Last night, I braved the wilds of Chicago-area expressways and tollways to hie myself out to Naperville to have dinner with some friends.

After dropping off the sherpa (how on Earth do people live out there and drive to work downtown every day? It would drive me nuts), we had a nice evening out, my kids babysitting their three-year-old twins. And thus I missed most of the Cubs' 7-1 loss to the Phillies, only the second time all year they've been totally blown out of a game. Ominously, the other one, the second game of the season on April 2, was also started by Ted Lilly.

And that does concern me. A year ago, many of us were making the comparison between Lilly and Bronson Arroyo, who came to the NL Central in 2006 from the tougher AL East, and had a pretty good year. Lilly's 2007 season wasn't very different from Arroyo's 2006 (Arroyo 2006: 14-11, 3.29, ERA more than a run lower than 2005; Lilly 2007: 15-8, 3.83, ERA more than half a run lower than 2006). However, Arroyo regressed in 2007, going 9-15 with an ERA of 4.23, more in line with his career norms. Lilly has looked pretty bad in his first three starts, going 0-2 with a 9.95 ERA, and 19 hits and 3 HR allowed in 12.2 innings.

We might call this "Bronson Arroyo Disease", and if this is what's going to happen to Ted Lilly, the Cubs are going to have pitching trouble... unless Ryan Dempster continues his good early showing. Because if Dempster doesn't do that, that leaves the Cubs with, essentially, one solid starting pitcher (Carlos Zambrano). It is too early to panic. But it is not too early to be concerned.

I'm not even that worried about the offense, which has been pretty pathetic in this series. It'll get untracked; these hitters are too good not to. It's the pitching that worries me. Bad as the last two days have been, win today and it's still a successful road trip at 4-2.

Notes: Thanks to Jason, a sharp-eyed BCB reader in South Bend, for sending me this photo of what is presumably a Cubs billboard there:

If you're new to BCB this year, this will be the type of post you'll see when there's a day game after a night game, both home and road -- a recap combined with the (first) game thread. There will still be an overflow post, which (at least for the time being) will post an hour and a half after the scheduled game time. Now, onward (and Jason Marquis, please try to remember how you pitched in the first two months of 2007, and replicate that. Thank you).

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs. J. Moyer Phillies 0-0 W-L 1-0 6.75 ERA 4.66 2 SO 4 1 BB 4 1 HR 1 vs. Phi -- vs. Cubs

I'm sure you've had enough of the "Jamie-Moyer-is-older-than-dirt" comments (he is the oldest player in the majors at 45 and was drafted by the Cubs two months before his current teammate Kyle Kendrick was born), but he has been around long enough that Alfonso Soriano, despite having four HR off Moyer, is only hitting .205/.217/.500 against him (44 career AB). Reed Johnson, who will likely get the start again today vs. the lefty Moyer, is .333/.357/.556 facing him (9-for-27, 3 doubles, a HR). I'd also expect Henry Blanco to get a start today (3-for-9 vs. Moyer, and it's a day game after a night game, and Geovany Soto has started all but one game so far).

Both Geoff Jenkins (.313/.405/.531) and Pat Burrell (.357/.486/.536) pound the heck out of Jason Marquis. Advice: pitch around them. (Yeah, I know, master-of-the-obvious.) Jimmy Rollins is still out, and Shane Victorino was placed on the DL after straining a calf muscle last night, so the Phillies are a bit shorthanded today.

Today's game is available, in case you didn't know, nationally on TBS (TBS coverage will be blacked out in Chicago, where you'll see it on CSN). This is the first year TBS, under the terms of the new TV contract that had them doing the Division Series last year, will carry a non-exclusive Sunday afternoon game. Let's hope they do a better job than they did in the 2007 playoffs. For more see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Discuss amongst yourselves.

All you need to know about last night's 10-2 Cubs loss to the Mariners is contained in this note from the above link:

Raul Ibanez added a line-drive, two-run shot barely missing an inflated cow atop the right-field fence.

That's not all that happened last night, of course (Seattle hitters pounded five other HR off Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis, and in less baseball-related news, Kosuke Fukudome was photographed next to a Las Vegas showgirl, looking extremely uncomfortable), but that note made me laugh, as did the HR itself when I saw it, which was just about the last thing I saw before going to sleep to get up for work this morning. Good thing, too.

Let's hope that what Marquis and Lilly did DOES "stay in Vegas", as the saying goes, because that's not a good sign if it doesn't. The only other Cub who pitched last night, Kevin Hart, threw a quiet scoreless inning. The linked article also says:

Manager Lou Piniella expects to use all of his bullpen over the two days in Las Vegas.

Matt Murton may be traded before tomorrow. Or not:

The Cubs don't want to rush the process, in part to make sure they get the best deal possible but also because an injury in one of the two exhibition games in Las Vegas could create a need for Murton on the roster.

Gordon Wittenmyer writes that Lou says both Sean Marshall and Carmen Pignatiello will pitch today, and I would also expect Kerry Wood to throw an inning. Meanwhile, remember Michael Wuertz? Quietly, he's had the best spring on the staff, throwing nine innings, allowing five hits and no runs, with no walks and 13 strikeouts. Lou, for his part, spent some down time "using some of the casino services:

Were the services kind to him? "The casino services were cooperative," replied Piniella, who likes to play the ponies at the sports book.

Ryan Dempster starts today against Seattle's Jarrod Washburn. The Cubs will be the "away" team today and bat first. As last night, there's radio in Chicago (WGN) and Seattle (KOMO), TV on WGN-TV and also MLB Audio and MLB.TV via MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

It's an old baseball saw: "Doubleheaders tend to split". And it's true -- I don't have stats handy, but the vast majority of doubleheaders DO split, and that goes for conventional DH (ones played with the old-fashioned 20 or 25 minutes in between) as well as the new-fashioned ones that force players, employees and broadcasters to spend twelve or thirteen hours at the ballpark. (They all hate it, from what I hear.)

