Yesterday, I sat watching a taut pitcher's duel, huddled up in sweatshirt and balaclava over my head.

Today, in the sunshine, with the wind blowing out to RF and the temperature in the 70's (officially 67 at game time, but when I got back to my car the thermometer inside said it was 77), we saw six home runs leave the yard, four of them by the Cubs, and they hung on for a 7-4 win over the Pirates, despite an implosion by Bob Howry that allowed the Bucs a three-run eighth and made an appearance by Kerry Wood necessary for his ninth save of the season. More on that in a moment.

During the 2006 football season, then-Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green said in a memorable postgame news conference, regarding the Bears' comeback against his team, "They are what we thought they were!", and then angrily left the podium. We don't have to be angry, but the fact is -- Alfonso Soriano is what we thought he was. He's a maddening player. There are times when he doesn't even look like he should be in a major league uniform... and other times when he gets hot and can carry a team. He appears to be in the latter mode this week; in this homestand he is now 15-for-32 (.469) with 5 HR and 12 RBI in the eight games so far on the stand. He's got 22 RBI for the season despite missing two weeks; after 42 team games in 2007, during which he missed a similar amount of time, he had 9 RBI.

So we have to take the bad with the good. The Cubs wouldn't have won the NL Central last year without Soriano's hot September; it'd have been nice if he carried that over into last October, but that's Soriano. Maddening. Let's hope his hot streak continues for the... well, for a while, anyway.

Sean Gallagher picked up his first major league win today. He struck out only three and during his appearance at the postgame news conference, that I heard on the radio driving home, said that after he got the big lead he could concentrate on throwing strikes and putting the ball in play and letting his fielders catch the ball, which they did. The Pirates did hit Gallagher pretty hard, but virtually everything was right at somebody -- kudos to Mark DeRosa for a tumbling catch on the warning track in right field to end the fifth inning. It won't be the last win for Gallagher, either. I like the way he approaches the game. He'll need to develop a good changeup to go with the good curveball, though.

Bob Howry was... bad. He slogged his way through a mediocre 7th inning and then the Pirates teed off on him in the 8th, hitting two home runs, including one by Doug Mientkiewicz, who had come into the game hitting .237 with no homers at all this year. Howry threw an alarmingly large number of pitches -- 39 -- and this made the score 7-4 and necessitated a save-situation appearance by Kerry Wood.

Wood, like Gallagher, realized that he didn't have to blow hitters away, especially since the first two hitters he was facing were light-hitting PH Luis Rivas and Jason Michaels, and he got Rivas to fly to right and Michaels to pop up, and then Freddy Sanchez lined right to Aramis Ramirez to end the game -- Kerry threw only ten pitches, so he should be available tomorrow if needed for the third day in a row.

Say, I've been complaining about the schedule-makers a lot, but could they arrange it so the Cubs could play the Pirates every day? Now 7-0 for the season against Pittsburgh, the Cubs have Carlos Zambrano ready to go tomorrow, to make it a good shot at 8-0. Z got a chance to pinch-hit today, and as I predicted to our group when he was announced, to a loud ovation, he'd probably try to hit a 900-foot home run. He did just that on the first two pitches, then hit a comebacker to Tom Gorzelanny to end the sixth inning.

Gorzelanny -- who can explain it? He has now thrown three times against the Cubs this year, 11 total innings, 21 earned runs allowed for an ERA of 17.18 against them. His ERA in his other five starts is 2.73.

In any case, revel in this. The Cubs are 18-7 at home, at this moment the majors' best home record (Arizona is 17-7 pending their game tonight at home vs. Detroit). They're two games in first place, pending Houston's game vs. Texas -- yes, the Astros muscled their way into second place yesterday ahead of the Cardinals... and St. Louis lost Jason Isringhausen today when he suffered a cut on his hand when he hit a TV in Tony LaRussa's office. I'll be keeping an eye on their series with Tampa Bay this weekend, because that ought to give us a good idea about the futures of both those teams (and remember, the Cubs have to play the suddenly-hot Rays in Tampa next month).

