Did you ever have an experience where you went somewhere, did something, and yet when it was over, you felt like you hadn't been there at all?

That's what last night's 4-3 Cub loss to the Padres feels like this morning, basically because it was raining so hard for most of the game, it seemed as if it were taking place somewhere else than where I was sitting, hardly able to see most of the action under my umbrella in the left field corner. Except for the Typhoon Game in 2003, when it was far windier and colder than it was last night, I don't think I recall ever seeing any game played for that long (well over an hour) when it was raining that hard.

As a result, Khalil Greene's three-run homer and Jody Gerut's RBI double, all the San Diego scoring in one inning off Jason Marquis, was about all the two teams could muster; after the fifth inning there were only four baserunners (Geovany Soto, who singled in the 6th; SD's Edgar Gonzalez, who singled and doubled, and Aramis Ramirez, who walked).

It got so bad that Jeff, Howard and I finally gave up and left after the 7th -- I couldn't see any more, having to hold the umbrella so low, and the only thing of significance that we missed were three shutout innings thrown in relief by Michael Wuertz (finally! Lou doing something sensible to save his bullpen).

Incidentally, if you thought you saw me in the first inning holding up the big blue umbrella, you were correct. I received two text messages and three phone calls right after -- none of which I actually was able to answer, because as I discovered, somehow the ringer on my phone got turned off.

Anyway, here are some photos from last night, and after that I'll have some more things to say about something that's been debated at length here over the last couple of days. Thankfully, the Cardinals also lost last night, so the Cubs remain a game ahead in first place.

LF corner; you can see my blue & white umbrella in the lower portion of the photo

Cubs pitchers have abandoned the bullpen for the dry oasis of the dugout

Right field bleacher fans raise umbrellas

The hard-working ground crew tries to keep the infield dry

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

It does appear, from everything I have heard and confirmed, that the Cubs are indeed going to sign Jim Edmonds, possibly today, and that he may be in uniform at Wrigley Field on Thursday. I simply do not understand this at all. This move is clearly driven by Lou Piniella, who seems to have a fixation: "I have to get another lefthanded power bat." Well, Lou, got news for you: Jim Edmonds isn't a lefthanded power bat any more. He's got a .233 SLG this year -- that's lower than three of the Cubs' starting pitchers (Z, .481; Ted Lilly, .364, Jason Marquis, .313). It's lower than Felix Pie's SLG (.286), the player who Edmonds will likely replace on the roster. Why not just play Pie and see how he can do? As I noted yesterday, Pie hasn't started more than four games in a row this season. How can you possibly get into any sort of rhythm, learn the pitchers, etc. if you're not getting at-bats?

Pie's defense and baserunning are also far superior to Edmonds' at this stage of their respective careers.

I really don't know why I even have to write these things. They should be obvious. I have consistently complimented Lou Piniella in this space, most recently on Sunday when he completely outmanaged Arizona's Bob Melvin. But Lou seems to have a blind spot where Pie is concerned. Do I think Felix Pie is a superstar, or even going to be one? No, I don't. But I think he can be a serviceable platoon center fielder, and if he played against RHP and Reed Johnson against LHP, the Cubs would be just fine.

The signing of Edmonds smacks of moves the Cubs used to make under the Wrigleys, a dying ownership group that tried to grab hold of names they had heard of, trying to squeeze one more drop of blood out of the proverbial turnip. I can't count the number of times in the 1970's that Cub management traded for or signed fading stars, but here are some of the most egregious examples:

1973: bought Rico Carty from Texas on August 13. Carty won the NL batting title three years earlier when he hit .366 with 25 HR and 101 RBI. But by 1973 he was done, couldn't run any more, and was a DH that the Cubs tried to force into the outfield. He hit .214/.276/.257 in 22 games for the Cubs (sound a bit Edmonds-like to you?) and the Cubs then sold him to the A's. Later he was picked up by Cleveland, where he had some decent years as a DH.

