More photos » by Nam Y Huh - AP

Ted Lilly was named to the All-Star team on Ted Lilly T-Shirt Day.

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Everything was better today than yesterday.

Ted Lilly was named today as the Cubs' sole representative to the 2009 NL All-Star team, and went out and threw another solid game. The Cub offense stepped up with 13 hits and a pair of homers, capped by Jake Fox's two-run job to Waveland. (You already know, if you follow either Ballhawk Ken or me via Twitter, that Ballhawk Dave caught that one on the fly.) And summer weather arrived at last, with plentiful sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70's, all adding up to an 8-2 Cubs win over the Brewers.

That made it three out of four in the series, so the Cubs accomplished what they needed to -- establishing that they can win series at home, and against a division rival. That makes five of the last seven, and the team looks like it's starting to play together and with some (for lack of a better term, I'll use Lou's) "Cubbie Swagger". In other words, they go on the field with confidence and everyone contributes.

Derrek Lee continued his hot streak, driving in three runs with a single and a homer; he has reached 15 HR and 51 RBI in 79 games, putting him on pace for a 30/100 season, which would be only the second such season of his career. Kosuke Fukudome had a better day in the leadoff spot, with a pair of hits and a sacrifice fly. Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot also had a pair of hits each, and Fox added a double to his Waveland homer.

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This CD-ROM game would have been a better use of this afternoon than today's game.

View full size photo uploaded July 4, 2009

In 1994, the Monty Python troupe released "Complete Waste of Time", described on Wikipedia as:

a collection of minigames, screen savers, desktop wallpaper and icons for Mac OS, DOS and Windows.

You could have spent two hours and 36 minutes with it this afternoon and had much more fun than the Cubs and 40,088 dampened fans spent watching the Cubs go down meekly to the Brewers 11-2 on a holiday afternoon when, perhaps predictably, the most fun was figuring out which inning they would play Chicago's "Saturday In The Park" on the only day that its lyrics come true:

Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July

Well, it was. But the rest of the lyrics, which include "People dancing, people laughing" and "People talking, really smiling" weren't true, that is, unless you were a Brewers fan.

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More photos » by Paul Beaty - AP

The Cubs LSU connection celebrates today's win.

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Whatever works, keep it coming!

After smashing four homers last night, the Cubs used outstanding pitching and small-ball tactics to beat the Brewers 2-1, their third straight win and fourth in the last five.

At this writing that puts the Cubs two games out of first place -- which is now inhabited by the Cardinals, who moved 0.5 games ahead of Milwaukee. That's as close as they have been to the top spot in six weeks, since May 17, and moved them over .500 for the first time since June 23. If the Cardinals beat the Reds tonight, the Cubs move into third place. If the Reds beat the Cardinals, the Cubs will be 1.5 games out.

Carlos Zambrano, despite hitting Prince Fielder (he said in his postgame remarks that he was trying to pitch inside and it got away. I believe him, and the pitch that hit Derrek Lee in the bottom of that inning was definitely a purpose pitch. Enough!), had good command today, getting ten outs on ground balls and walking only three. He helped himself with an RBI single in the fifth, tying the game, hitting righthanded against RHP Jeff Suppan. Why? In the postgame press conference, Z revealed that his left wrist has been bothering him, so he decided to hit all righthanded today. Clearly, that didn't bother his pitching.

The Cubs also got a solid inning out of Aaron Heilman and two excellent innings from Kevin Gregg, who undoubtedly will not be available tomorrow after having thrown 40 pitches. Gregg had to get an extra out after Milton Bradley dropped a fly ball. I'm going to say about that play only this: it didn't hurt the team, since no runs scored. And right field in Wrigley is a tough field to play. But I believe an outfielder with the "good defense" reputation Bradley has, must make that play.