We were joined today by BCB reader sparkles721 -- who hasn't posted much here lately because she's been busy with school, but is now home for the summer. And Crane Kenney, who spent the day in the bleachers talking to people, stopped by to say hi and explained a little more about the fan lunches that will begin next month. He told me that they'll select 30 people at random from season ticket holders for each session, and that he feels really strongly about listening to fans, particularly season ticket holders, who are the Cubs' best customers. Incidentally, today's attendance of 40,537 pushed the season total to 1,000,892, an average of 40,036 and the earliest ever that the Cubs have passed the million mark in attendance (25 dates).

This franchise is turning around before your very eyes. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Until tomorrow.

Yes, there are fifteen of them (I made sure to count).

Cubs pitchers brought their strikeout shoes to the ballpark Wednesday night; Ted Lilly, Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood combined for a season-high 15 strikeouts and the Cubs beat the Padres 8-5 in one of those "wasn't as close as the score indicated" games, made closer because Wood wasn't sharp in the ninth inning, allowing three hits and a run to score after two were out.

The big news from yesterday, is, of course, something we have discussed to death here: the Cubs' signing of Jim Edmonds and optioning of Felix Pie to Iowa. There isn't much more to be said: it's done. He's here, will start today, and if he does well and helps the Cubs win, I'm all for it. Now, let me say that on the face of it, I'm against this signing because it makes little sense from virtually every standpoint (baseball: he seems to have little left; clubhouse chemistry: he's acquired a reputation as an aloof loner; and fan support: virtually every Cubs fan hates him). All I can say is that if he indeed is as done as I think he is, that Jim Hendry won't waste any time releasing him and bringing Pie back.

The rest of this recap is happier: the Cubs' offense clicked last night. Everyone except Derrek Lee (and maybe he needs a day off -- he looked tired and went 0-for-5) got a hit and scored a run. Biggest contributors: Geovany Soto with an RBI single and two-run HR, and Alfonso Soriano, a leadoff HR and two-run single.

BCB reader drewishdrewid and his wife Laura joined us last night; nice to see you again, and also Jessica, now known here as Doggie Stalker, in from New York for the weekend. She ate her traditional good-luck tuna sandwich in the bottom of the first inning, and spent much of the rest of the game "visiting" her "other" seats in the terrace reserve, section 209, and staring at the ground. I expect her to do a lot of that this afternoon, when Greg Maddux takes the mound for the Padres.

We can afford to do silly stuff like that now, right? The Cubs are 16-7 at home, are playing well, and despite the fact that we all love Greg Maddux, I want nothing more today than to beat his team (he doesn't have to take the loss, after all). I'll have a game thread up in about three hours. Until then, here are some photos from last night's win.

Kosuke Fukudome doubles in the second inning

Reed Johnson about to catch Khalil Greene's long drive in the 5th

Ryan Theriot rounds third and scores after Aramis Ramirez doubles in the 6th

Padres CF Jody Gerut dives but cannot catch Johnson's double in the 7th

Fukudome & Johnson celebrating the win

Fukudome & Soriano celebrating the win

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

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.

Top: Ryan Dempster stretches his left leg in front of the newly-grown-in ivy; Dempster stretches his right leg

Above sequence: Alfonso Soriano rounding third in the third inning Saturday (D'backs pitcher Max Scherzer yells at Augie Ojeda: "Home!" while Aramis Ramirez watches); Soriano sliding into the plate (note ball on ground and umpire not in position to see it); He's safe!