1978: traded for Davey Johnson on August 6, five years after his 43-HR season for Atlanta. Johnson did hit .306/.393/.490 in 49 Cub at-bats, but he was done, never playing after that.

1979: bought Ken Henderson on June 28, five years after he had a 95-RBI season for the White Sox. He was only 33, but hit .235/.361/.333 in 81 Cub at-bats. That prompted them to bring him back the following year, where he hit .195/.333/.305 in 82 AB before being released on July 20.

1980: traded Karl Pagel (the 1970's version of David Kelton and Jason Dubois) for Cliff Johnson on June 23. Johnson had some power -- he had hit .270/.347/.520 with 20 HR in only 304 AB for the Yankees and Indians the year before -- but the problem was, he didn't really have a position. He came up as a catcher, but was terrible defensively. He played first base OK, but the Cubs had a first baseman (Bill Buckner). During days when Buckner was hurt (often), they tried Johnson there... and also played him three games in left field, which was an absolute disaster. That whole team was; it lost 98 games. The Cubs sent Johnson to Oakland for a minor league pitcher who never panned out and he had some decent years left as a part-time DH, mostly for Toronto.

1981: the most laughable example, and one I'll never forget. Jack Brickhouse started one broadcast in June by telling us how excited he was that the Cubs had picked up a former star outfielder, and then we learned who it was: Bobby Bonds, purchased from the Rangers, making the Cubs his eighth team in seven years. In his very first game as a Cub on June 4, 1981, he got injured in the field in the bottom of the first inning, breaking his wrist, and was out for two months. He hit .215/.323/.380 in 45 games and retired.

The point is, why go back to the bad old days? Of the five Cub teams mentioned above, none of them had winning records and only three of them (1973, 1978, 1979) even marginally contended. The 2008 Cubs are already the best team in their division and are winning games without making moves. I'm not going to say anything about Jim Edmonds' supposed bad clubhouse presence or the way he allegedly hotdogs every catch he makes or the fact that he used to be a Cardinal (who cares? He isn't any more); those may be factors in whether you acquire a player, but the bottom line is: Jim Edmonds at this stage of his career is a bad baseball player. The Cubs may be looking to catch "lightning in a bottle" as they did in 1998 when they signed Gary Gaetti. But Gaetti had hit .265/.339/.454 for the Cardinals with 11 HR in 306 AB when St. Louis inexplicably released him on August 14, 1998, and the Cubs actually needed a third baseman at the time. Five days later the Cubs signed him and arguably, without him they wouldn't have won the wild card.

That's not the case this year. The Cubs can win without Jim Edmonds. He's not a good fit. Jim Hendry, please. Stay away.

Drifting in and out of sleep last night (since I have to get up at 3:30 am for work on Saturdays, and thank you to BCB reader northsider for posting the extra inning comment thread), I woke up just in time to see Skip Schumaker's walkoff HR fly over the RF wall in St. Louis, finishing the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cardinals in 11 innings.

It's got Lou Piniella so exasperated that he doesn't know what to say. In this Bruce Miles article in the Daily Herald, Lou elaborates on his "You think I'm stupid?" remark at Thursday's postgame press conference:

After the game, Piniella took exception to a question from a radio reporter who asked if Piniella had thought about moving Reed Johnson from center to left and replacing Soriano, who had come off the disabled list Thursday after suffering a right-calf strain.

"The question that was asked yesterday, the guy who asked it knew the answer before I had to answer it," Piniella said. "Why ask it? Why can't he report the news instead of trying to create news?

"I'm not going to take Soriano out for defense. He knows it, you know it, and unless there's a double switch, that's the only way he's coming out of the ballgame. Everybody knows that. You don't take superstar players out of the lineup. You don't do it."

But then, in Bruce's game recap from last night, Piniella shows his frustration, which matches all of ours:

"I've got no explanation for the left-field play," Piniella said. "I really don't."