And that's what we got yesterday, a split, winning 3-2 in game one, losing 4-3 in game two, and in the process losing half a game off the division lead, since the Brewers beat the Reds 5-3.

The two games were, in fact, somewhat similar -- a two-run Alfonso Soriano HR in each one, the Cubs trailing late in each one, good bullpen work in each one... it's just that I kept sitting there, wishing, hoping, for the elusive comeback in game two that never happened.

Where do I start? Soriano's power stroke came back not a moment too soon, and now we know why it vanished earlier:

And now it's nine home runs in 18 games since he came back -- twenty-seven in all -- and if he can keep this up over the last thirteen games, not only will he wind up in the mid-thirties in HR, near his career norms, but those HR ought to help the Cubs to victories, as they did in game one. Props also in game one to Ted Lilly, who made one bad pitch (the one that Jim Edmonds smacked for a two-run double, and yes, I think both runs would have scored even if Daryle Ward or any other outfielder had made a better play than Ward did on the ball), Kerry Wood, who threw an efficient scoreless inning to record his first victory as a relief pitcher, and Ryan Dempster (where are you now, Dempster-bashers?), who had an easy 16-pitch, 11-strike inning for his 26th save.

Game two was just frustrating, especially with going out to a 3-0 lead, mainly courtesy of Soriano's 27th HR of the year (with Sean Marshall on base after a rare base hit). I don't think any of you really want to rehash the carnage of St. Louis' four-run third inning off Marshall. A lot of the damage wasn't Marshall's fault -- the throwing error by Jason Kendall helped make two of the four runs unearned -- but after seventy pitches in less than three innings, I guess Lou figured he had to get him out of there.

Which is where the bullpen took over, and if they keep throwing like this the rest of the year, the Cubs are in really, really good shape. Props to Michael Wuertz (even though he gave up the hit that allowed the fourth run to score, and I was a bit surprised to not see Sean Gallagher in that spot, considering it was only the third inning), Will Ohman, Kevin Hart, Kerry Wood and Scott Eyre combined for 5.1 innings, two hits, a walk and five strikeouts, allowing no further runs, and keeping the game close in what proved to be a fruitless attempt to help the Cubs get the lead back.

What more can be said? The Cardinals had lost nine in a row, including the first game, and losing streaks that long do tend to get snapped, eventually. But a Cub win today will have accomplished what all of us hoped would be a good result coming out of this series -- three out of four -- and would match what the Cubs did to the Cardinals over a week's period in 2003 (four out of five, including the makeup game last Monday at Wrigley Field). More on today below; first a quick review of "The Brave One", Jodie Foster's new film. Basic plot summary: she plays a radio talk show host ("Erika Bain") who goes around New York with a microphone, recording "the sounds of the city", then talks about them on what appears to be a NPR-type station. She's out walking her dog in Central Park with her fiance, when they are attacked; the fiance is murdered and Erika is badly wounded. (And no, that's not a spoiler.

The rest of the film is an examination of what happens to a person when they are attacked in this way, and how someone like that can be driven to do horrific things, things they would never have thought of doing before. It's not just a shoot-em-up, although there's enough of that; the shootings, which in any other movie might leave you just horrified, make you think instead. Terrence Howard, who was so good in "Crash", plays a police detective investigating a string of what appear to be random shootings, and who befriends Foster's Erika character. Playing a minor role is 18-year-old Zoe Kravitz, daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, and a NYC TV reporter is played by actual NYC cable news reporter Dean Meminger, and if that name sounds familiar, it should: his father, also named Dean, nicknamed "The Dream", played six years for the NY Knicks in the 1970's, including on their 1973 NBA championship team.

Anyway, this wasn't the greatest movie ever made, but it makes you think. I like films like that.

AYRating:

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs.  M. Mulder Cardinals 11-8 W-L 0-2 4.17 ERA 12.38 98 SO 3 69 BB 4 22 HR 3 vs. StL -- vs. Cubs

Well, isn't this appropriate. Jason Marquis, maligned former Cardinal, the guy who was so bad last year he got left off their postseason roster, is the guy who has to beat his old team to put his new team closer to the postseason this year. Marquis is 2-1 vs. the Cardinals this season, though with a 4.34 ERA (not too far from his season ERA of 4.17). After a tough stretch, Marquis is 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in his last three starts, walking only two and striking out ten in 18.2 IP.

Mark Mulder is a work in progress, obviously -- he has gotten pounded in both of his starts since returning from offseason shoulder surgery. The last time he faced the Cubs was June 6, 2006 in St. Louis -- that team hit him hard, too, including a grand slam from Aramis Ramirez, who's one of only three position players who played in that game (Matt Murton and Jacque Jones the others) who's even still on the ballclub. Overall Mulder is 2-3, 4.22 vs. the Cubs in six career starts; Murton, for one, has hit him well (6-for-15). So has Jones -- Mulder's one of the few lefties he hits well (8-for-21, four doubles, .381/.458/.571). And Derrek Lee pounds him -- .733/.765/.933 (11-for-15, a HR; Lee was out with the broken wrist when the Cubs faced Mulder last year). It's time to improve on the Cubs' poor 15-22 record vs. left-handed starters.

