Wahoo, two wins in a row for the Chicago Cubs over the Houston Astros! The offense didn’t have their bats swinging on Wednesday afternoon but starting pitcher Ted Lilly was there to pick them up as he threw eight strong innings to pick up his tenth win of the season. The 2-0 victory over the Astros gave the Cubs two out of three games in the three game set.

Lilly was dominate on the mound as he did not walk a batter and only allowed four hits on the day. A great start by the crafty left hander who had the Astros guessing at the plate the entire afternoon. In his last four games, Lilly has given up four earned runs over 27 1/3 innings, it was about time he got a victory to show for it.

Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth inning to pick up the save.

The one hit that mattered for the Cubs was Derrek Lee’s two-run home run blast in the the fourth inning off of Felipe Paulino who took the loss for the Astros. Lee now has 27 home runs and 90 rbi on the season. Just think how much worse the Cubs season would be if Lee wasn’t hitting the ball as good as he has.

Now let’s sit back this evening and hope that the Giants and Rockies lose. The Braves an Marlins continue their series so the Cubs will pick up a little ground on one of them tonight.

- Cliff