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.

Two plays.

One ball hit by Jeff Keppinger that Aramis Ramirez couldn't handle, and which went under his glove for a first-inning error.

And another, one bad pitch from Carlos Zambrano to Adam Dunn that was deposited into the center-field juniper bushes for a brief 1-0 Reds lead in the second.

Other than that, Carlos Zambrano was perfect last night, retiring all 20 batters he faced after the Dunn HR. So what would you have done? The Cubs had, thanks to a Ramirez HR and some other timely hitting, extended the lead to 5-1 (which would be the final, a 5-1 win over the Reds, the Cubs' third in a row), and Z was at 103 pitches. Do you leave him in to finish what would have been the first CG one-hitter of his career?

There are conflicting reports. Bruce Miles writes that Lou felt 100-105 pitches was enough:

"He wanted to go out and finish it, but it was only his second time out since being off the DL, and we were on a game plan of 100-105 pitches," Piniella said. "We let him hit (in the eighth). That appeased him a little bit."

But, even Z himself acknowledged, in Carrie Muskat's cubs.com recap, that taking him out was the wise thing to do:

"I was thinking about that," Zambrano said about going the distance. "It's been a long time since I pitched a complete game. But not in this situation. I came off the DL one start ago, and it's too soon. Hopefully, in the second half of the season, I will have a chance to throw a complete game."

It was a near-perfect weather night, too, the kind you want to bottle up and let out on some blustery January day when you think it's never, ever going to get warm again. Unlike Tuesday night, the wind had pretty much died completely not long after game time, and just a few clouds on the horizon made the sunset pink and orange over the Yard. While Z was firing blanks at the Reds -- and in his best 2003-style form, not trying to blow hitters away, but instead getting ground balls, eleven of the twenty consecutive outs being on the ground -- the Cubs were methodically putting up runs. Dunn's HR was matched in the bottom of the 2nd when Jeff Keppinger's error on Mark DeRosa's grounder allowed Geovany Soto to score.

Later, Ramirez homered to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead, and then in the seventh, the Cubs batted around and extended it to 5-1 on RBI hits from Kosuke Fukudome (double), Derrek Lee (single), and A-Ram again (double). It could have and should have been more -- Z had attempted a sacrifice bunt after Reed Johnson led off the inning with a single, and replays showed that Z was safe after Cueto double-clutched. (It wasn't even close; 1B umpire Eric Cooper must have taken his eyes off the play.)

But that last is nitpicking. This isn't: we hope Carlos Marmol isn't hurt. He got the first two outs in the 9th easily, including one on a spectacular stop by D-Lee on Paul Bako's grounder past 1B, but appeared to have been spiked. He took a few warmup tosses and stayed in the game, getting the second out (a fly ball from PH Corey Patterson, who was roundly booed), but then on a similar play to Bako's, Jay Bruce was ruled safe (that one, unlike the one on Z, appeared to be a correct call). Then Marmol fell apart, throwing a wild pitch and walking the bases loaded, forcing Lou to summon Kerry Wood to finish it off.

Which he did, running the club record at Wrigley Field to -- how many more superlatives can you find? I can't -- an absolutely stunning 35-10, the best home winning percentage in baseball in a year when many teams have played exceptionally well at home.

Finally, after his news conference welcoming him to Chicago, new Cub Rich Harden (who will start on Saturday vs. the Giants, despite the headline on Bruce Miles' article that says "No word yet on Harden's first start") came out to left field to throw a few pitches in front of Larry Rothschild and a couple of his teammates:

Photo by Tim Shockley. As Tim said in his email: "We told him to take it easy and not throw so hard..." Amen. (Click on photo to open a larger version in a new browser window)

Finally, the Cubs picked up a game on both Milwaukee and St. Louis -- the Cardinals lost Mark Mulder again after 16 pitches, and the Brewers lost a pitching matchup (Ben Sheets vs. Glendon Rusch) that "on paper" was a no-brainer for them. But that's why they play the games. Today's pregame thread will be up at 11:30 am CDT.