Rich Harden took the mound on Monday night hoping to help out the club pick up some ground in the wild card as the Rockies and Giants were both off while the Marlins and Braves were playing each other. Things didn’t turn out the way he had hoped however as control issues and the Astros bats knocked him out of the game after just five innings.

All five of the Astros runs were charged to Harden and six walks that he gave up sure didn’t help out his cause. Earlier in the day, Harden was told that he would be staying with the club and not be traded to the Minnesota Twins who had claimed him off waivers late last week. I wonder if that had any affect on his performance Monday night? Harden says no:

“You can’t just ignore [the rumors],” Harden said, “but the whole thing was ridiculous and had nothing to do with my performance today. I won’t make excuses. I still knew I was starting on Monday and I had to prepare myself, and I got prepared and I just didn’t get it done.”

The Cubs bats had their own problem as they couldn’t seem to figure out Roy Oswalt this time around. Oswalt threw seven innings and allowed just six hits and two runs on Monday night. Both of the runs given up by Oswalt came in the fifth inning when Koyie HIll and Ryan Theriot knocked in runs.

Derrek Lee would take LaTroy Hawkins deep in the eighth inning as he smashed a 398 foot home run to center field to draw the Cubs within two runs. That would be as close as they got however as Jose Valverde shut the Cubs down in the ninth inning with a 1-2-3 inning.

The Cubs will now look to Randy Wells to get them back on track against the Astros Tuesday night. Wells did not have a good start his last time out and hopefully he has figured out his mechanical issues and can throw a good game and the team in the win column tonight. Every game is a huge one and the Cubs need as many wins as they can get.

- Cliff