Today's game is on WGN. It's not in the digital cable EI list, but sometimes these games show up on satellite anyway. Also check the Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for the Brewers/Reds game (1:05 CT starting time)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Well, it's a good thing Daryle Ward is on this team, right? Ward hit a bases-clearing double in the top of the ninth inning, making a 2-1 game into a 5-1 game, and leaving some breathing room for Ryan Dempster -- who had a bad ninth inning, getting hit hard, allowing two HR and another hit -- but Bob Howry came in and shut the door (but not before allowing two more hits, putting the tying and winning runs on base), and the Cubs hung on for a paramedic-call 5-3 win over the Cardinals, solidifying their hold on first place, now a lead of 1.5 games after the Brewers lost to the Reds 6-5, an eerily similar game in which Cincinnati appeared to be in charge with a three-run ninth inning lead, but Bill Bray made it close by allowing a two-run HR to Brewers September callup catcher Mike Rivera, making it 6-5, before he finally closed it out.

About Ryan Dempster: yes, he sucked last night. In fact, Dempster's a standup guy: if you asked him, he'd probably tell you, "I sucked." Does that take away all the good outings he's had? No, it doesn't. Does that mean someone else should be the 9th-inning pitcher? No, it doesn't, because as was pointed out in the comments in the game thread, sometimes it's more important to get outs in the 7th or 8th, and Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry have been very, very good in those slots.

That said, though, I was glad to see Lou get Howry up after Dempster started to melt down, and to go get him when it was clear he (Dempster) had nothing. I don't think Lou will hesitate to put someone else out there if Dempster is shaky again. That's a good thing. But to shake up the entire bullpen? That wouldn't be a good idea, I think.

It almost negated a terrific outing from Carlos Zambrano, who allowed only four hits and a solo HR from Albert Pujols in what (for him) was an efficient 101-pitch 8 innings. There was much debate, both on the air (Bob Brenly said he'd have taken Z out) and here and by me about whether Z should start the 9th. I think that if he weren't coming back on three days' rest to start on Tuesday, Lou might have let him. But given that he IS coming back on three days' rest, it was the right call.

It gave us all heart failure. But a win's a win, right? You could see the Cubs, as they all went on the field to exchange high-fives, also exchange sheepish grins, as if to say, "Man, did we dodge a bullet tonight." And they did, and does it matter how they accomplished the feat? Not to me, it doesn't. I'll say it again: a win's a win.

Here's how loose the Cubs are right now -- Torii Hunter got thrown out of the Twins/Tigers game for arguing a strike call, and his friend and former teammate Jacque Jones had some fun with him:

More about ejections: I was flipping over to the Brewers game between innings, and at one point I switched just in time to see Geoff Jenkins rung up by 3B umpire John Hirschbeck on a check-swing for a strikeout. Jenkins, naturally, didn't like this, and Hirschbeck started jawing at him from third base, and tossed Jenkins pretty fast. Now, not that I mind a Brewer being tossed, but this is just plain wrong. Umpires shouldn't be jawing at players from 90 feet away. It's as if Hirschbeck wanted to see himself on SportsCenter. I've seen more and more umpires do this in recent years -- trying to be part of the show. This sort of thing ought to stop -- and right now.

Another non-Cubs note: did you see who's filling in for Baltimore manager Dave Trembley while he's suspended?

And that AP recap linked above spelled Tom Trebelhorn's name wrong, too.

During the telecast Len and Bob had fun by mentioning that it was the 21st anniversary of the game in which Brenly made four errors in one inning, playing third base, a position he didn't play often or well (three booted grounders and a bad throw, leading to four unearned runs). The kicker, of course, is that Brenly hit two HR in that game -- including a walkoff off ex-Cub Paul Assenmacher.

Hey, we can have some fun after a game like that, right? Especially when it's onward to a long day's baseball journey into night:

Game One Starting Pitchers

T. Lilly Cubs vs.  B. Looper Cardinals 15-7 W-L 12-10 3.85 ERA 4.70 156 SO 80 51 BB 43 26 HR 19 vs. StL -- vs. Cubs

Game Two Starting Pitchers

S. Marshall Cubs vs.  J. Piñiero Cardinals 7-7 W-L 5-4 3.92 ERA 4.79 61 SO 46 32 BB 21 13 HR 12 vs. StL -- vs. Cubs

If Tony LaRussa had scheduled his pitchers differently, we could have had the third Lilly/Piñiero matchup in the last month. Instead, Lilly will face Braden Looper, who threw a decent game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 17, but was defeated by a two-run Jacque Jones HR. Looper's thrown almost twice as many innings this year (157) as in any other year in his career, majors or minors, and got pounded by the Diamondbacks in his last start, a good sign now that the Cubs seem to have their power bats cranked up again.

Sean Marshall has made only one relief appearance since his last start 16 days ago; perhaps the rest will do him good. He beat the Cardinals at Wrigley Field on August 18 in his only start this year against them.

For more info on Lilly and Piñiero check the gameday thread from last Monday, when they faced each other at Wrigley Field.

Site note and TV notes: this DH is as a result of the game that was cancelled on April 29 after the death of Josh Hancock. It was originally supposed to be on ESPN. The regularly scheduled game today was originally a Fox game, at 2:55 pm CT. Neither network will carry any Cub/Cardinal game today (and what a surprise: Fox will show the Red Sox and Yankees in Chicago today. Aren't we lucky!); the first game is on WGN, the second on cable in Chicago, over-the-air in St. Louis, on EI, and at the Mediacenter. This thread will serve as the recap and gameday thread for both games; I'll write up a DH recap and combined game thread tomorrow morning.

MLB.com Gameday for game 1 (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday for game 1 (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for game 2 (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday for game 2 (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for the Brewers/Reds game (6:05 CT starting time)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Mark DeRosa bounced into a double play in the first inning -- the team's ninth DP of the series -- and I said to our little band in the LF corner, "Didn't we see this game last night?"

