Well I will be honest and say that I’m kind of happy with a four game split against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sure things didn’t turn out how we had all hoped for on Sunday night when Sean Marshall got rocked and the Dodgers went on for a 8-2 victory, but overall in the four game set I had to come away happy. The pitching was there for three of the games, the offense was hit or miss but showed some life which they did not have in the week before. Overall, I’ll take a 2-2 series against a 35-17 ballclub who has the best record in the major leagues.

The only highlight at the plate for the Cubs on Sunday night was Reed Johnson who knocked in two runs in the sixth inning with a double off of Dodgers starting pitcher Eric Milton. Isn’t Milton like 50 years old now by the way? I’ll give him credit though, he went out there and pitched great and got a nice preformance from his offense.

The Dodgers offense sent all nine batters to the plate in the first inning when the lefty Marshall struggled to start the game. Five straight singles and five runs in the first, every Cubs fan knew it was going to be a long night and that was exactly what it was for the Cubs pitching staff. We won’t be seeing Marshall in the starting roation for a while as he will be headed back out to the bullpen as Rich Harden makes his return to the active roster. Harden is expected to pitch off the mound on Tuesday.

I guess another bright spot on the night was the Cubs bullpen. The pen pitched 4 2/3′s innings and did not allow the potent Dodgers offense to score a run. They had their chances, but the Cubs relievers did their job and got out of jams without allowing a run to score. Jose Ascanio, Jason Waddell, David Patton, Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg all seen action out of the bullpen.

So after the month of May, the Cubs are one game over .500 with a 25-24 record. Not exactly where we want to be but still within striking distance of the division leaders. Currently the team is 4.5 games out of first place. The Milwaukee Brewers are are in first place followed by the St. Louis Cardinals who are just one game out. The Cubs do have a long road trip coming up that starts on Tuesday night down in Atlanta so the rankings in the division could really move around in the next 10 days. The Cubs will make stops in Atlanta, Cincinnati and Houston. Let’s hope for atleast a .500 road trip.

Enjoy the off day today everyone!

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

After losing a close 2-1 ballgame Thursday night, the Cubs bounced back and got a little bit of revenge on Friday afternoon against the Dodgers. This time it was two runs in the eighth inning that led them to a 2-1 victory which evened up the series at one game each. It was the first time all season long that the Cubs won a game without scoring over three runs!

The team struggled during the first six innings of the game at the plate as once again they could not come up with a big hit to knock in runners. However, once the seventh inning came around, Koyie Hill smashed the first pitch in his at bat over the fence for a solo home run off of Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley. The Cubs would score the winning run later in the inning when Kosuke Fukudome knocked in Chad Fox on a sacrifice fly to center field. It was nice seeing Fukudome step up and get a fly ball with the bases loaded and one out in the inning.

The lone run that the Dodgers offense was able to score came off the bat of Matt Kemp who took Ted Lilly deep in the seventh inning. Kemp’s homerun barely got over the basket in left field but it was just enough to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead at the time. If you were like me, you were probably thinking oh crap, there is the winning run the way the offense has been swinging the bats. Good thing, I was wrong!

The one run win did not come easy though. The Dodgers would get two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning off of closer Kevin Gregg but Gregg got out of the inning when he got Mark Loretta to ground out to shortstop to end the game. Bobby Scales could have ended the game a batter earlier but he bobbled a ground ball to third base which would have been the third out of the inning. It was a close one but the fans were singing “GO CUBS GO” in the end!

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Ever wonder why the Cubs haven’t won a world series in 100 years? If so, do yourself a favor and go watch the replay of last night’s Cubs/Dodgers game. We’ll start with the 8th inning. Bobby Scales works a fantastic at-bat, turning an 0-2 hole into a full count and eventually depositing the ball into the LF bleachers for his 2nd major league homerun, pulling the Cubs to within a run. Enter Ramon Trancoso. Jake Fox hammers a single back up the middle, nearly taking off Trancoso’s head. Scales and Fox look like the Cubs’ best hitters right now. Kosuke Fukudome does his thing and draws a walk. The job of your all-star player here is to at least drive in the tying run, and he’s at the dish. Instead, Alfonso Soriano takes a fastball right down the pipe and flails away at 2 breaking balls no where near the plate. Ryan Theriot follows by promptly chasing the first pitch and hitting into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Skip ahead to the bottom of the 9th. This is where good teams take advantage: Dodgers closer Jonathon Broxton was unavailable due to a long outing the previous night so Trancoso, who the Cubs hit pretty hard in the 8th, stayed in. Milton Bradley and Derrek Lee hit back to back singles, and Reed Johnson moves them over on a weak ground out. An intentional walk to Geovany Soto loads the bases. Here is the defining moment. ANY…. and I mean ANY other team in major league baseball wins this game at home, or at least ties it. Heck, if it were against the Cubs, they’d probably lose 6-2, walking in the tying run and surrendering a grand slam to a .189 utility infielder. And it doesn’t matter that Carlos Marmol would be on the mound, or that the wind is blowing in at 30 MPH, or that this fella has never hit a major league homerun, it’s just the way the Cubs are. So Bobby Scales and Jake Fox, who just an inning ago looked like the best hitters on the team, both chase breaking balls out of the zone and fail to even make contact. Cubs lose 2-1. Its moments such as these that remind us as Cubs fans why this team hasn’t won a world series since 1908 and until they start winning these types of games, the wait will continue.

Mike

The Cubs and Dodgers kicked off a big four game series at Wrigley Field on Thursday night and once again it was the Cubs that were unable to come up with a big hit as they lost 2-1. The team had plenty of chances in the game to score runs however they left 23 base runners on base including the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. If this team wants to start winning these close games, they need to score with the bases loaded and stop wasting the opportunities.

The one run that the team did score was in the eighth inning when pitcher hitter Bobby Scales hit a solo home run. However Scales would strikeout with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth and than he was followed by Jake Fox who also struck out to end the game. Scales was called back up to the team before the game when Ryan Freel was put on the disabled list with a hurt hamstring.

Derrek Lee led the Cubs at the plate with two hits.

It was another tough loss for Randy Wells on the mound. Wells didn’t pitch bad in his seven innings of action even though he did give up eight hits. The Dodgers scored on a infield bunt single in the first inning and then on a infield groundout in the third inning.

The Cubs will look to tie up the series at one game each on Friday afternoon. Ted Lilly will get the start for Cubs and he will face off against Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers.

** Carlos Zambrano was also suspended for six games by the league for his tirade on Wednesday afternoon. Zambrano said that he will not appeal the suspension**

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh