The Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs once again played a close ballgame but for the second straight game the Cubs came out on the losing end. They fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and were never able to battle all the way back and lost the game 5-3.

Sean Marshall was a spot starter in the game as he filled in for Carlos Zambrano who’s arm felt “heavy” and needs a couple more days of rest before he takes the mound. Marshall gave up three quick runs in the first inning as Ryan Howard had a rbi single and new cub killer Jayson Werth had a two run double. Werth also added a solo home run off Marshall in the fifth inning.

As for the Cubs offense, they scored two runs in the second inning on rbi single by Ronny Cedeno and Marshall. The Cubs attempted to rally late in the game as Henry Blanco had a rbi single to make the score 5-3, however with two runners on base, Alfonso Soriano struck out on a pitch that he shouldn’t have even swung at.

So at the end of the series, it ended about how I thought it would. The Cubs and Phillies split and now the Cubs are are up 4.5 games on the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs will now play a three game series with the Houston Astros while the Brewers will have a three game series with the New York Mets.

So how do you think the Cubs will do against the Astros? I say they take two out of three and pick up one game in the division.