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The Cubs were looking to win their third straight game and things looked good with Carlos Zambrano on the mound for them. However, the offense never showed up and the Astros would end up scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win by the score of 2-1. This loss completely goes on the offense who played like crap.

The one run that the Cubs did manage to get came off the bat of Geovany Soto who hit a solo home run to left field off of Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez. It was Soto’s second home run in four games so hopefully he is seeing the ball better and will heat up and get out of his slump at the plate.

The terrible side of the offense once again was Milton Bradley. Bradley has been stinking it up and is 1 for 9 in the series so far. On Wednesday night, he left runners on base everytime he came to the plate. It’s time for Milton to start hitting and earning his pay check. If not, Bradley is going to be a big time free agent bust.

Ok, enough with the negative talk as it was actually a game the Cubs should have won. The starting pitching continues to be awesome. This time it was “El Toro” Carlos Zambrano who got the start and allowed just one run in eight innings. The one blunder in the game for Big Z was in the seventh inning when the Astros scored their first run on a fielders choice. Zambrano’s pitch count was at 104 when Lou decided to pull him from the game and bring in Angel Guzman to pitch the ninth inning. In the post game interview, Zambrano was asked if he could have went back out there for the ninth inning and he replied:

“If I go another inning and I give up two runs, it’s Lou’s fault and ‘Why did Lou let him go in the ninth?’” Zambrano said. “It was good — 104 pitches, eight innings, let the bullpen do their job. I did my job. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

As you know, Guzman would end up giving up the winning run in the ninth inning when the bases were loaded and Geoff Blum hit a single to center field to score Miguel Tejada. Tough inning for Guzman who left some pitches up over the plate that the Astros took advantage of.

The rubber game of the series will be played Thursday afternoon and the Cubs will send Ryan Dempster to the mound. I like the teams chances of winning and taking two out of three against the Astros in their place. What do you think?

- Cliff