Turned out we hadn't, as the Cubs smacked out five doubles, drew six walks, had a HR from Aramis Ramirez (his 20th -- incidentally, the last time the Cubs were led in HR by someone who hit fewer than 30, in a non-strike season, was in 1992, when Ryne Sandberg led the club with 26), a solid pitching performance by Ted Lilly, and beat the Dodgers 8-2, holding on to their tenuous half-game lead in the NL Central over the Brewers, and extending their lead over the third-place Cardinals to two games after St. Louis lost to Pittsburgh, also 8-2. (Thanks, Pirates, for winning two of the first three. Go get 'em today, and then please leave your winning shoes in St. Louis.)

All of this was after a nasty little rainstorm hit the area around Wrigley Field, including drenching rain with thunder and lightning, just as the ballpark gates were opening at 5:05. It blew through in about thirty minutes and had the ground crew scrambling to put the tarp on; the Cubs were already in the middle of batting practice. (Bad news: there's a 70% chance of rain this afternoon.)

Ted Lilly didn't have his best stuff, and the Dodgers kept pecking away, getting one hit in each of the first four innings. Each time the Cubs got out of it, in the third with a wacky play when a ball bounced off Aramis Ramirez, right into the glove of Ronny Cedeno at shortstop. In the second inning Shea Hillenbrand, who has about as much business trying to steal second base as I do, was caught stealing, and in the third, he was called out on strikes. (Thanks, Grady, for sitting Andy LaRoche last night!)

The Cubs nursed their lead into the seventh, when pinch-hitter Olmedo "No-Parking" Saenz doubled in Mike Lieberthal, who had drawn a two-out walk (don't you hate those?) off Lilly. Carlos Marmol didn't seem to have his best stuff either last night, but recovered to get Rafael Furcal to pop up to end that inning. Saenz' double went over the head of Felix Pie, who slipped and fell on the wet grass in center field.

On it went into the 8th, the Cubs hanging on to that 4-2 lead, with Ryan Dempster warming up for a save opportunity.

And then the Cubs exploded and made a no-brainer out of it, a no-brainer I presume they all badly wanted and needed. The bottom of the 8th must have gone on for about 30 minutes -- I didn't time it, but it felt even longer -- and included two walks, two doubles, three singles, a hit batter, a ball thrown by Jeff Kent into about the third row behind the first base dugout, and two mid-inning pitching changes.

This gave some of the fans sitting a little closer to Dodgers LF Andre Ethier time to harass him further. Either they misread the name on his shirt or were trying to give him digs deliberately, because they were calling him "ETHER" and chanting his name in the sarcastic sing-songy way that you've probably heard many times ("EEEE-ther! "EEEE-ther!") To his credit, Ethier was a good sport about it -- maybe a bit more, as at one point I spotted him covering his face with his glove so that no one would see him laughing.

Cub fans are laughing this morning. Nice win. Keep up the good work today. The only NL games today are Cubs/Dodgers and Pirates/Cardinals, both afternoon games, so the Cubs have a chance to pick up a game on St. Louis again.

Sat with the San Diego Smooth Jazz Man again, and also brfry81, someone who says he reads BCB every day but doesn't post much, and his brother. Nice to meet you guys, and also had a brief conversation with BCB reader NO100, who stopped by in the later innings to say hi.

Onward. Hold the rain off till about 4:00, please.

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs.  D. Lowe Dodgers 11-8 W-L 11-12 4.20 ERA 3.78 93 SO 125 68 BB 48 21 HR 17 vs. LA -- vs. Cubs

Jason Marquis stepped up and threw a fine game in his last start, last Saturday. Even last year, when he was probably the worst regular starter in the NL, he threw well against the Dodgers (1-0, 1.13 in two starts in 2006, and 2-1, 2.20 lifetime in 7 games, six starts). He hasn't faced them since then. Rafael Furcal has hit him well (7-for-13, 1 HR); so has Jeff Kent (8-for-19, three doubles).

Derek Lowe is 1-1, 3.58 vs. the Cubs in his career. The one win was this one-hit shutout on August 31, 2005. Fortunately, of the Cubs position players who played that day, only Derrek Lee, Matt Murton and Ronny Cedeno are still on the team, and Lee is 9-for-20 with a double and a HR lifetime off Lowe.

Today's game is cable-only in LA and Chicago, and also at today's Mediacenter link.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for the Pirates/Cardinals game (1:10 CT start)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

If you read the New Yorker magazine, you are familiar with its famous cartoons, which always tell funny, poignant, ironic or hilarious stories with just one line of text.

I brought the current issue to the ballpark last night to read it before the game; it happened to have a baseball-related cartoon. I'd have posted it here, but to avoid copyright violations I checked out the New Yorker's policy on posting them on other sites. They wanted $600 for a year's license, so instead of seeing it on this site, you'll have to look at it via this link, and please do before you read the rest of this post.

Done? OK! Now wasn't that just about how you'd have described what should have happened to Ryan Dempster during his far-too-dramatic save of last night's 5-4 Cubs win over the Brewers? Although, somehow I can't see Lou Piniella hugging Dempster, or for that matter, any of his players.

Dempster got the job done for his 23rd save, although not before giving all of us a scare by allowing a leadoff double, hitting Rickie Weeks (the third time Weeks was hit in the series; Cubs pitchers hit five Brewers in all during this series), then getting the next two hitters before intentionally walking Prince Fielder to load the bases (a no-brainer move, I thought).

On a close 3-2 pitch with the crowd roaring, Corey Hart walked, forcing in a run to make the score 5-4, and then I was absolutely stunned to NOT see Geoff Jenkins hit for Kevin Mench. Almost before I could express that opinion out loud, Mench slapped a sharp grounder to Ryan Theriot, who got the force at second to end the game, and increase the Cubs' lead to 2.5 games, assuring that they would be in first place on September 1, tomorrow.

Why do I mention that?

Because as Dave van Dyck reminds us in today's Tribune:

Not only are they ahead of where they were then, they're ahead of where they were starting August. Going into the game of August 1 vs. the Phillies, the Cubs were 1 game out of first place. Now they are 2.5 ahead, despite going 12-15 so far in August.