Soriano dropped a playable fly ball in the 7th inning -- well, "dropped" isn't the right word, because he appeared to never touch it -- that helped the Cardinals eventually extend their lead to 3-1 after Yadier Molina hit a ground-rule double. The Cubs actually caught a break on that play, because the ball bouncing into the seats held a runner at third. Otherwise it'd have been 4-1. At the same time, if Soriano makes that play (or if Derrek Lee hadn't made an error on Rick Ankiel's grounder on the previous play), the Cardinals score NO runs in that inning and then Soriano's two-run HR in the 9th inning would have been a game-winner.

Such is what happens when you're in a bad stretch, and the Cubs are in a really bad stretch (now six losses in the last eight games). I was actually encouraged by that inning, because Bob Howry did his job -- got Ankiel to hit a ground ball and Albert Pujols to hit the popup that Soriano couldn't field. When Troy Glaus struck out, that should have been a 1-2-3 inning. Kerry Wood also threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning, good news after his Thursday meltdown.

All of this wouldn't have been necessary if Rich Hill had just done his job. He walked four batters in the first inning, forcing in a run, at which time Lou had had enough and yanked him, and that may be it for Hill in the rotation for a while:

"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues," Piniella said. "Come on. Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best. I have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is. I can't start him anymore until this thing gets taken care of. I would think that if we did something, we'd put (Sean) Marshall in the rotation, for now."

Give credit, at least, to Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber, who together threw five innings and allowed only one run, keeping the game close. But Lou is right. I can't figure out what's wrong with Hill, who appears to have seriously regressed from his fine season last year. He's walked 18 in 19.2 innings and doesn't seem to have a clue out there. I don't think he's hurt, because his velocity seems OK; is it a mechanical problem? Larry Rothschild has already worked with him on that once this year, and that resulted in Hill's only win of the season. Hill has now thrown 353 pitches in five starts -- not getting past the sixth inning in any of them -- and only 55% of them have been strikes (194). Contrast that with Carlos Zambrano's excellent start this year (after a couple of years' worth of Z walking way too many) -- Z has thrown 723 pitches, 458 for strikes (63%).

Would an all-expenses-paid trip to Des Moines for Rich be useful? I say it would; what's the point of putting Hill in the bullpen? If he's a long reliever, he's likely to come into situations where the team is behind, maybe with runners on base, and if he can't throw strikes -- that's potential disaster.

The Cubs did have their opportunities last night, having nine hits and five walks... but leaving thirteen men on base in 11 innings isn't going to cut it. The Cubs left RISP in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th.

And Chad Fox... well, he threw strikes (14 in 23 pitches), but everyone he faced hit the ball hard (save Brendan Ryan, who bunted). I'm not so sure he's the answer to the Cubs' current bullpen woes, either. Just remember this: Lou won't stand pat if something isn't working, and even with the swap-out of Kevin Hart for Fox, there are still problems with both the rotation and the bullpen.

Perspective: after 29 games a year ago, the Cubs were 15-14, but already five games out of first place. This morning they trail by 1.5 games and are two games better off than the 2007 edition.

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

Well he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said
Well he's just an excitable boy...
-- Warren Zevon

Those of us who have followed Carlos Zambrano's career from day one know that he's very, very excitable. Last night there were times when I thought his head was going to blow right off his shoulders when he didn't get a couple of close ball/strike calls, as plate umpire Jim Wolf's strike zone did seem a little strange last night. To Wolf's credit, it was at least consistent for both teams. He also had a very slow strike call -- don't you hate that? I know the players do -- in the fourth inning Derrek Lee started to walk to first base on a 3-2 count on a pitch that looked like ball four, only to be called out on strikes. (Speaking of umpires, umpire Kerwin Danley was injured when hit by a Brad Penny pitch in the Dodgers/Rockies game in Los Angeles last night. He was taken to a local hospital and let's hope he's OK.)

