Carlos Zambrano took a no hitter into the 8th inning and then lost the game when he gave up a solo homerun in the 9th inning to Russell Branyan.  Zambrano only gave up two hits, but the Cubs had no offense whatever today as they also only got two hits.

We already blogged about the Derrek Lee incident so we wont’ talk about that too much here.

All I can say is, lets go get em tomorrow.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch todays game so far, you missed Chris Young coming up and tight to Derrek Lee as he was hit in the wrist/arm area.  As Lee was walking towards first base, granted he was between the pitchers mound and the basepath he said something to Young about the pitch, and then Young told him to just get to first base.  That is when D. Lee threw the first punch, and Young threw one back at Lee.  Both players missed with the punches and then the benches cleared.

We can probably expect Lee to be suspended for around 5 games once it happens this next week.

What a crazy game today at Wrigley Field as the bleacher fans and the baskets played a big role in the game!

In the fifth inning, the Cubs thought Derrek Lee hit a home run with one out. A fan reached out from the left-field bleachers and appeared to touch it with his glove over the deciding yellow line that rims the front of the bleachers. Lee was given a double, and the Cubs were unable to drive him in.

A bleacher fan got in the way in the San Diego sixth. With a runner at second and one out, Adrian Gonzalez lofted a ball to right. A fan reached over and appeared to touch the ball, which dropped, hit Floyd, disappeared briefly in the ivy and then landed at the base of the wall.

In the sixth inning however, Mike Fontenot and Alfonso Soriano both his homeruns.  For Fontenot, his homerun reached the first row in the bleachers but Soriano’s was crushed and landed out on Sheffield Avenue.

Fontenot and Lee had great days, Fontenot led the Cubs with three RBI’s and now has 10 RBI in only 9 games with the big league club.  You gotta keep him in the lineup everyday as he is playing way to good to remove him right now.  Lee also had 4 hits for the Cubs, hopefully he is coming out of his slump now.

Ted Lilly gave up one run on six hits over eight innings, which matched his longest outing of the season.  Hey, it was a lot better then his 10 pitch performance down in Atlanta during his last start!

A nice comeback win for the Chicago Cubs today as they came back in the 8th inning on a double by Cesar Izturis that scored the tieing and game winning run.  Izturis had the chance to knock in some runs as the Mariners reliver Brandon Morrow could not control the ball and walked two batters and gave up two hits in the eith inning.

Jason Marquis pitched well until the sixth inning when he ran into trouble as he hit Mariners pitcher Jeff Weaver, then had a walk, and an error at third by Mark DeRosa to the next batter did not help as well.  After the error by DeRosa, Marquis then had another walk and was pulled for Michael Wuertz.  Wuertz was able to get out of the jam with two groundouts to thirdbase.

Bob Howry picked up the win for the Cubs has he filled in for Ryan Dempster who has been pitching a lot lately and got the day off.  Howry improves to 3-3 on the season.

Final Score:  Cubs 5 Mariners 4

Great one-run win for the Cubs last night as they held on late to defeat the Seattle Mariners to even the three game series 1-1.

Sean Marshall pitched a great game giving up two runs on seven hits over a career-high eight innings.  Anytime your starter goes eight strong innings, you have got to win the ballgame for them and that is exactly what the Cubs did.

With key hits from Cliff Floyd, Koyie Hill, and Mike Fontenot the Cubbies were able to scrape across three runs in the ballgame.  Felix Pie also had a good game getting on base with walks and a single.  He was thrown out trying to steal for the first time in his Major League career however.  But when he gets on base, exciting things happen with his speed.

Ryan Dempster notched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save in 16 opportunities, and second in the last three days.

Needing bullpen help due to starting pitchers not lasting long, and extra inning games, the Cubs called up Clay Rapada from Triple A Iowa.  Too make room for Rapada, the Cubs had to send Matt Murton down to Triple A.

It’s a good move for now as Murton wasn’t getting that much playing time and said he needs to play everyday to get used to playing in right field.  Murton was batting .252 (30-for-119) with one home run and eight RBIs in 49 games for the Cubs.