Anyway, it can't hurt to be ahead. Then all you have to do is win your game, and it doesn't matter what anyone behind you does. (Incidentally, van Dyck conveniently leaves out the 1994 strike season, which is when baseball actually did split into three divisions, but didn't have a postseason).

As far as the Brewers go, we appear to have finally determined the easiest way to beat them -- let them score first. For the second time in the series, Milwaukee took the lead early. They scored two first-inning runs off Ted Lilly, who had absolutely nothing last night, but who managed to make it through five innings tied after the Cubs had another long-sequence rally (walk, double, single, walk, single) to score three in the third. The extra inning of work, which came after Lilly batted for himself in the 5th (and singled!), helped save the bullpen for the weekend.

And then Carlos Marmol came in and dominated for two innings, striking out five with that filthy slider of his, while Matt Murton and Alfonso Soriano gave the Cubs the lead with back-to-back solo HR off Chris Capuano, who had relieved Manny Parra after Parra suffered a minor injury to his thumb attempting to bunt. I didn't think anyone could hit the ball out last night, as the wind was blowing in pretty good at game time. It had died down by the sixth, when the two HR left the yard. Bob Howry threw an efficient eighth, setting up Dempster's heart-stopping save.

Incidentally, Soriano's HR gave him the team lead back with 19. There are only five other teams in baseball who do not have a 20-HR man (LA Dodgers, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Kansas City and Texas, and Texas would almost certainly have one if Mark Teixeira hadn't been traded).

Doesn't matter. The Cubs are winning, and showing they can do it with -- and without -- HR.

I should note, since there has been some contentious talk between Brewers and Cubs fans this season, particularly on this site and Brew Crew Ball, that a couple of nice guys, Brewers fans, sat by us last night. When Chris Capuano came into the game, they both said, "It's over!", and after Murton and Soriano's HR, they both called him "Crapuano", and left an inning later.

And so, onward. The weather's supposed to be gorgeous all weekend. Let's hope the baseball at Wrigley Field is, too.

Today's Starting Pitchers

S. Marshall Cubs vs.  W. Rodriguez Astros 7-6 W-L 7-12 4.04 ERA 4.67 58 SO 136 27 BB 49 12 HR 18 vs. Hou -- vs. Cubs

Sean Marshall is only 1-3, 4.24 in four lifetime starts vs. Houston. Keep him away from Chris Burke, who is 5-for-7 with a HR vs. Marshall. In his last three starts Sean is 2-0, 3.38.

Rodriguez threw 8 innings of four-hit, one-run ball against the Cubs in Houston on August 6, a game the Astros won in extra innings. The key to the previous sentence is the phrase "in Houston", because on the road Wandy is 1-9 with a 7.80 ERA and 1.68 WHIP, which includes giving the Cubs nine hits, three home runs and seven runs at Wrigley Field on July 15. Today's game is again on WGN; it should be on Extra Innings (which, according to the list now on my EI channels, is covering all 15 games today) and also at the Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

Final note: I gave an interview to Tom at The Baseball Zealot yesterday; click here to listen or to download it as a podcast.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Longtime readers of this blog will remember my daughter Rachel's friend Jenna, of whom I have written twice in the last year as she prepared for her Bat Mitzvah, which took place yesterday. She is, as I noted before, as big a Cubs fan as any of us here, and managed, in her speech, to mention Sandy Koufax, Ken Holtzman, Shawn Green (who she actually went up to when the Mets were in town and invited to the Bat Mitzvah. He laughed and politely declined, as the Mets had some important business in New York this weekend), and Jason Marquis. The rabbi, in the spirit of things, said he didn't know whether to say "Shabbat Shalom" ("Sabbath greetings", loosely, in Hebrew) or "Play ball!" Later, after the service was completed, he continued this humorous vein by saying, "I didn't know whether to say 'Mazel tov' (Hebrew, loosely, for 'Congratulations') or 'Holy Cow'!"

It was an enjoyable event; too bad her favorite team (and ours) didn't cooperate in making it a perfect day. Instead, the Cubs lost to the Diamondbacks 3-1, and what more can you say? Sometimes you just get beat. It turned on one bad pitch -- an inside fastball that Conor Jackson turned on and crushed for a two-run HR -- and the Cubs could do little with Doug Davis. Lou called him "a crafty lefthander", but Davis said:

Yeah, well, whatever, Doug. On this road trip, the Cubs have now allowed one, two, four, two and three runs -- keep doing that, and many wins will follow, especially when the largest run total of those five was allowed by the guy who is supposed to be the ace of the staff.

Other than the HR, I thought Ted Lilly threw a really nice game. The Cubs have allowed the second-fewest runs in the NL (only the Padres have allowed fewer; and among AL teams, only the Red Sox have allowed fewer than the Cubs' total of 538), have a run differential of +51 and a Pythagorean projected record of 69-59. Sooner or later, the actual record ought to catch up to that. Win today and this road trip will be a success.

I was pleased to see Jason Kendall hitting second and Jacque Jones hitting eighth last night. This lineup will score some runs if Lou will just leave it alone for a few days.

Thankfully, the Brewers also lost last night again, 6-2 to the Giants, so the Cubs maintain their 1.5 game lead. The Cardinals moved to within 3 games by defeating the Braves 5-4. From the AP recap, another quote from Doug Davis:

If ballplayers tell you they don't watch the scoreboard, they're lying, so it's refreshing to see someone actually say so. The Cubs, I am certain, are watching the Brewer and Cardinal scores, just as we are. Not wanting to get too far ahead of myself, I will point out that IF the Cubs make the playoffs, the Diamondbacks, currently leading the West, are a potential first-round opponent. Beating them today would split the season series and perhaps give the club more confidence that it can defeat a possible playoff team (Cubs vs. other potential playoff teams: 4-5 vs Braves, 3-5 vs. Padres, 2-5 vs. Mets, 3-4 vs. Phillies. Not so good).