The called K was just about the only thing D-Lee did wrong in last night's 7-0 Cub shutout of the Nationals, their first shutout of the season. Lee singled, doubled, walked twice, scored twice and drove in three runs, as Z pitched his best game of the year, allowing only four singles and a double, lowering his ERA to 2.21. He did issue four walks -- nearly doubling his previous total for the entire season of five -- but was never really in trouble, and the Cubs breezed through this game, scoring three times in the first inning on a Lee RBI single and, after Kosuke Fukudome had walked to load the bases, Mark DeRosa singled for two runs. Five of the first six Cubs reached base. It was the Cubs' 16th win in April, tying the club record for wins in April, set in... 1969.

Fukudome was about the only Cub who didn't contribute much last night -- too bad, because he was celebrating his 31st birthday. Geovany Soto also had a tough night at the plate, going 0-for-5 and striking out all five times. BCB reader bluekoolaide's FanPost asks "What's wrong with Soto?" but I don't think anything's wrong other than he's having a rough patch, which can happen to anyone. He'll likely get today off, which would be expected anyway (day game after a night game) and thus can rest till Tuesday night when the Cubs come home to face the Brewers. Incidentally, the Yahoo AP recap of the game says:

Cubs C Geovany Soto struck out five times, each time against a different Washington pitcher.

That's a pretty good trick, considering the Nats used only four pitchers last night.

Other good things last night: Michael Wuertz, who has struggled, threw a scoreless inning, issuing a leadoff walk but then inducing a double-play ball; Jon Lieber threw an efficient ninth (14 pitches, making him probably available today again if needed), and ONEDEC had three more hits. When Alfonso Soriano comes off the DL and DeRosa returns to 2B, Lou will have a choice to make between ONEDEC and Ryan Theriot at SS. The logical thing would be to play ONEDEC, but Theriot has also hit. I don't want to start the Theriot firestorm again, but Lou likes playing the hot hand. There will be some choices to be made, and isn't that a nice problem to have? It's clear that Ronny Cedeno has, perhaps at last, figured out what he needs to do to be a solid regular major league player. He's earned playing time.

Once again, I commend all of you to BCB reader 08cubs' FanPost; he was at the game and has an excellent recap including photos.

Note about the Nationals: I have seen plenty of big men on a baseball field. But there is no way around this: Nats catcher Johnny Estrada is FAT. I know that's not a politically correct way of saying it... but geez, how does that guy crouch 100+ times a game? No wonder the Brewers dumped him. In 15 games he's 7-for-32, but has failed to score a run. Do you think he could go through an entire season scoreless?

So, Ted Lilly will take the mound this afternoon, trying to build on the good outing he had last Tuesday at Wrigley Field; win this game and you've had another successful road trip.

Finally, for those of you who have been so outraged about more advertising at Wrigley Field or the proposals for possible sale of the naming rights to the ballpark, during last night's game there was advertising that was genuinely annoying: during one of Fukudome's at-bats (and maybe elsewhere, too; that's the only one I actually saw) an ad for a movie opening on May 9 flashed across the CSN screen, then vanished. Unlike advertising at the ballpark, or naming rights, which can easily be ignored and don't interrupt the action, this ad DID get in the way. (And was pretty ineffective, as I can't even remember the name of the movie.) I know CSN wants to squeeze every ad dollar they can out of these telecasts, but that one was pretty ridiculous.

I'll have a game thread up later this morning. Keep the winning going.

On a night when many players and some entire teams -- nine of them -- honored the legacy of Jackie Robinson by wearing his retired number 42, Derrek Lee, who you see above (along with the Reds' Ken Griffey, Jr., also wearing 42), smashed a three-run homer in the fifth inning, bringing the Cubs from behind (they trailed 3-2 at the time), had two other hits, and sparked a 9-5 Cub win over the Reds, their eighth win in their last eleven games after starting the season 0-2.