Above sequence: Kosuke Fukudome's HR lands in the LF bleachers; Fukudome crossing the plate; Fukudome tipping his cap to the RF bleachers

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

I'm lazy today. So here, you can make up your own recap of the Cubs' 9-3 win over the Cardinals:

This afternoon in St. Louis, the Chicago Cubs nine scrappy players Mike Fontenot, who hit a 3-run HR Ted Lilly, who saved the bullpen Tim McCarver and Joe Buck took the field and ended their two-game losing streak evened up the series vs. the Cardinals moved to within 0.5 games of first place played a superb game of baseball all of the above against the St. Louis Cardinals the St. Louis Rams the St. Louis Hawks (yes, there were. Look it up.) does it really matter? Oh, yes. It matters. . Ted Lilly started and lowered his ERA to 5.97 from 6.46 returned to his 2007 form asked to pitch again sometime does it really matter? Oh, yes. It matters. . Carlos Marmol finished up the last two innings because it's a rule that he pitches on Saturdays he was afraid someone might ask him to do a Harry Caray impression like Ryan Dempster did Sean Gallagher's flight from Iowa got diverted to Topeka he wanted Buck & McCarver to talk about him and a) Kerry Wood b) Paul Assenmacher c) Ruben Quevedo d) Bob Howry e) a) and d) weren't available today. Li'l Mikey Fontenot's three-run HR was his second HR of the year was hit farther than anyone 5-7 has the right to hit some Cardinals fans right on the head How DOES a guy that small hit a ball that far? and came right after Geovany Soto hit a ground-rule double was pissed that he hit a ground-rule double said something nasty to Yadier Molina in Spanish kept up his hot hitting . Kosuke Fukudome also had a good day, having three hits including a leg double carrying on a conversation in Japanese with some fans raising his batting average to .348 showing us again why Lou should hit him 1st or 2nd . There were 10,000 25,000 46,792 the entire Cub nation's worth of Cub fans in attendance in the new-record crowd in St. Louis. Cub fans like going to games in St. Louis because it's a great rivalry many Cub fans live within an easy drive of St. Louis when it's just Cardinal fans there you can't tell the seats from the fans because they own nothing but red clothes we are EVERYWHERE. We are Cub Nation! . Tomorrow night, with the game on ESPN, the Cubs will have Jason Marquis Alfonso Soriano Joe Morgan Sandy Koufax someone else from a list submitted by BCB readers on the mound against the Cardinals. Manager Lou Piniella's comments after this big win included: "We're just taking it one day at a time", and then he threw his hat "I told you reporters I wasn't stupid!", and then he threw third base "We're happy the Cardinals lost", and then he threw his entire uniform at Joe Buck "We're going to get that Stevie Eyre back in the bullpen soon." . The Fox-TV telecast was, as usual, mediocre because Joe Buck was there Tim McCarver was there Ken Rosenthal was there all of the above wouldn't stop talking about jinxes, goats, black cats and other nonsense . Finally, the biggest news from this afternoon's game is that the Cubs moved to within 1/2 game of the first-place Cardinals winning tomorrow will win the series from a tough divisional rival Ryan Theriot made a "scrappy" play (it's fun typing "scrappy"!) You've got to be kidding about the choice above. That's not big news! Al's going to try much harder to write a more interesting recap tomorrow .

Prince Fielder, Yovani Gallardo and Reed Johnson have a close personal encounter after Johnson's ground out

Yovani Gallardo grimacing in pain after the collision; 1B coach Matt Sinatro looks him over

Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome in yet another close personal encounter chasing Prince Fielder's fly ball in the 6th inning

Johnson drops the ball!

Derrek Lee slides into 2nd after a throw beats Ryan Theriot to 3rd (top of photo)

Prince Fielder chasing the errant throw after Lee's slide

Kosuke Fukudome slides into the plate in the 6th inning. This photo clearly shows him sliding in safely before Jason Kendall tagged him.

Fukudome is called out, As you can see, plate umpire Brian O'Nora was out of position to make this call.

Lou Piniella makes his point after the bad call on Fukudome by O'Nora

Ask and you shall receive -- David did get the Soto/Fielder collision, though with someone's waving cap in the way:

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

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.

Raise your hand if you still think there's something wrong with Geovany Soto.

Just as I thought -- no hands raised. Soto smashed two home runs last night. But look at this photo for people raising their hands for Soto for the right reason -- here's what our section looked like after the first one landed just a few rows below us (yes, that's us in the top row, me bundled against the cold in a blue coat, behind BCB reader ballstitch, in a burgundy Florida State sweatshirt, arm raised):

Soto's two HR and six RBI, both career highs, led a 17-hit, nine-walk attack (eight of the nine walks coming from the fifth through the eighth inning) and the Cubs demolished the Brewers 19-5, the most runs the Cubs have scored in almost exactly seven years, since May 5, 2001, when the Cubs took a garden-variety 4-1 lead into the seventh and then scored eight runs in consecutive innings and smashed the Dodgers 20-1.