Lou hinted that "adjustments" will be made to the lineup tomorrow, not saying what they'd be. I suspect it may include dropping Alfonso Soriano down in the lineup, because at this point he's hurting the team hitting leadoff. Sam Fuld, who came in for defense in the ninth and nearly won the game with a sharp line drive that would have been a game-winning single had it been a couple of feet higher (and what was Mike Fontenot doing straying off 2B in that situation?), might wind up starting in CF or RF tomorrow and leading off.

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More photos » by John Smierciak - AP

This swing produced the 10th grand slam of Derrek Lee's career.

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Let's put to rest the idea -- if anyone still has it -- that Derrek Lee is declining. Since May 1, when he was hitting .189, he has 13 HR and 38 RBI in 46 games and is hitting .326/.408/.594 in that time frame.

D-Lee's three-run homer and grand slam -- both hit in the first four innings -- led the Cubs to a convincing 9-5 win over the Brewers, making the first "statement" that they're not going away in this tight division race. Only 2.5 games now separate the top four teams in the NL Central; the Cardinals' win over the Giants last night put them in a first-place tie with Milwaukee. The Cubs also edged back to one game behind the Brewers in the loss column, and Jake Fox and Geovany Soto also homered. Since May 12, Soto is hitting .277/.368/.515 with 8 HR and 22 RBI in 35 games started -- these numbers are very close to those he put up last year. If he can keep up this pace, he'll be just fine.

With his career-high seven RBI in the first four innings, D-Lee had a shot at the team record for RBI in a game -- nine, set by Heinie Zimmerman on June 11, 1911, and tied by Sammy Sosa on August 10, 2002, against the Rockies in Denver. Lee got only one more shot after the grand slam, and he hit a ball hard, but right to Mike Cameron. He was on deck in the last of the eighth when Ryan Theriot flew to right to end that inning.

The grand slam was Lee's second of the season and tenth of his career; that puts him in an 11th-place tie on the active player grand slam list, tied with Torii Hunter. The grand slam was caught on Waveland Avenue on the fly by Ballhawk Dave (thanks to our own ballhawk, Ken, for the tweeted info last night on this snag.)

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Write your own caption!

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So this is all it took?

Benching Alfonso Soriano for a day and starting Sam Fuld in left field?

Fuld made the most of his chance, leading off the game with his first major league hit, a double (yes, Jessica, they saved him the ball and probably pulled the usual trick, where they scribble all over a fake ball and give that to him, then hold the real one for later). He also made two fine defensive plays, capped by his bullseye throw that caught Jack Wilson trying to score in the fifth inning.

And just to make it an all-Fuld night, he caught a fly ball for the final out of the Cubs' 4-1 win over the Pirates. Derrek Lee chimed in with his 12th homer of the year, and Kosuke Fukudome also went deep, his first homer since May 26. Fukudome also made a nice diving catch in center field tonight.

Is it too early to start beating the drums for Randy Wells for Rookie of the Year? Seriously, who else in the National League in his first season is doing what Wells is? (Colby Rasmus, maybe.) Wells has made 10 starts, thrown 63 innings, and if he had enough (it'd be 75 at this writing, equalling the number of games his team has played), he'd rank third in the NL with a 2.43 ERA. Wells won't appear among the league leaders, most likely, until after the All-Star break, but his seven strong innings today make him one of the most consistent starters in the league. He's had only one bad start among his ten.

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Freddy Sanchez scores from second on a dropped third strike. This play, and Ted Lilly's expression, epitomize the month of June for the Cubs.

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Tomorrow is July 1 and I'm sure the Cubs are happier to see the calendar change than at almost any time in recent team history.

There's no need to go through the litany of bad play and even goofier sideshows that have marred the Cubs' 11-14 month of June, their first losing month since August 2007 (not counting the 0-1 in March 2008).

I'm so tired of seeing the Cubs actually get baserunners in scoring position with nobody out and then have three hitters go to the plate with absolutely horrendous approaches. The eighth inning of the Cubs' 3-0 loss to the Pirates, their eighth shutout loss of the year, is a case study to be dissected by baseball analysts everywhere. (That analysis shouldn't take too long, as the game was over in 2:18, only a minute longer than last night's game and the second-shortest nine-inning game of 2009.)