That one felt good, although the wind howling out at 20+ MPH didn't feel so good once the sun went down. None of the three Cub homers -- by D-Lee, Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot -- needed any help from the wind, though. It wasn't just home runs, either -- in addition to the three HR, the Cubs pounded out 11 other hits, drew three walks and in general, had a fine offensive day. I hesitate to say so, but D-Lee's starting to look as he did in his great 2005 season -- and is now tied for the league lead in HR (5), three off the lead with 12 RBI, 2nd in SLG (.737) and 3rd in OPS (1.159).

Also "offensive", in a different sort of way, was an injury to Alfonso Soriano after one of his "bunny hops" on catching a routine fly ball. His former manager at Washington, Frank Robinson, predicted this would happen:

Soriano, an infielder until the Washington Nationals converted him to the outfield in 2006, has done the hop since making the switch, and his manager then, Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson, cringed when he watched it -- but was reluctant to try to break him of it.

"I kept saying one of these days he's going to go up there and it ain't going to be there," Robinson said last fall.

Soriano had a MRI last night on the leg and may be headed to the DL. (Which, I suppose, will please those of you who are Soriano bashers. However, please remember the Cubs would likely would not have made the playoffs without his performance last September.) I presume Matt Murton would be recalled from Iowa, though it could also be Eric Patterson (since Patterson can play more positions than Murton can, and hits lefthanded). The Cubs may mix-and-match lineups while Soriano is out, but even what they did last night -- move Mark DeRosa to LF and play Mike Fontenot at 2B -- might work on occasion. They could also play Patterson in LF, or Patterson in CF (if it's really decided that Felix Pie has to go back to Iowa, and he looked pretty bad last night, even as the rest of the team was smacking the ball around the yard) with Murton in LF. I suppose also, that the calls to sign free agent Kenny Lofton may begin again.

There are worse ideas. We'll see. I also hope that if Soriano is out, Lou will entertain the idea of leading off with Kosuke Fukudome, who seems ideally suited for that spot, with his excellent plate discipline. Anyway, once Soriano does return (presuming he does have a DL stint ahead), let's hope someone convinces him to stop hopping.

Ryan Dempster threw a pretty good game, though a defensive lapse by Carlos Marmol cost him a "quality start" -- Marmol inexplicably threw to 2B in an ill-advised attempt to get Corey Patterson (who was booed every time he came up, as was Dusty Baker when he made two pitching changes. That's all I have to say about that). Hey Carlos: when the other team gives you an out, take it! Instead, the bases wound up loaded, and when a run scored on a force play, that left Dempster, who left with nobody out in the seventh, with four earned runs. Marmol, however, recovered to get an inning-ending DP, and then threw a strong eighth, striking out the side and hitting 97 on the ballpark speed meter. Would you have guessed that after 13 games, three pitchers would be tied for the team lead with two wins -- and the three would be Dempster, Jon Lieber and Kevin Hart?

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his 595th career HR and then (photo above) shared some laughs with bleacher fans in RF who were heckling him. The Reds' Joey Votto finished the five-total-HR barrage last night by homering off Michael Wuertz (hey, what's up with that? Suddenly, Wuertz seems eminently hittable), and when Wuertz followed that with a walk to Paul Bako, Kerry Wood was summoned to finish up, even though it wasn't a save situation. Kerry threw 15 pitches (12 strikes), so ought to be available tonight (even though he was up two separate times to warm up; he'd have come in to start the 9th had Theriot not homered to make a 7-4 lead a 9-4 lead).

We were joined last night by BCB readers Sarah Hope (who recently moved to the Chicago area from Cincinnati to take a job with the Schaumburg Flyers) and some co-workers, and also BartlettBob (who says he rarely posts, if you haven't seen his name much). They gave out knit caps last night -- they were needed. It's supposed to be warmer, but just as windy, tonight, so expect more balls to leave the yard.

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

MESA, Arizona -- Scott Podsednik.

Yorvit Torrealba.

