Cubs manager Lou Piniella was ejected for the first time since July of last season and the Cubs went on to beat the Pirates 4-1 and take two games in the three game series. Finally Lou showed a little bit of emotion out on the field as he tossed his hat when getting to the first base umpire who called Randy Wells out on a bang bang play at first base which would have scored a run. Good job Lou, way to do something finally!

Wells through seven strong innings as he pitched great for the third time in a row. Wells gave up one run and six hits as he improved to 3-3 on the season. In his last three starts, Wells has a 2.18 ERA.

Derrek Lee got the team started in the first inning when he smashed a two run home run to put the Cubs up 2-0. Sam Fuld who was recently called up from Triple-A Iowa scored on the Lee home run. Fuld had a great all around game as he recorded his first major league hit on the third pitch of the game and he later added an outfield assist as he gunned down Jack Wilson at the plate in the fifth inning.

Kosuke Fukudome added a solo home run for the Cubs while Geovany Soto got in the rbi column with a run scoring single in the eighth inning.

Despite winning two out of three in Pittsburgh, the Cubs still had a horrible road trip where they only went 3-7. You can’t move up in the standings by playing like that. Hopefully a little home cooking will get the Cubs heated up. They will open up a huge four game series with the Brewers on Thursday night at Wrigley Field. It’s time too get going and it all starts with the Brewers!

- Cliff

This is exactly why the Chicago Cubs are a .500 team. There is no way you should be getting shut out against the Pittsburgh Pirates but that is exactly what happened Tuesday night in Pittsburgh as the Pirates beat the Cubs 3-0. The Cubs offense took one walk in the game and struck out ten times in the poor outing.

The best chance the team came to scoring was in the eighth inning when they had two base runners on with the top of the lineup coming up. However, Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome both struck out and Derrek Lee then ended the inning by grounding out to second base. Good job Soriano and Fukudome!

Geovany Soto was the only player to show up and actually hit the ball as he led the team with two hits.

Ted Lilly was the tough luck loser even though he threw a pretty good game. Lilly did give up eight hits over seven innings but struck out seven while only walk two Pirates. Two of the Pirates runs were scored with two outs off of Lilly. Ted also made a bad play on a wild pitch when he missed the return throw from Soto as Freddy Sanchez scored.

Just an ugly game as the Pirates even the series up at one game each. The rubber match will be Wednesday night and it will be Randy Wells trying to get the win for the Cubs.

- Cliff

It was a good night for the Cubs and their fans on Monday night as the team opened up a three game series on the road in Pittsburgh with a 3-1 victory. It’s always nice to start off a series with a victory and this was very big as the team had just dropped two out of three against the White Sox over the weekend.

There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the Cubs but they got just enough to get the win. The offense put up single runs in the second, third and fourth innings to get the win. Andres Blanco got things started for the offense in the second inning with a rbi single that scored Jake Fox. In the third inning it was shortstop Ryan Theriot going deep for a solo home run that put the Cubs up 2-0. The final run for the offense came in the fourth inning when Milton Bradley split the gap on a rbi double that plated Geovany Soto for the third run. Fox and Bradley both led the team with two hits each.

Rich Harden got the win on the mound as he threw the ball pretty well. When Rich did get in trouble he was able to get out of the jams just like a good pitcher does. Harden gave up nine hits but only allowed one run on a rbi ground out by Jack Wilson in the fifth inning. Harden would end up throwing seven innings to improve to 5-4 on the year.

Carlos Marmol and Kevin combined to throw the eighth and ninth innings to secure the win. Both Marmol and Gregg and 1-2-3 innings as they were great out of the pen. It’s sure nice to say that!

I’m looking forward to Tuesday’s game when the Cubs will look to go up 2-0 in the series with Ted Lilly on the mound. I like their chances a lot!

- Cliff

I hope everyone had a better weekend than the Chicago Cubs did as they dropped two out of three games on the South side of town to the crosstown rivals. The White Sox pretty much had their way in the three game series and the biggest highlight for the Cubs was probably the altercation between Lou Piniella and Milton Bradey on Friday.

Bradley was disciplined by Cubs manager Lou Piniella, upset after the outfielder threw his helmet and overturned a water cooler when he had a bad at-bat in the sixth. Piniella had followed Bradley into the clubhouse, and there was an ugly verbal exchange. The two would talk the next day and Milton was in the lineup on Saturday despite hearing it from the local fans when he appeared at the plate.

After being shutout 6-0 by John Danks and the White Sox on Friday, the Cubs have now lost six out of their last eight games. Somehow though, the team is just 3.5 games out of first place in the division and will look to get Aramis Ramirez back in the lineup shortly before the All Star break. I feel if they can hold on and stay at worst four games back when Ramirez returns, he will spark the team and they will be right there towards the top in the division.

The team will kick off a series on Monday night with the Pittsburgh Pirates and they will have Rich Harden going to the mound. The three game series is a huge one for the team and I fully expect them to win two out of three games against the Pirates if not sweep them. The series is very big because it is right before a series with the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.

It should be a very exciting week of Cubs baseball!

- Cliff