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs.  Y. Petit D'backs 10-7 W-L 2-4 4.12 ERA 5.14 85 SO 31 64 BB 15 18 HR 10 vs. Ari -- vs. Cubs

Jason Marquis was the winner in the only game the Cubs won in the series last month vs. Arizona at Wrigley Field, throwing seven innings of two-run ball on July 20. Meanwhile, Yusmeiro Petit, who was at the time making an emergency start replacing the injured Randy Johnson, threw six innings of three-hit shutout ball with five strikeouts in a 3-0 D'backs win two days later. Even worse, the only Cub who actually seemed to know how to hit him, Alfonso Soriano (who has four hits in six lifetime AB vs. Petit), won't play today. It's seemingly a mismatch, but you know how these things sometimes go. Only fifteen pitchers in the NL have won 12 or more games so far this season. Marquis can join them today if he steps up his game and throws the way he did against the Giants (well, except for that first inning), or the way he has vs. Arizona in his career (2-3, 2.77 in eight appearances, seven starts).

This afternoon's contest is cable-only on CSN Chicago; if you are in Arizona (and I know quite a few of you are) it should be available statewide via 3TV Phoenix and its repeater network. Here is today's MLB Mediacenter link.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for today's Braves/Cardinals game (1:15 pm CT start time)

MLB.com Gameday for today's Brewers/Giants game (3:05 pm CT start time)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Every day, new heroes. Isn't this fun to watch? Isn't this what winning baseball is all about?

Last night, Jason Kendall, Mike Fontenot and Henry Blanco (in his first appearance since May 30) were the heroes in extra innings as the Cubs won their second in a row over the Giants, 4-2 in ten innings, in front of a not-quite-sold-out Phone Company Park crowd of 39,548. By the time the tenth inning came around, the 5,000 or so Cub fans in attendance were far louder than any Giants fans remaining.

And once again, Giants fans need new material. I heard the "What's the matter with Floyd? He's a bum!" chant -- pretty lame. And outside the park after the game, some Giants fans were chanting "Let's go White Sox!" -- as if that's going to upset us after a big win like this?

And I read through the entire game thread and was surprised to learn that not a single one of you noticed me on TV. It was a brief shot, shortly after 10 pm Central time (that must have been about the fourth or fifth inning, because just as Tuesday night, last night's game moved pretty quickly along) -- I got a couple of phone calls from people telling me they had seen me. I was wearing one of those blue pullovers you see the Cubs wearing during batting practice, and the new Cubs BP cap. So if you saw someone resembling that... that was me!

Rich Hill and Barry Zito, as I mentioned in last night's game thread, have had their curveballs and pitching styles compared at times. And they matched each other well last night -- Hill through seven innings, Zito through eight. Each pitcher had a brief moment or two when they lost focus -- Hill in the first and third, giving up hard-hit singles and doubles, Zito in the fourth, when Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee singled and Aramis Ramirez doubled (missing a home run by only a few feet) them both in.

And that's where it stayed. Hill kept striking out Giants -- ten in all. Zito kept getting Cubs to ground out -- there was a brief bit of hope in the sixth when DeRosa singled again, but Zito got Lee to hit into a double play. I was surprised, frankly, when Bruce Bochy let Zito hit for himself in the 7th, even though Zito's pitch count was pretty low, because the Giants hadn't been able to generate any offense and Zito's batting average was, at the time, below .100. I say "at the time" because, of course, Zito then bounced a single up the middle. The inning, and Hill's outing, ended with a flourish as he struck out Rajai Davis, his tenth K.

Props to Carlos Marmol, whose filthy slider was strongly in evidence last night. Marmol won't throw today as it took him 41 pitches to finish off the Giants in the 8th and 9th innings, but he struck out four, including Davis again to end the ninth inning with two runners on base.

And then, one of the better-played Cub innings of the year -- if you were sleeping, details: Cliff Floyd, seemingly a man on a mission after returning following his father's passing, doubled down the line; Mike Fontenot, who hasn't had a hit in ten days, proved his worth by drawing a walk; Jason Kendall bounced a ball up the middle that Giants 2B Rich Aurilia couldn't handle (Aurilia was charged with an error, thus no RBI for Kendall), scoring pinch-runner Felix Pie, and then Blanco laid down his absolutely gorgeous squeeze, making it 4-2.

Remember games like this? Last year's Cubs lost games like this. This year's Cubs find ways to win games like this. It's only the Cubs' second extra-inning win of the year, and couldn't have come at a better time, with the Brewers' loss in Arizona, giving the Cubs a 1-game lead in the Central again.

Took both my kids to the game -- even Rachel, who doesn't really care about baseball, had fun. Both of them went to the speed pitch booth before the game. Rachel threw 28 MPH. OK, not bad for a 14-year-old non-baseball-playing girl, right? Mark, who threw 43 MPH when he was here three years ago, has bumped that up to 53 MPH at age 12.

Fun! That's what we had. That's what the Cubs appear to be having. Let's finish the sweep today.

Today's Starting Pitchers

C. Zambrano Cubs vs.  M. Cain Giants 14-9 W-L 5-13 3.86 ERA 3.78 139 SO 124 77 BB 70 20 HR 10 vs. SF -- vs. Cubs

Last Sunday, before the deluge washed out the Cubs/Cardinals game at Wrigley Field, Z seemed to have everything going for him. He had thrown three perfect innings with what was, for him, a fairly efficient 43 pitches, which is why he can start today on three days' rest. On July 18 at Wrigley Field, Z threw five scoreless innings, two-hitting the Giants, before being lifted because he didn't hydrate enough. In the cooler San Francisco weather, this shouldn't be a problem. Barry Bonds is 0-for-4 vs. Z, but Bonds often doesn't play day games after night games, so we may not even see him today.