Jeff Baker, Marcus Giles, Ian Stewart, Cory Sullivan, Giles again, Podsednik again, Torrealba again, Clint Barmes, Baker again, and Ryan Spilborghs.

There. In three short paragraphs, far shorter than today's interminable game, you have all twelve of the Rockies batters that Cub pitchers walked.

And the Cubs won the game anyway, 8-6, thanks primarily to Henry Blanco, who hit a two-run homer and also singled, and Matt Murton, who hit two doubles.

Rich Hill was putridly bad today. Now, you'll say, "Why isn't Al calling for Hill to be dumped from the rotation?" It's a question that can be reasonably asked, because Hill has been bad all spring, and today was about the worst -- six walks and only four outs recorded; the only hit he allowed was a deep CF RBI double to Torrealba, scoring the Rockies' third run of the game and bringing a visibly angry Lou Piniella out of the dugout to yank him.

However. Hill was also bad last spring, and it has been discussed on this site how Hill's curve doesn't break in the thin air and elevation of Arizona the way it does in Chicago, and so we shouldn't worry. But after today, maybe we should. Hill had absolutely no command of the strike zone -- he walked the first three batters he faced and the first inning would have been worse if he hadn't induced a DP ball to Spilborghs. Then he walked two more before getting a flyout to end the inning.

Even the second inning could have been worse -- or better. Aramis Ramirez was charged with a tough error after making a nice stop on a Podsednik smash; his throw would have beaten the runner if D-Lee could have held on, but it was in the dirt. Then, Hill threw the ball in the general direction of Apache Junction trying to pick Podsednik off.

Down 3-0, the Cubs tied it in the bottom of the 2nd on back-to-back doubles by Murton and Mark DeRosa and Blanco's homer.

Which bounced right in front of me, then over the little railing behind us and rolled down a small hill to the sidewalk below, where someone simply picked it up. I got quite a bit of grief for not "going for it", but without a glove, I didn't want to risk two broken wrists. BCB reader BigJohnAZ was just to my left, WITH his glove, but couldn't grab it either. BCB reader San Diego Smooth Jazz Man joined us today, but had wandered away when all the excitement was going on.

Tim Lahey, who relieved Hill, wasn't sharp either, and he allowed a two-run HR to Ian Stewart, giving the Rox the lead back. It went back and forth until two-run rallies by the Cubs in the fifth and sixth innings, by which time Kerry Wood -- obviously, not in any distress due to the back spasms of yesterday -- had come in and thrown one innning, allowing a sharp single and a run-scoring double that was just out of the reach of A-Ram at third. Most importantly, his velocity was good, he seemed in no pain from any back trouble, and along with Michael Wuertz, they were the only Cubs pitchers not to walk anyone today. Neal Cotts threw OK in his two innings, and that's good, because I still hear there are teams scouting him. Maybe this outing was enough to get him traded.

Matthew Avery, a 2005 draftee who pitched in Double-A last year, got into trouble after two slick defensive plays (by Mike Fontenot and Ramirez) got him the first tow outs, and Geoff Jones, a non-roster guy who had been warming up in Scottsdale in the 9th inning last night, bailed him out of it.

Wuertz sailed through the last four Rockie hitters and the Cubs had a very ugly victory.

So -- was Lou happy because the Cubs won, or unhappy because he had to yank his starting pitcher in the second inning? Probably a bit of both, I'd imagine, tonight.

The Cubs will travel to Tucson to face the Rockies again tomorrow afternoon. Once again, I will not make the drive down I-10, so will watch along with the rest of you -- the game is on ESPN2 tomorrow. Or, I may head to Fitch Park tomorrow afternoon, camera in hand, to check out one or more of the minor league contests over there. One final note, to no one's surprise, Sean Gallagher and Jose Ascanio were optioned to Iowa today, and Josh Kroeger was reassigned to the minor league camp. I'd expect more cuts to be made tomorrow.