Wow, what a bigtime fight the Peoria Chiefs and Dayton Dragons had on Thursday night after batters were hit, a player broke his leg, and players sliding into second base with cleats up.  Talk about trying to show who can hurt the other players more it sounded like.  Also, the Chiefs pitcher that threw the ball into the Dragon’s dugout actually hit a fan that had to be taken to the hospital.

I found a youtube video of the fight happening.  I will tell you that there is foul language in the video so make sure your volume is down if you are at work or have children around.

Wahoo, two games in a row that the Cubs have won!  The Cubs defeated the Florida Marlins 6-3 on Thursday night as the two teams opened up a four game series at Wrigley Field.  Things got a little dicey late in the game but the Cubs prevailed and went onto double up the fish.

The Cubs got out of a bases loaded jam in the 8th inning with zero outs by only giving up one run.  Things could have been a lot different had Mark DeRosa not made a spectacular diving catch on a ball for the second out of the inning.  The Cubs used four of their six relief pitchers in the inning to get out of the jam.  Sean Marshall and Scott Eyre were the only relief pitchers to not see action in the 8th inning.

Carlos Zambrano picked up the win as he pitched seven innings.  Big Z gave up six hits and two runs while striking out six batters.  He made one mistake to Hanley Ramirez who hit a two run home run in the 3rd inning.  Other then that, Zambrano was pretty good.

Carlos Marmol recorded the final out in the 8th inning, and then had some troubles in the 9th as he allowed the first two runners on base without recording an out.  He then struck out Hanley Ramirez for the first out and then got Alfredo Amezaga to ground out to Marmol who got the out at second base.  With runners on the corners, Jorge Cantu walked to load the bases and bring up Wes Helms.  Helms then struckout to end the ballgame.

Ronny Cedeno and Henry Blanco both hit solo home runs in the game for the Cubs.  Zambrano had a rbi double that really got the Cubs rally going in the 5th inning.  Derrek Lee then walked with the bases loaded to score another run and Aramis Ramirez delivered a double that scored two more runs.  Lee was thrown out at home plate on the Ramirez double.

Kerry Wood was finally put on the disabled list as the team had been hinting at it for the past few days.  The blister on his throwing hand is getting better but he will need some side sessions to get back into game shape.  One name that is being thrown out there to be called up is Jeff Samardzija.  I think it will either be Samardzija or the Cubs will recall Michael Wuertz.  What does everyone else think?

Yay, the Cubs are back in the win column!  The Cubs avoided a three game sweep down in Arizona by beating the Diamondbacks 10-6 on Wednesday night.  The Cubs had their leadoff man Alfonso Soriano back in the lineup, Derrek Lee hit a home run, Reed Johnson hit a grand slam, and Ted Lilly won his 10th game of the year!  Yeah, all that happened in last nights game!

The Cubs blew the game wide open in the 8th inning when Geovany Soto singled in Ryan Theriot, then with the bases loaded Mark DeRosa walked.  Leo Rosales then came into the game in relief of Micah Owings and Reed Johnson welcomed Rosales with a grand slam to right center field.  It appeard that a fan might have helped the ball get over the fence but the umpires all met and kept the call as a home run.

It was nice to see Lee hit a ball in the air and over the fence as he hit a home run in the first inning.  Lee has really been struggling while hitting into a lot of double plays.  Soriano made his return and went 1-5 while picking up one rbi.  Ryan Theriot also had one rbi in the game as did Lilly.  Soriano,’s Theriot’s, and Lilly’s rbi’s all came in the 5th inning when the Cubs scored three runs.

On the mound Lilly tossed six innings to pick up his 10th win of the season.  He allowed six hits and three runs in the game.  Tony Clark hit a two run home run in the 4th inning and then Conor Jackson had a rbi single in the 5th off of him.   Neal Cotts and Carlos Marmol both threw scoreless innings out of the bullpen.  However, once again Bob Howry had to give up runs.  He pitched the eighth inning and gave up a three run home run to Chris Snyder.  Right now I don’t have a lot of trust in Howry.  No way can I trust him and put him a tie or one run game.

The Cubs will now head back to Chicago and begin a four game series with the visiting Florida Marlins on Thursday evening.  Carlos Zambrano will take the mound for the Cubs as he hopes to get back on the winning ways and pick up his 11th win of the season.

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The Chicago Cubs once again lost down in Arizona as they fell to the Diamondbacks by the score of 9-2 on Tuesday night.  Once again the offense struggled at the plate as they just can’t get any runs across the plate.  The pitching was terrible as well in the late innings so the team really deserved to have their butts kicked like they did.

Jason Marquis started the game for the Cubs and pitched six innings.  Marquis gave up five hits and three runs as he took the loss and is now 6-6 on the year.  Things got bad once Marquis left however as Sean Marshall gave up three hits and two runs while only recording two outs in the 7th inning.  Chad Gaudin came in to get Mark Reynolds for the final out of the 7th inning.  In the 8th inning, Kevin Hart allowed four more runs (two were earned) to score on only two hits.  The big hit was a double by Conor Jackson.  Neal Cotts came in and finally got the Cubs out of that inning by striking out Miguel Montero.

As for the offense, or we should say crappy offense, they struckout nine times and left 19 runners on base while scoring only two runs.  Mike Fontenot had a rbi triple that scored Mark DeRosa in the 4th inning and then Daryle Ward hit a solo home run in the 8th inning for the Cubs second and final run.  The middle of the lineup hurt the Cubs once again as Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Jim Edmonds went a combined 0-10 in the game.  All three of those players are in big slumps.  Lee can’t seem to stop hitting into double plays and could probably use a day off.  I say Piniella should sit Ramirez and Lee for Wednesday’s game and let them get a little bit of rest.

One bright spot is that Alfonso Soriano might be back in the lineup for the game on Wednesday.  That might be exactly what the Cubs need to get going.  Let’s all hope so anyways.