This matchup is, in fact, a rematch of the July 18 game. Matt Cain, whose 5-13 record doesn't match up with his 3.78 ERA due to the lowest run support in baseball, got cuffed around pretty good by the Cubs last month (four hits, five walks and six earned runs). He has, however, gone at least seven innings in four of his last five starts.

Today's game is again on WGN. If you don't have access to WGN, try the Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for tonight's Marlins/Cardinals game

Discuss amongst yourselves.

I've been racking my brains, reduced to a soggy mess by last night's rains, to try to make some sense out of what's happened at Wrigley Field the last two nights.

And I can't. The Cubs, allegedly still in contention a game over .500, lost to the Reds 11-9 in a game that we were joking was still going to be going on when they opened the gates at 11:20 for this afternoon's contest.

"Allegedly" in contention? Even Lou Piniella tried to make a joke about this:

So the Cubs are now reduced to attempting to salvage one game of this series from a not-very-good Reds team; they will continue to try to contend -- and being 1.5 games out of first place in mid-August SHOULD be contention -- without, apparently, ANY consistent starting pitchers, ANY reliable late-inning relief, or anyone who can come off the bench and get a hit in a critical situation.

I'm being too harsh, I suppose, but that's the way it feels after moderate-to-steady rain delayed the start of last night's game for 90 minutes, and then both teams played as if they had all the time in the world, which caused a steady exodus of the crowd of 40,162 as the night went on; by game's end at 11:54, less than 1/3 of the full house was left. The teams combined for 23 hits and 11 walks; maybe the pitchers were having trouble gripping the ball. After the rain stopped I found my hands staying clammy and damp for several innings, despite continuing to wipe them down with a towel.

Ted Lilly was inconsistent last night, and got yanked after allowing six runs in five innings, despite having thrown only 85 pitches. Then Lou failed to leave Mike Fontenot, who batted for Lilly, in the game, when he could have done so. Thus when Lou had to pull Michael Wuertz after he got hit hard, THEN he did the double-switch, putting Ronny Cedeno at 2B -- wasting a player who might have helped later on.

And why on Earth was Carmen Pignatiello not in the game in the sixth inning to face Adam Dunn, who homered? Granted, facing Dunn in your major league debut in a key game isn't necessarily the way most managers would like to have a young pitcher break in -- but if that's the case, why is Pignatiello on the team? If he's good enough to be here, he should be good enough to be in the game. As it was he was up at least four times and probably threw a hundred warm-up tosses in the damp night air.

Bob Howry was the culprit later, allowing the game-winning two-run HR to Josh Hamilton (and please, no "Why didn't the Cubs just keep him in the Rule 5 draft?" comments. There was never any intention of doing so -- the Cubs selected him strictly as a favor to the Reds. I don't think ANYONE knew he'd be this good at the major league level.), and so despite scoring nine runs, and getting Jason Kendall's first HR as a Cub, and one solid inning of relief out of Kerry Wood -- it's just another loss. If you score fifteen runs off a bad team in your home park in two games, you should win both of them.

Instead the Cubs are looking warily behind them at the Cardinals, now only two games behind. This isn't to say that the Cardinals are that good, either, although they've put up twenty runs in two games against a Brewer team that was nearly unbeatable in its home park -- up to now. The Cardinals, I think, only look good in comparison to the Brewers and Cubs, who are both 4-10 in August, compared to St. Louis' 7-7 -- hardly a sign of a team that's hot.

So who do we root for today? The Cardinals, presuming that the Cubs would win, moving the Cubs to within 1/2 game of first place? Or the Brewers, who with a Cubs win could put St. Louis three games behind the Cubs? I'm torn.

Whatever the result at Miller Park this afternoon, today's game at Wrigley Field is absolutely, positively, without any debate, a MUST WIN.

Trivia note from last night: two players, the Reds' Ryan Jorgensen, and the Cubs' Jake Fox, got their first major league hits in the same inning, Jorgensen with a HR and Fox with a double.

One last note: first-round draft pick Josh Vitters signed with the Cubs just before last night's 11 pm CT deadline, getting a $3.2 million signing bonus. That article says the Cubs are going to try to get some playing time for Vitters in the Arizona League and perhaps even at Boise before the minor league season ends in a couple of weeks.

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs.  B. Livingston Reds 9-7 W-L 3-2 4.18 ERA 4.24 78 SO 20 55 BB 7 17 HR 7 vs. Cin -- vs. Cubs

Thirty years ago today, the Cubs played a long extra-inning game against the Pirates, a fifteen-inning mess that lasted nearly five hours; they eventually won 6-5 on an error. Sometime during the extra innings, WGN's news department interrupted the telecast with the bulletin that Elvis Presley had died. After they returned to the ballpark, Jack Brickhouse, in his most fulsome voice, said, "What a sad bulletin!"

Anyway, on to this afternoon's contest, which will be occurring nearly simultaneously with the Cardinals/Brewers game in Milwaukee. Jason Marquis is the last Cubs pitcher to win a game, throwing quite well last Friday in Colorado. He faced the Reds on April 5 in Cincinnati and threw well, giving them only one run in six innings; he wound up with a no-decision when -- sound familiar? -- the bullpen blew the 2-1 lead Marquis had handed them. Unlike most Cubs pitchers, Marquis has handled Adam Dunn pretty well -- 5-for-20. Lifetime he is 4-3, 4.45 in 11 starts vs. the Reds.

