Think of it this way. The Cubs have won seven of their last 11 games, in this sequence:
WWWWWWWLLLLWhat if those 11 games had gone:
WWWLWWLLWWLYou wouldn't be so worried then, would you?
There's a chance of rain tonight, but they had better get tonight's game in, because even though both the Cubs and Astros are off tomorrow, we are supposed to get the remnants of Hurricane Gustav in the Chicago area tomorrow, with heavy rain and wind.
In the meantime, there were actually a few things from last night's game worth memorializing with a photo:
Brandon Backe being taken out by Cecil Cooper in the 5th. Cooper almost had to yank the ball out of Backe's hand.
Jim Edmonds leaping and missing a catch on Hunter Pence's drive in the 6th. When he came down, a BP ball came out of the ivy.
Casey McGehee's ML debut announced on the message board. Not-So-Mighty Casey struck out.
A fan in the bleacher boxes throws back Geoff Blum's 11th inning HR ball
Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima
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Above are Wolf's numbers with the Astros only; see the pitcher box for his combined full season stats.
And even though most of the current Cubs haven't hit Wolf that well -- the best are Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez, both .250 with 1 HR -- Wolf has a 2-6, 4.98 lifetime record in 13 starts vs. the Cubs and 1-4, 5.36 at Wrigley Field, including being hit early and often earlier this year when he was with the Padres, eight hits and seven runs in four innings, including a HR by Alfonso Soriano.
Ryan Dempster pitched on Tornado Day, August 4, and gave up two runs in five innings and had to be removed after the long rain delay. Two weeks earlier, he threw eight shutout innings against the Astros in Houston. Lance Berkman has homered off him four times in 43 career AB.
Today's game is on CSN and FSN Houston. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 7 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.