Sean Marshall through six strong innings last night and then Carlos Marmol, Bob Howry, Michael Wuertz, and Ryan Dempster finished off the game as the Cubs extended their Central Division lead to 1.5 games over the Brewers.

Marshall really only had one bad pitch and that was a first pitch fastball that he through the the Diamondbacks pitcher Micah Owings who hit it into the left field seats for a homerun.  Other then that Marshall was pretty dominate as the Diamondback hitters were aggressive all night and popped a lot of balls up.

The Cubs offense got off to a really good start as they were able to push across two runs in the top of the first.  Derrek Lee singled that brough in Ryan Theriot and then Mark DeRosa singled which scored Lee.  The Cubs would not score again until the sixth inning when Aramis Ramirez hit a sac fly that plated Jacque Jones.  We should mention that Jones also went 4-5 on the night to continue his hot streak.

It was a big ninth inning that sealed the deal for the Cubs however.  They scored three insurance runs off a wild reliver who couldn’t find the strikezone, and when it was a strike, the ball got it hard.  DeRosa, Felix Pie, and Jason Kendall all scored in the ninth inning to make it a 6-1 game.  The D-backs did score once in the bottom of the inning but it was nearly enough.

The same two teams will face off Saturday night.  It will be Ted Lilly starting for the Cubs and Doug Davis starting for the Diamondbacks.  Lets win another one Cubbies!