I tried reverse psychology last night with Reds starter Phil Dumatrait. I suppose it worked, because Dumatrait couldn't throw straight, walking four batters and giving up five earned runs, even though the Reds wound up winning. So I'll just say that Livingston, who has never faced the Cubs, has pitched extremely well in his eight starts so far this year, and in his spare time he helps clean up oil spills in Alaska, has personally saved at least 12 animal species from being put on the endangered list, and just the other day rehabbed a ten-story historic building that was about to fall to a wrecker's ball.

And he's nice to his mother.

Today's game is once again on WGN, so you can watch (yes, you, peek out from behind those hands covering your eyes); if you don't have WGN, check out today's Mediacenter link.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for the Brewers/Cardinals game

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Photo by David Sameshima

Just as they did on July 2, 1967, the scoreboard operators at Wrigley Field moved the Cubs' flag to the top of the pole (in part, apparently, because they realized people weren't going to leave until they saw this!) indicating a move into first place (a tie, actually, percentage points ahead), to a loud ovation from the assembled 40,558, who had just witnessed an excruciatingly exciting Cubs win, 5-4 over the Phillies. I know, it's kind of hard to tell which flag is which, because there was absolutely no wind at the time the game ended. But trust me -- that is the Cub flag on top!

So, class, what have we learned over the past two months?

• That teams that are nine games under .500 can indeed pull themselves back into contention. On June 2, the 22-31 Cubs were 7.5 games behind the Brewers. In fact, three weeks later they were a game worse, 8.5 games out.
• That teams that start out the season roaring out of the gate (Milwaukee's 24-10 start) don't necessarily keep up that pace, or even "play .500 ball", as many like to do when postulating what a trailing team has to do to catch them. Since that hot start, the Brewers are 34-40, not even .500 over a two and a half month period.
• Meanwhile, the Cubs are 35-18 since June 2, playing .660 ball over a stretch that's one game short of one-third of a full season. Can they keep it up for a longer sustained period? We do not know this, of course. But who would have guessed they'd even do it this long? The last time the Cubs were 35-18 over any 53-game stretch was July 21-September 12, 1984.

And so, the Cubs inhabit first place for the first time this late in the year since September 28, 2003, the last day of that magical regular season, and are eight games over .500 for the first time since the last day of the not-so-magical 2004 season.

Those in attendance last night saw a wild, wacky and long (three hours, thirty-five minutes, the longest nine-inning game of the season, which began with a throwing error by Rich Hill, leading to an unearned Phillie run, and with everyone in the ballpark on his or her feet, ended with Brett Myers' second wild pitch of the ninth inning, scoring Matt Murton with the winning run.

One thing that became clear as the evening went on -- a tense, tight game like this, punctuated by cheering at inappropriate times (each time the scoreboard operators posted the Mets going ahead of the Brewers, and again when they posted the 8-5 final score, something that usually only happens during Bears games, eliminates virtually all the "drunken idiot" behavior in the bleachers. Every single person was into every single pitch in the last couple of innings, when the Cubs loaded the bases in the 8th and could not score, when Jacque Jones made a great diving catch to start the ninth, then when Ryan Dempster loaded the bases with Phillies and got out of it with a ground ball, and then as Murton's ball popped out of Jayson Werth's glove to lead off the ninth -- every play felt tenser and tenser. Even Cubs security guards stopped and watched the action, as there wasn't any need at those moments for security, since everyone was really living and dying with every pitch.

It was the first time I'd felt a playoff atmosphere for a regular season game at Wrigley Field since the amazing Cardinal series in the first week of September, 2003. And here, we're only in August. It's going to be a heck of a ride the next two months.

Four nice guys from Philadelphia, several wearing Chase Utley T-shirts or jerseys, sat with us last night -- they were insistent that Utley's the "best all-around player in baseball", and there's a good argument that before his injury, he might have been going in that direction. Just as we do for ball-and-strike calls that appear to go against the Cubs, they were agonizingly moaning about calls that went against their team. When we pointed out the plasma screen in the rooftop club across the street, they spent quite a bit of time, as we did, turning around to look at the results of close plays.

I really enjoy sharing a ballgame with passionate and intelligent fans of the opposing team, which these guys were. You can learn a lot about the other team from people who are as into it as we are about the Cubs. I gave them all BCB cards, so if you guys are here, welcome! And as I told one of them as he was leaving, "Go beat those Brewers this weekend!"

We are happy this morning, but there is still much baseball, much excitement, and, we hope, many more victories to come. Onward and let's win this series this afternoon.

Today's Starting Pitchers

S. Marshall Cubs vs.  K. Lohse Phillies 5-4 W-L 6-12 3.10 ERA 4.58 48 SO 80 22 BB 33 6 HR 16 vs. Phi -- vs. Cubs

Sean Marshall has been consistent all season since his recall and activation on May 23 -- he's had only one really bad start among his twelve, and since the All-Star break he has allowed only four runs in 18 IP (2.00 ERA). He faced the Phillies last September 18 and pitched poorly but the Cubs won the game anyway. Jose Hernandez, who's no longer with Philadelphia, hit a grand slam off Marshall.

Kyle Lohse, once in the Cub farm system (he was traded to Minnesota in the Rick Aguilera deal on May 21, 1999), was acquired by the Phillies at the trading deadline. He's already faced the Cubs twice this season, most impressively on April 15 at Wrigley Field, throwing 8 innings of shutout ball and striking out twelve. But these Cubs aren't those Cubs; Alfonso Soriano is 11-for-27 (.407) lifetime vs. Lohse with 2 HR, Mark DeRosa is .545/.615/.818 (6-for-11, 1 HR), and Lohse has never retired Aramis Ramirez (5-for-5, two doubles, a HR, 3 RBI, and probably the reason Aramis sat last night except to pinch-hit, and he seemed to not want to even be out there, swinging at the first pitch he saw, so he could play today's day game).

Today's game is on WGN and at the Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

MLB.com Gameday for the Mets/Brewers game

Discuss amongst yourselves.