Balls were really jumping out of the yard during batting practice, many sailing over our heads. So since my friend Sue showed up last night, and she likes to organize Home Run Derby in our section, we played. BCB reader ballstitch sat with us along with a friend of his, and the friend had Soto in the pool. He was in the men's room when Soto hit his second HR in the fourth, and when he returned we didn't say a word until he asked, "Did Soto hit another HR?" First, I said, "You have to be present to win", and then we all paid up.

It was that kind of fun night both for fans and players. The game was pretty much over in the first inning, when the Cubs sent ten men to the plate and scored six runs, smacking singles and doubles all over the place -- you don't have to hit only three-run homers to score tons of runs -- and Ryan Dempster, who had a single himself in that six-run first, threw well enough to win with that kind of offensive onslaught, although he labored in later innings, throwing 108 pitches in six innings and issuing five walks. His command and control are going to have to get better to continue to win, because obviously, the Cubs aren't going to score this many runs every day.

It's fun when they do, though, isn't it? Leading 13-5 in the 8th, the Cubs piled on Brewers reliever Derrick Turnbow, who had absolutely nothing last night -- he gave up four hits and four walks, and was charged with six runs, making his ERA an unsightly 15.63 (Jeff Suppan, the Brewer starter, allowed eight earned runs; his ERA, 3.48 at gametime, jumped to 5.19). Ryan Theriot got a RBI with a bases-loaded walk, and then Ronny Cedeno came up with the chance to hit his second grand slam of the month. (Read that again; would you have believed a phrase like that a year ago?)

He nearly got it, too; his bases-clearing double hit off the right-center field wall. It got so bad that Ned Yost, who had clearly wanted to save his 2,756 relievers for another day and wanted Turnbow to finish the inning, had to yank him after 43 (!) pitches and finish the inning with lefty Mitch Stetter.

Discordant note: Bob Howry, put in the game with a 13-3 lead to work out some of his early-season troubles, instead raised his own ERA to 8.10 by allowing a two-run HR to Brewers backup catcher Mike Rivera, who came into the game at 1B after Yost cleared his bench. Lou Piniella did so too, wisely giving Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome and Soto some rest and giving all five of his bench position players some playing time. In the 8th inning, pinch-hitter Mike Fontenot nearly got to bat a second time.

So the Cubs finish April with a 17-10 record; the 17 wins is the most ever for a Cub team in the month of April, though that record is a bit misleading -- teams play so many more games now in April than they did years ago. The previous record, 16, set in 1969, was posted in 23 games (16-7). The 27 games played since March 31 is exactly one-sixth of the season; match the 17-10 record, not an unreasonable thing to do, five more times and you will wind up 102-60. I'm not saying the Cubs will do this, or that it would be easy to do this, only that it is possible.

Derrek Lee tied the team record for HR in April, eight, originally set by Lee Walls in 1958. The 1958 Cubs played only 13 games in April -- and Walls hit his eight in an eight-day, seven-game stretch, as follows:

4/23: 1
4/24: 3
4/25: 0
4/26: 1
4/27: 0
4/28: off day
4/29: 2
4/30: 1

And for the kicker: all eight were hit on the road, in the new major league cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Walls hit 24 HR in 1958, never more than 11 in any other season, sort of the Tuffy Rhodes of his era.

Enjoy these -- they don't come around very often. We spotted "Friggin' Hot Dog Vendor" again last night and this time decided to buy some from him -- they were friggin' good. Also thanks to BCB reader cubsonWGN4ever, who stopped by to say hi last night. With Carlos Zambrano going this afternoon, the Cubs are in good position to win the series -- and then say goodbye to the Brewers for almost three months, because they won't meet them until the last week of July at Miller Park, and not again at Wrigley until mid-September. Today's game thread will be up at 11 am CDT.

More photos from last night:

Derrek Lee slides into second on his first-inning double

This Felix Pie AB resulted in a foul ball... but look at Prince Fielder's reaction.

Matt Murton, Felix Pie and Reed Johnson celebrate last night's win. Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima

Jason Marquis stood on the mound at Wrigley Field, alone on the field, tossing a baseball up and down in his hand. Up, down, up, down, several times. He did this while waiting for the umpires to shift positions and gear after plate umpire Jerry Crawford took ill during last night's 10-7 Cub loss to the Brewers.

Cubs players wait in the dugout for play to resume after the umpire delay

Eventually, Geovany Soto came out of the dugout and so did the rest of the Cubs and that's when Marquis, who had been shaky enough in the first couple of innings, completely fell apart. He wound up throwing 98 pitches in five innings, allowing ten hits and five runs, and none of the Cubs' relievers could provide any relief last night -- the only one who didn't have a run charged to him was Michael Wuertz, but he added to the carnage by walking in a run that got charged to Kevin Hart. Even the usually-reliable Jon Lieber got touched for Milwaukee's tenth run, after Mike Fontenot's bases-clearing double had turned a 9-4 apparent rout into a 9-7 "hey, maybe they can come back" score.

It wasn't to be, and although Lou Piniella had sharp words for his bullpen in his postgame press conference:

"Our pitching wasn't good tonight," Piniella said. "We've got to do a better job in the middle before we get to our short people. That's been a problem for awhile."

... that wasn't the main problem. The main issue last night was the fact that Ben Sheets also wasn't sharp after the delay; he wound up walking seven, but the Cubs left most of those runners on base, leaving seven in the first five innings. Had they taken advantage of those opportunities, they could have had Sheets bounced before the sixth, when he was eventually lifted for a pinch-hitter (having thrown 108 pitches), and gotten into the Brewers' 1,325-man bullpen -- which managed to shut the Cubs down in the 8th and 9th after Fontenot's double.

The other important thing last night was... well, let me tell you first about one of the funnier vendors I've seen. He walked by our section, a youngish man I hadn't seen before, carrying the metal hot-dog vending box, yelling, "Who wants a friggin' hot dog??" That generated both laughs and sales (not from me, since I had already had one earlier).

And that's the other thing. Speaking of friggin', it was friggin' cold last night. The official game-time temperature was 38, and though there was some waning sun in the western sky until it dipped below the buildings on Clark about 7:30, that sun never warmed anyone at Wrigley Field yesterday. The wind wasn't too strong -- Derrek Lee managed to loft his 8th HR of April, tying the team record for such things, into the LF bleachers in the third inning, making the score at the time 4-3 -- but it was just enough to make it so feeling my fingers and toes wasn't really possible after about that time. Despite the cold, BCB reader steinmer and a friend of his stopped by in the late innings to say hi. They were some of the few who stayed -- once the score got to 9-4, the place emptied out pretty quickly. Well, except for the Human Air Raid Siren, who decided, since our section was empty, to stand there (mostly in our way) to yell for a few minutes, until we were rescued by a guy wearing a Fukudome sweatshirt who wanted him to come to his section. He left and we didn't see -- nor hear -- him again last night.

Positive note: there's nothing wrong with Geovany Soto. He had two hits last night, including a double, and continues to pound the ball really hard.

There's not much more that can be said about this loss -- the Cubs' first of the season when they have scored four or more runs. Lou, in his press conference, gave credit to the Brewers, who do, after all, have some pretty good hitters, and not just Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who are both off to slow starts. Corey Hart (who I advocated the Cubs acquiring a year ago) had three hits including a double and a triple; Bill Hall singled three times and had two RBI, and Mike Cameron, in his first game of the year following a 25-game suspension, also had three hits. Sometimes you just have to give credit to the other guys.

With Ryan Dempster, who has been solid all year, and Carlos Zambrano, who at last is pitching like the ace we need him to be (and with his sinker working as it did when he first burst onto the scene in 2003), going tonight and tomorrow, I still like the Cubs' chances of winning this series.