The Cubs caught a break when pinch-hitter Milton Bradley's sharp grounder that appeared headed to left field was stopped by a diving Jack Wilson. It might have turned into a double play, or at least one out, but Wilson threw the ball past Freddy Sanchez at second base and into right field. Great! Ryan Theriot's at third, Bradley's at second, and the top of the order is up! Runs coming, right?

Wrong. As Len & Bob pointed out, the Pirates were actually conceding at least one run, as teams often will do in such situations; all Alfonso Soriano had to do was try to go the other way with a ground ball, or lift the ball into left field medium-deep, and the Cubs score a run (and likely get Bradley to third with only one out, a chance for two).

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Jake Fox scores the Cubs' first run Monday night. On a two-out hit, no less!

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NOTE FROM AL: Due to the quick game last night, this recap was actually posted at 8:35 pm Monday... I've moved it to the top of the front page this morning, for those who weren't online Monday night. (This is why it refers to "today" and the other games still in progress.)

Last year, the Cubs were 14-4 against the Pirates -- 7-2 at Wrigley Field, and 7-2 at PNC Park.

Thanks to the wacky schedules that we are now forced to become used to in major league baseball, the Cubs, who had played the Pirates 12 times by this calendar date in 2008, had faced them for only one series so far this year before Monday night -- winning two of three at Wrigley Field in late May. Today marked the Cubs' first visit to PNC Park this year; they had done so twice by the end of May, 2008.

Maybe this is what the Cubs needed -- a reminder of where they did well in the past. They sure looked like the Cubs of 2008 in an efficient 3-1 win over the Pirates, starting the final leg of a so-far-unsuccessful 1-6 road trip with a victory.

Thanks to the fast win, this will be a fast recap.

This is how Cubs teams won a year ago -- timely hitting, the occasional home run, good defense and solid pitching. Rich Harden, who got hit pretty hard in his last two starts, was nearly unhittable Monday. He scattered nine hits -- eight singles and a double, threw strikes (65 in 102 pitches), and with one walk and nine strikeouts looked like the Harden we got last year when he was acquired from Oakland, the dominant Harden, the guy who could strike batters out almost at will.

Where have these guys been the last week?

The runs scored with seemingly great ease -- a timely two-out hit from Andres Blanco with a runner in scoring position (when's the last time we saw that? -- answer: I can't even recall), a home run from Ryan Theriot (when's the last time we saw that? -- answer: June 7), and a RBI double from Milton Bradley after Geovany Soto walked leading off the fourth inning (and when was Milton's last RBI? Believe it or not, more than two weeks ago, June 12, when he had a two-RBI double off Kevin Slowey of the Twins).

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More photos » by Nam Y Huh - AP

Write your own caption. Seriously. I want to hear some funny ones. We could use the laughs.

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I barely know what to write any more about these defeats. The Cubs' 6-0 loss to the White Sox was about as listless an effort as I have seen in a Cubs team since 2006.

Three times in the first six innings, the Cubs had a runner on third base with less than two out. And three times, that runner stood there, unable to score. Get a couple of those guys home, and the dribbling of runs -- one here, two there -- by the White Sox might not have happened.

This team is walking around as if it's already defeated. Which, perhaps, it is. Now, I'm usually the one saying, "It's still early!" And, there is still more than half a season remaining, 90 games as of today, and 50 wins in those 90 games -- a .556 percentage, not unattainable -- would make 85. In this year's Comedy Central, that might still take it. The Brewers lost 7-0 today to a guy making his major league debut -- see, the Cubs aren't the only team that guys like that make look silly -- and the Cardinals lost to the Twins 6-2 with the newly acquired Mark DeRosa going 0-for-3 (hooray!). Thus the Cubs still remain only 3.5 games out of first place, heading into a series in Pittsburgh, a place where they have gone 11-7 since 2007.

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