This recap of the Cubs' 2-1 loss to the Reds will be almost as short as the game itself (which ran a snappy two hours and twenty-eight minutes).

Ted Lilly took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and he appeared to have no-hitter stuff; he had walked only one up to that point, and Mark DeRosa had provided an outstanding defensive play, something you often see in no-hitters, snaring Ryan Hanigan's line drive in the 3rd inning that looked like it was headed up the middle for a hit.

The Cubs, meanwhile, had plenty of chances to score over the first four innings -- in those four innings alone they had three hits and four walks, but two double plays ended innings, and so the only run that scored was after an Aramis Ramirez single; he advanced on an infield out, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a DeRo single.

Still, going into the 6th 1-0 appeared that it might be enough, but Lilly allowed a long double to Hanigan that might, on a day that the wind wasn't blowing in, been a home run; instead it bounced off the CF ivy for a double, and when Lilly struck out Chris Dickerson two batters later, he threw a wild pitch on strike three, allowing Dickerson to reach and Hanigan to go to third, where he scored on a fielder's choice -- another fine play by DeRo. The ball was headed up the middle when DeRo snagged it, but couldn't turn the DP. Had Lilly not thrown that WP, that grounder would have ended the inning.

The Reds' second -- and decisive -- run scored when an Edwin Encarnacion popup dropped just out of reach of Ryan Theriot and Alfonso Soriano in short left. Sitting right behind Soriano, it appeared to me that Sori couldn't have caught up to that ball even if he had gotten a better jump on it (he didn't); it just landed in no-man's-land. Maybe you disagree, but that's how I saw it. Two outs later the Reds had the lead.

The Cubs had only one baserunner after Geovany Soto hit into a double play to end the fourth inning -- Soto drew a two-out walk in the eighth, but Mike Fontenot, batting for Lilly, was called out on strikes. Both Jim Edmonds and DeRo, the last two outs of the game, also took called third's -- that drives me nuts, especially in the ninth inning of a one-run game. All of those pitches appeared too close to take.

Frustrating, infuriating, maddening. But we can take several good things out of even a loss like that: Lilly threw perhaps his best game of the year and if he keeps pitching like that, good things will follow. Neal Cotts and Jeff Samardzija (the subject, along with Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol, of a feature article in this week's Sports Illustrated) finished up with two scoreless innings of relief, keeping the game close. Cotts threw ten pitches and Samardzija nine, so both should be available today. (Incidentally, I was amused when getting a glance at Olympic men's volleyball, USA vs. Serbia, yesterday and seeing that one of the Serbian player's names was Marko Samardzic, perhaps a distant relative of Jeff's.)

Note: the Cubs are in a bit of a power outage. The last Cub homer was Henry Blanco's in Saturday's loss at Florida, the only run in that game. Daryle Ward and Mark DeRosa homered in last Friday's win; the last homers by any of the major power hitters were by Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano in Thursday's second game at Atlanta. Actually, it's nice that the Cubs can win without home runs -- but it wouldn't hurt to have one, or more, every now and then.

Can't win 'em all. Win today and win the series, and as Lou has said, that's the goal for the rest of the season. The pregame thread will be up at 11:30 am CT.

In a season filled with superlatives, Rich Harden almost gave the Cubs a memory to savor forever. On the 39th anniversary of Kenny Holtzman's no-hitter vs. the Braves at Wrigley Field, Harden had good enough stuff to throw one -- mowing the Reds down easily, retiring the first ten batters he faced before Jeff Keppinger lined a single to center to break up any mid-game thoughts of perfection.

Harden finished with two hits allowed and ten strikeouts in seven outstanding innings, and the Cubs dispatched the Reds efficiently 5-0, increasing their division lead to its largest of the season, six games, when the Brewers lost to the Astros in Milwaukee last night.