Did you know Wrigley Field had a Jumbotron? Well, it doesn't, of course, but it now does have this large monitor on the side of the camera house in CF:

Finally, Felix Pie was involved in a scary-looking collision with Rickie Weeks in the second inning, and didn't get up for a couple of hold-your-breath moments. He probably just got the wind knocked out of him, as he stayed in the game. David caught the aftermath:

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

"It was a tough first 10,000 wins," [Ryan] Theriot said with a chuckle. "I hope the next 10,000 are easier."

We are in uncharted territory.

Not just for the 10,000th win in franchise history -- a 7-6, come-from-behind, extra-inning thriller over the Rockies -- but for the 15-6 start which is now tied with the Diamondbacks for the best record in baseball.

Here are all the Cub teams since 1900 that have started the season better than 15-6:

1907: 17-4.

That's it. Four other post-1900 Cub teams (1906, 1932, 1969 and 1975) also started 15-6, and a number of 19th Century teams were 15-6 or better (the best, the 1879 club, went 18-2 with one tie), but the 2008 Cubs are now in the upper echelon of great starts by this 132-year-old franchise. The 1975 team is the outlier in that group -- they were playing over their heads and wound up 75-87 in fifth place in the old NL East -- but the rest of them were all either pennant winners, World Series winners... and we won't talk about the 1969 team, as you all know how that wound up.

The Cubs also won their fourth extra-inning game on the road last night (and haven't lost any -- the only extra-inning loss this year was on Opening Day at home). The last time the Cubs won four extra-inning games on the road was 2004 -- but that year, it took them till August to do that.

Winning anything on the road, particularly at Coors Field where it rarely seems to matter how big a lead you get, is always gratifying. I want to give thanks right here and right now to the thousands of Cubs fans who made the "Let's Go Cubbies!" and "Fukudome!" chants audible -- loudly -- on the CSN telecast (although at least on my cable system, Comcast in Chicago, there was no audio at all on the HD feed for the first few minutes; later they did fix this problem). I know some of that came from BCB readers who posted here that they were attending last night's game.

Rich Hill pitched -- well, okay, considering that his career ERA coming into this game at Coors Field was somewhere orbiting Mars. He walked four, but got out of most jams mostly unscathed; his boxscore line shows he allowed two runs, but only one of those -- a Clint Barmes HR -- scored while he was in the game. Four Cub relievers contributed to the rest of the Rockies' five-run sixth inning, giving Colorado a 5-3 lead.

Then the Cubs clawed back, scoring one run and executing a double steal (when's the last time you saw that happen?) in the 7th, making it 5-4, then taking the lead 6-5 with two strikes and two out in the 9th on Aramis Ramirez' long home run 3/4 of the way up into the LF seats.

Just as Manny Corpas blew a save with two out in the 9th, so did Kerry Wood, allowing a single to Scott Podsednik (Len & Bob noted how much Pods looked exactly like he did as a White Sox, with the Rockies' very similar sleeveless uniforms) and a triple to Ryan Spilborghs, after retiring the first two Rockies in the 9th on strikeouts.

But the Cubs would not quit, and manufactured a run in good style in the 10th, the winning run being driven in by Ryan Theriot in the 2008 "Have A Different Hero Every Day" Cub style. Carlos Marmol finished it out uneventfully -- isn't it nice to know that after your closer comes out of the game for a pinch-hitter, there's someone else right behind him who can also close?

Finally this morning, apologies from me and SBN for the massive outage last night which was caused, ironically, by a server upgrade which was done the night before (if you recall, I'd made this post Tuesday night alerting you to what was supposed to be a short planned outage). Trei and the tech team are hoping we're past the issues, which were caused, we are told, by "bad RAM"... however, they are going to monitor traffic later today when more game threads get going. Apologies from me and know that they're doing everything they can to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Uncharted territory. This is also the first time in Cub history that they have had two separate winning streaks of five games or longer in April. Keep it going. I'll have a game thread up later this morning for the 2:05 CDT start.