Rapada was 2-1 with a 3.77 ERA in 29 relief appearances for Iowa, including a perfect 9-for-9 in save situations. He has held opponents scoreless in 23 of his 29 outings, and stranded 16 of 20 baserunners.

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Another one run ballgame, and another one run loss for the Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs had their chances once again last night to push across the go ahead run in the bottom of the 8th with the bases loaded just like the other night against Astros but once again they could not get the clutch hit to win the ballgame.  You have gotta move runners along and play the game of baseball like it is supposed to be played.  There is no reason to not score a run with the bases loaded and 0 out.

It was the Mariners 5 straight win, and the thing about their five wins is that they have all came in their last at bat of the ballgame.  Now that is what you call clutch hitting and getting the job done!

It was mostly a pitchers duel as Rich Hill and Jarrod Washburn both pitched pretty good.  Hill did give up a RBI single to Washburn however and you could clearly see him and catcher Michael Barrett arguing after the inning.  Barrett said after the game that it was a heated argument but Hill was dissapointed in leaving a slider over the middle of the plate to Washburn.

The Cubs and Mariners will battle it out once again today at 7:05 central time.  It will be Sean Marshall against Miguel Batista.

What a great win in the division for the Chicago Cubs tonight.  They held on and won a one-run ballgame for once which hopefully help the team out in those tight ballgames.

Carlos Zambrano pitched a hell of a ballgame going 8 strong innings, just three hits, and one earned run as he picked up his seventh win on the season. Zambrano now has a record of 7-5 for the season.  He also helped out the team by hitting his second homrun of the season.  It was a line drive shot that got into the left field bleachers.

Ryan Dempster, who blew a save chance Sunday night when he gave up three runs in the eighth inning, pitched the ninth for his 13th save in 15 opportunities. He got slugger Carlos Lee to ground into a game-ending double play.

The Cubs will start a interleague series with the Seattle Mariners starting tomorrow night.  It will be Rich Hill facing off against Jarod Washburn of the Mariners.

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What a whacky game tonight for the Chicago Cubs.  First it was Ted Lilly being ejected in the first inning after hitting Edgar Renteria in the upper body.  Renteria started walking towards the mound and Lilly didn’t do anything or say anything and was thrown out by the homeplate umpire because he knew something was going to happen after the Soriano incident from yesterdays game.  Pretty dumb call for throwing Lilly out, and hopefully he won’t get suspended for that one bad call.

For the most part the Cubs bullpen did a good job since they had to pitch the entire ballgame.  But once again Ryan Dempster was not able to hold onto a 4-2 Cubs lead in the 8th inning as the Braves came back and pushed across three runs to take the lead.  The Cubs then went 1-2-3 in the 9th and the Braves were able to get a split in the series.  Like I always say though, I will take a split on the road and as long as we take care of business in Chicago we will be sitting good.

Cubs Blog

What a night for Alfonso Soriano has he smashed three homeruns for the Chicago Cubs.  Soriano finished the night going 4-for-5 with his three homeruns coming in the first four innings of the ballgame.  Soriano is 13-for-23 (.565) with four homers as the Cubs have won four of five games on their road trip. He hit homers in three straight games last week and has six already in June.

Felix Pie also had another great game going 2-for-4 with 3 RBI’S.  You can just see how well the team plays with Pie in the lineup.  It is like another team out there.  Pretty weird that it takes a young guy to show some excitment to a Cubs team full of veterans pretty much but that is what has happened.  You keep putting Pie out there in centerfield the rest of the year that is for sure.

Sean Marshall pitched a hell of a game going six innings and only allowing four hits and one run. 80% of the time when your starting pitcher will go six innings and only give up one run, you are going to win the ballgame and that is what the Cubs did.

The Cubs will try for their fourth win in a row tonight as it will be Jason Marquis against Tim Hudson.  Hell of a pitching matchup tonight.  I hope to catch part of the game as my wife and I eat but not sure if I will be able to as we are traveling out of town for our first anniversary.  I’ll have a writeup either way though.  GO CUBS!