It was a busy day for the Chicago Cubs on Thursday as they beat the Houston Astros 12-3 and then worked out a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kevin Hart, Jose Ascanio and Josh Harrison were sent to Pittsburgh in exchange for left handers John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny.

The Cubs scored six runs in the first inning and never looked back as the defeated the Astros 12-0 on Wednesday. Alfonso Soriano hit a three run blast while Aramis Ramirez and Andres Blanco both hit solo shots. Randy Wells pitched eight shutout innings to pick up his seventh win of the season.

Ryan Dempster made his return to the mound it wasn’t pretty as he allowed six runs to score in just five innings of action on Tuesday night. The bullpen wasn’t much better as the Cubs lost to the Astros 11-6 and fell back into second place in the division.

It was a long night at Wrigley Field on Monday night but in the end it was Alfonso Soriano hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the 13th innings to give the Cubs a 5-1 victory. It’s funny how things work out as Soriano was 0-4 before the grand slam. Cubs stay a half game up on the Cardinals.