used to rear back and try to put everything I had on every pitch."

Obviously, that's a recipe for disaster, if not injury, and maybe that's why Harden has always been hurt. If he really has learned the "changing speeds" lesson, not only will he stay healthy, but he will be a much more effective pitcher.

The game was won in the 8th inning when, with a 3-2 lead, the Cubs turned two outstanding defensive plays; first, a tumbling catch by Alfonso Soriano on a line drive hit by Albert Pujols, and then, with two runners on base, a leaping grab by Kosuke Fukudome of a Felipe Lopez blast to the wall in right field, that would have easily scored both runs had he not made the catch. There may not be another right fielder in baseball who could have made that catch; if Dome's offense is still moribund, he has value to this team as a plus defender. Carlos Marmol then struck out Josh Phelps to end that threat, and in the 9th, Kerry Wood did his best Mitch Williams imitation by allowing two hits; the Cubs got a break when Brendan Ryan overslid third base on a sacrifice attempt and was tagged out by Aramis Ramirez, and then Wood got Pujols to pop up to end the game.

And now, we wait. The Cubs returned to Chicago after last night's game, instead of flying on to Houston, where Hurricane Ike is going to make landfall sometime late tonight or early tomorrow, and they will have a workout at Wrigley Field tomorrow and wait... and wait... and wait... for someone to make a decision on how and where and when the three-game series against the Astros will be played.

I understand the desire for Astros management to play the games in Houston; they were expecting three sellouts, probably 125,000 paid admissions, and the Astros have a good home record (43-29) while they are under .500 away from the Juice Box (37-38). But I cannot imagine that the city of Houston will be in any shape to host major league baseball on Sunday or even Monday -- even if there is no damage to the ballpark itself, there may be flooded streets, power failures, and damage in other areas which might prevent team employees from getting to downtown Houston for the games.

Obviously, no one has control over such a dangerous storm, and though it may put the Astros at a disadvantage, at least two of the games should be played at a neutral site. Atlanta or Washington would be the best choices, as those stadiums are at least somewhat familiar to both teams. As noted in Chanman25's FanPost, there is an event at Nationals Park Saturday night -- a simulcast of the opera "La Traviata" on the stadium Jumbotron. But that doesn't mean they couldn't have it ready for a noon doubleheader the next day. Atlanta makes some sense, since the Astros are heading to Florida for their next series. My suggestion: play a Cubs-Astros doubleheader in Atlanta on Sunday, then hold the third game till the end of the season and play it in Houston on September 29 if it's needed to determine anything for the postseason. That, I think, is the best compromise; it allows the Astros a game in Houston, played after hurricane cleanup, and keeps the off-day for both teams on Monday.

We await developments. I may open a front-page thread for everyone here to discuss the Brewers/Phillies game later this afternoon.

Thursday has dawned gloomy, windy and rainy in Chicago, matching the moods of all of us, I suspect, after the Cubs' fifth straight loss, 4-0 to the Astros, completing a Houston sweep, the first time the Cubs have been swept at home since the Marlins did it at the end of May, 2007 -- just before The Lou Tirade that galvanized that team to start winning. It was also cool and windy after it had been 94 degrees on Tuesday, reminding all of us that fall is coming. Fall baseball in Chicago. Right?

Yes, I'm grasping at straws here. Aren't you?

The Cubs made Randy Wolf look like a 2001-vintage Randy Johnson last night; Wolf threw his first CG shutout since 2004 and the closest the Cubs came to scoring was having Ronny Cedeno gunned down at the plate in the fifth inning after an Alfonso Soriano single.

Ryan Dempster threw well enough; his biggest mistake was hit by Ty Wigginton for a two-run homer, making the score 3-0 in the fifth, but by then the Astros had the only run they would need. Dempster gave up eight hits and three runs in his seven innings and good teams should win 99% of all games where your starting pitcher throws that well. Count this in the other 1%. And how would Dempster get the Cubs out of this?

Dempster has a remedy in mind.

"We've just got to come to the field and have a good day off [Thursday]," he said, "maybe go get some Einstein's Bagels in the morning, go for a nice run, then have a nice plane flight, go have a nice dinner and go to Cincinnati refreshed and put this behind us and just play well."

Einstein's. Well, whatever works. Last night was the first complete game thrown against the Cubs since June 6 in Los Angeles, when the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda, a pitcher whose season numbers aren't that much different from Randy Wolf's, shut out the Cubs and struck out eleven. After that game the Cubs won six of their next eight, which is just about exactly what they need right now.

It was a goofy night all around. A fight broke out in our aisle in the bleachers in the first inning over... nothing. No one could figure out how it started or who started it, but there was quite a bit of shouting, several beers spilled, but in the end, no one got hurt or ejected, and a lot of those involved wound up leaving early when the play on the field started clunking along.

Speaking of which, can the Cubs do better for a righthanded bat off the bench than Casey McGehee? I suppose he's here as kind of a "lovely parting gift", because he's almost 26 years old and has a career minor league OPS of .741, but he has seemed overmatched in his two major league AB, and when he batted for Dempster in the seventh inning with a runner on and the score still 3-0, a hit might have galvanized a comeback -- but he hit into a double play (this, after striking out in his ML debut the night before).

This morning WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer called for the IMMEDIATE stop of that insipid Bon Jovi song they keep playing during pitching changes at Wrigley Field! For the love of God, make it stop! Never thought I'd miss YMCA...