Harden, who told Lou he'd rather throw at night in cooler conditions -- presumably he's used to that from growing up in British Columbia and pitching in Oakland -- was pushed back to this series from the humidity in Florida, and got his wish. It was Septembrish-cool at Wrigley last night, with the wind blowing in and the ball not carrying at all. And Harden's 94 pitches averaged just over four pitches per batter (comparison point: he threw 92 pitches in five innings in Atlanta, 94 in seven last night). It was the second time in his seven Cub starts that he walked no one, and the fourth time he struck out ten. The only other hit off Harden was a sixth-inning single by Reds rookie Chris Dickerson (it's weird seeing the Reds without Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. -- those two had been Reds teammates for nearly seven years), and Kerry Wood allowed one more single in a non-save situation in the 9th.

Meanwhile, the Reds' Johnny Cueto was also throwing a nice game, thanks in part to some really questionable baserunning by Cubs. In the third, Mark DeRosa led off with a double. Harden failed to advance him via bunt, and then, inexplicably, DeRosa got caught off second base on a routine ground ball to short. Alfonso Soriano was safe on that grounder, but he promptly got picked off, his second pick in as many games. Two innings later, Harden made up for his poor third-inning bunt by laying down an excellent safety squeeze following a Geovany Soto triple and walk to Kosuke Fukudome. Soto waited till Reds 3B Edwin Encarnacion committed to throwing to first, then broke for the plate and scored when Joey Votto's throw home was off line, giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

With Harden, Wood and Carlos Marmol, who threw the 8th (and probably could have thrown the 9th, too, getting out of the 8th with only 11 pitches), throwing as well as they were, one run would have been enough; but the Cubs tacked on four more in the 8th after Cueto was pulled for a pinch-hitter. Dusty Baker did something so familiar to all of us, yanking reliever after reliever, playing "the book" in switching off pitchers for supposed platoon advantage, yet none of it worked. The two biggest blows in the inning were a rocket double down the line by Aramis Ramirez, and then after an intentional pass to Soto, Fukudome singled in the final two runs.

When Marmol was facing Corey Patterson, I said to Mike, "This is one of the biggest pitcher-batter mismatches you'll see all year." Mike, who waited years before he caught a HR in the bleachers, got his first in 2004, a Patterson shot in the 12th inning of this game on September 7, said that Patterson would probably prove me wrong by hitting one. Wrong, at least in this miserable year for Patterson -- Marmol struck him out on a nasty slider.

For Harden's part, I'm happy to say that those who wanted him here were right -- he appears to be keeping healthy, and some of the reasons can be found in Gordon Wittenmyer's article in today's Sun-Times. The Cub staff is doing everything right, I think, in managing Harden's workload and preparation so he stays that way.

The Cubs are 29 games over .500. The next milestone is 32 games over .500, last reached on September 2, 1969 -- that's the most games over .500 since 1945. Yes, it has been a long litany of failure. But this year is erasing many numbers from the past. May it continue deep into October.

Geovany Soto triples in the fifth inning

Rich Harden lays down a bunt in the fifth inning...

... scoring Soto from third

Kosuke Fukudome nearly screwing himself into the ground swinging and missing in the 8th. He later singled in two runs in this at-bat

New on the scoreboard last night...

... the words to "Go Cubs Go"!

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima. More photos of last night's game by BCB reader Damen Jackson can be found here.

Maybe it's my fault. I did, after all, sort of predict this in the pregame thread when I said:

Let's be realistic. It's going to be warm and somewhat humid today with the wind blowing out. Lilly and Arroyo rank 5th and 6th in the NL in HR allowed. Watch for long balls on both sides this afternoon.

What I was thinking was that the teams would pretty much evenly split their home runs and the Cubs come out on top. I would never have guessed that the only Cub HR would be hit by the littlest Cub, Mike Fontenot, and the Reds would pound out seven, including possibly the longest one I've ever seen hit onto Sheffield -- by Adam Dunn in the sixth inning; it appeared to hit the Lakeview Baseball Club building just below the AC sign, a blast that, if you believe the foot-marker that was on that building briefly in the 1980's, was about 480-490 feet.