Lin Brehmer is a fellow Colgate graduate -- two years ahead of me, I knew him while I was in school there and I'm with him. The Cubs have 16 of their final 22 games on the road, so clearly, the winning of this division is going to have to be done there. Those of you heading to Cincinnati -- be numerous, be loud, bring us some wins. As I noted yesterday, the Cubs have won 13 of their last 14 road games while struggling lately at home. More numbers: they've started 0-4 in September, but also started poorly in May (1-4); that became a good month at 18-11. I said I'd start posting the magic number when it dropped to 20 -- it's now 19, but I feel that the Cubs ought to at least make it drop by one by winning a game before I put it up there. So -- I hope you can all wait till Friday to see it. Also, BCB reader FragginJudge, visiting from Puerto Rico, sat with us -- it was nice to meet you, but that's a long way to come and not to see even one win (he saw the entire Houston series).

Finally, yesterday BCB reader JohnM posted about the playoff email ticket lottery; this will, I suspect, actually give you a better shot at tickets, as if you get chosen in the lottery, you'll almost certainly get tickets, rather than sitting for hours in the VWR and getting nothing. Most teams are going to this sort of system; sign up here.

And keep the faith. The Cubs are still a good team, and they are still in the driver's seat. They have kept at least a 3.5 game lead since July 30. Yes, we are a little worried about Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden. So, Sean Marshall, who joins the rotation on Sunday, will have to step up. I have confidence in him, and in the rest of this team. Take a deep breath and enjoy the off day -- the Cubs' first since August 18. The best is yet to come.

• Lou may shuffle the lineup tonight. That article also says:

  Lou Piniella said he expects the club to bring up at least outfielder Felix Pie and pitcher Kevin Hart from Iowa once they're done with the AAA playoffs.

  I've heard different. We'll see.
• The Brewers are still whining about CC Sabathia's "lost" no-hitter on Sunday. Now, this does raise a legitimate issue. I have long felt that the official scorekeeping duties should be taken away from writers and clubs and that the scorer should be made a fifth member of the umpiring crew. Maybe this will create the impetus to do that. Here's Carol Slezak's take on this in today's Sun-Times.
• There's nothing wrong with Rich Harden, says Bruce Miles:

  Rich Harden said Monday he'd rather be pitching but that he agrees with the Cubs' decision to rest him until next Tuesday's series opener in St. Louis.

  The Cubs say they're playing it cautiously with Harden's right shoulder, which put him on the disabled list earlier this year when he was with Oakland.

  "Yeah, let's make sure I'm feeling good and fresh for the stretch here, the last few games," said Harden, who is 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA as a Cub since coming over from the A's in July. "I've been feeling pretty good. I haven't felt too much strain or anything from throwing the ball.

  "With a couple of days off, I definitely feel stronger. It can make a difference, especially late in the season when you get a little tired. I really want to be out there, but I agree with it."

• Finally, I posted this in a couple of the threads last night, but once again, I think it bears repeating:

  In their last 14 home games, the Cubs are 8-6.

  In their last 14 road games, the Cubs are 13-1.

  Maybe the home/road split this month will work out after all.

There! That ought to keep you busy till gametime tonight.

They did it again.

Each day, new heroes, new ways to win; I stare in amazement, as the atmosphere at Wrigley Field gets more and more playoff-like; today, Alfonso Soriano's 7th-inning homer off Clay Condrey gave the Cubs a 3-2 win over the Phillies, their seventh win in a row, but it was patience and walks that put the ballclub in position for victory.

Clogging the bases with relish, the Cubs scored the tying run in the sixth inning with no hits, as Ryan Theriot, Derrek Lee, Mark DeRosa and finally, Kosuke Fukudome, drew walks, forcing in a run. The first three walks (and two others earlier in the game) were off Philly starter Joe Blanton, who had the Cubs handcuffed until Aramis Ramirez singled in the fourth. Meanwhile, the Phils scraped two runs off Rich Harden, who wasn't sharp today, but just as Ryan Dempster did last night, he kept his team in the game despite being uncharacteristically wild -- walking four, and throwing 100 pitches in five innings. The first run came when Harden hit Chase Utley in the first, and then, apparently rattled, he gave up a walk and a single to Pat Burrell, and then an unusual bad throw by Fukudome, who hit either Lee or baserunner Ryan Howard on a relay, allowed Utley to score the second run in the fifth.

Another walk, also to DeRo, gave the Cubs their first run, getting that fifth-inning Philly run back, and though Jeff Samardzija wasn't sharp either today, walking two in his inning-plus, he kept it close enough for Soriano's heroics (and to claim his first major league win), and then Carlos Marmol, who closed because Kerry Wood had thrown in four straight games, shut the Phillies down with nasty sliders (I thought he had Utley struck out a pitch before he swung and missed; plate umpire Bill Welke's strike zone was a little strange today).

More history was made today: the Cubs' 51st win of the season at home ties them for the most home wins in a single year since 1945 -- that was accomplished in 1984 by the 96-win NL East champions. Eleven home games remain, so not only can they break that record, but they have a shot at the all-time Cub record for home wins, 58, which was set in the pennant year of 1910.

I don't know how many more transcendent words I can come up with. Each time this team seems to have reached a peak, they top it with a victorious way that we haven't seen before. Yes, a homer won today's game, but as I said, it was patience at the plate -- something that's been wonderful to see this year, something we haven't seen from a Cubs team in decades, if ever -- that put them in position for Soriano's game-winner.

So rest and enjoy the evening and savor, till tomorrow. Go Pirates!