Even at that, the Cubs did try to climb back into the game, helped by some shoddy Reds defense; after the Reds took an 8-3 lead into the bottom of the 4th, the Cubs closed it to 8-5 on Fontenot's HR, and then 10-7 in the sixth when they should have scored more; Edwin Encarnacion's throw in the general vicinity of right field on an attempted force at 2B gave the Cubs runners on first and third with nobody out, and a run already in, but Ryan Theriot hit an almost identical ball to Encarnacion. He turned it into a DP; a run scored, but that was their last, best opportunity of the 12-7 loss to the Reds this afternoon, which, combined with Milwaukee's 11-1 blowout of Colorado and the Cardinals' loss to the Phillies, put the Brewers in second place, four games behind the Cubs, so the division lead shrinks by only a half-game, rather than a full game, as second place changes hands.

By the time Theriot hit into the DP, a moderate rainshower had dampened the Yard -- apparently, no one but us had prepared for rain, because I saw virtually no other umbrellas anywhere in the park and only a few ponchos; the rain and the unfavorable score sent about a third of the crowd home at that point, and by the time Neal Cotts allowed the last Reds HR of the game to Joey Votto, about half the 41,459 had departed.

These things are going to happen, even to good teams, and it's hard to sweep series; the Cubs won this one and if they can take two of three from the Giants this weekend, they'll go into the break in fine shape. But I do have a bone to pick with Lou Piniella over his use of the 13-man pitching staff today. Yes, there are plenty of relievers, especially after most of them got yesterday off. But that was an awfully quick hook of Ted Lilly -- yes, he wasn't sharp, but only 63 pitches? And Lou -- you've got a long reliever. His name is Jon Lieber. Why wasn't he the first pitcher into the game, if you are going to take your starter out in the third inning? (Not that Lieber did all that well today, either, but that's not the point.) Michael Wuertz, the forgotten man in the pen (hadn't pitched in a week, and neither had Lieber, for that matter), had nothing today -- the Reds pounded him. Maybe that's not fair -- the Reds pounded everyone the Cubs sent out there, including Chad Gaudin, who gave up a HR to the first batter he faced in blue pinstripes. After allowing a single to the next man he faced, pinch-hitter Jay Bruce, he retired the next six hitters easily.

In discussing this in the bleachers today, we reached the conclusion that Lieber or Wuertz might be the odd-man out after the All-Star break. Lieber's probably going to retire after this season anyway, Lou doesn't seem to trust him much, and he's only got (approximately) $1.5 million left on his contract. I could see him being unconditionally released. Wuertz, despite today's poor performance, does have trade value, and perhaps Jim Hendry is working on that. That makes tomorrow's start by Jason Marquis important not only for the team, but for Marquis, because he could also be on the "get rid of" list. One of those three is likely to not be a Cub when they reconvene in Houston next Friday.

Dave was also very critical of Kosuke Fukudome today; he said, "The Cubs wanted him because he supposedly had LH power, but he hasn't hit for much power." That's true, and I think most of us expected that his power would drop on coming over from Japan, as happens to many Japanese players. Fukudome has added value in other areas, including plate discipline and good defense, but the league seems to be catching up to him and he needs to make adjustments. He looked really bad today in going 0-for-5 and striking out three times; he'll go to the All-Star Game primarily because of online voting from Japan (I think all of us acknowledge that he really doesn't deserve the slot based on performance), but I suspect he could really take advantage

of some time off. With the Giants starting three righthanders this weekend and with only three true outfielders on the major league roster, don't look for much time off for either Fukudome or Jim Edmonds, and they could both use it.

Losses happen, even blowouts. The offense did enough today to win, but the bullpen failed -- eight runs allowed in 6.1 innings. Ugh. Go get 'em tomorrow.

Note from walking around the ballpark pre-game today: the Matt Murton jerseys are all on clearance. You can get one for $69.99, which in my opinion is too much. I'm guessing they'll be cut to about half that before any got sold.

Oh, and for those of you who did want, or still want, Erik Bedard -- it's a good thing he's still a Mariner. He's on the DL again. (And, just to note, that article also mentions the Mariners' release of Richie Sexson -- they are eating $6 million of his contract.)