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.

Are you looking for Cubs tickets?  Most Cubs fans are because all the games for the rest of the season are pretty much sold out.  Don’t buy from a scalper outside the stadium, use a service like StubHub where all transactions are 100% guranteed!

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.

The Chicago Cubs are sending a total of seven players to the 2008 All Star game in New York City.  Kosuke Fukudome, Alfonso Soriano, and Geovany Soto will all be starters in the game.  Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, and Kerry Wood were all named reserves.

The seven All-Stars is a franchise record. The Cubs have had six, most recently in 1988, when Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston, Vance Law, Greg Maddux, Rafael Palmeiro and Ryne Sandberg were all named.

We cannot forget that manager Lou Piniella will also be a coach on the team.

Congrats to everyone, and good job by all the Cubs fans voting for for the players!

Well I’m sure all the Cubs fans out there have heard that Alfonso Soriano was hit by a pitch in last nights game against the Atlanta Braves and will be out the disabled list for a while.  Soriano broke a finger on his left hand, and then finger will be in a splint for the next three weeks atleast.  Expect Soriano to be out until around August.

So what will the Cubs do now?  Start Mark DeRosa in left field and give Mike Fontenot that majority of the starts at second base?  What about giving Ronny Cedeno some time at second base?  Micah Hoffpauir looks to be the guy that will get called up to take Soriano’s spot on the roster and he can see some time at left field as well as first base and DH in the upcoming interleage matchups.

Another name to look out for would be Eric Patterson.  We could see Patterson being called up along with Hoffpauir and a reliver sent back down to the minor leagues as the Cubs will need an extra batagainst the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend.

The Chicago Cubs had their nine game win streak snapped by the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night.  The pitching was there, but the offense sure struggled as they only had four hits in the game.  The Padres scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning and went defeated the Cubs 2-1.

Carlos Marmol gave up a sacrafice fly rbi on his first pitch thrown that scored the winning run for the Padres.  Marmol had came into the game after Ted Lilly gave up a lead off double to Brian Giles.   Giles then moved to third on a sac fly and scored on another sac fly.

Lilly didn’t pitch to bad in the game.  He gave up a lead off home run in the first inning to Scott Hairston but then settled down and pitched 7 1/3 innings.  He is now 5-5 on the season after taking the loss.

The Cubs at the plate were just terrible.  They only had four hits in the game and one run.  The one run came on a sac fly by Derrek Lee in the fourth inning that scored Alfonso Soriano.  The Cubs batters did not walk once in the game and struckout five times.  I expect them to be more patient as they play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night.

Hopefully the Cubs can start another nice winning streak.  GO CUBS GO!

The Chicago Cubs hit three home runs as they beat the San Diego Padres 9-6 on Thursday night.  It is great to see this team winning like this!  They are scoring a lot of runs, and that is really helping out the pitching staff.  One more win, and we just might see Len Kasper growing some facial hair, and Bob Brenly shaving his off!

The Cubs used three home runs in the huge ballpark to get the win.  Geovany Soto got things started in the fifth inning with a solo home run that he absolutely crushed to center field.  Mark DeRosa then hit a two run shot in the fifth inning.  It wasn’t until the eighth inning when the Cubs hit their third home run of the night when Alfonso Soriano went deep for a three run home run.

Ryan Theriot, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramiez all had one rbi in the game as well to help out.  Ramirez could have had a lot more but he struckout with the bases loaded and the showed his emotion by throwing his bat into the ground.

It was Jason Marquis getting the win for the Cubs as he tossed five innings and allowed three runs.  Marquis really wasn’t that sharp at all even though he only gave up four hits.  He was actually hit pretty hard, and in other stadiums might have even gave up a couple of home runs.  A win is a win however.

The Cubs bullepen was called upon once again and they did a pretty good job for the most part.  The one downside was seeing Kevin Hart give up three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Hart had just been called up so the Cubs would have a fresh arm in the bullpen.  Instead, the Cubs still had to use Bob Howry and Kerry Wood in the late innings.  Michael Wuertz, Scott Eyre, and Neal Cotts all seen action in the game as well.

Ted Lilly will get the start on Wednesday night as the Cubs battle the Padres once again.  It is another night game so plan on staying up late if you want to watch all of the game.  I really hate these West coast games…

Carlos Zambrano was doing a little bit of everything on Monday night as the Chicago Cubs defeated teh San Diego Padres by the score of 7-6.  Big Z only threw five innings to get his eighth win of the season but he also had three hits including a triple and one rbi.  It was the Cubs eighth straigh win as well.

Things did get a little shaky for the Cubs bullpen in the ninth inning when Carlos Marmol was pitching in the ninth inning.  Marmol gave up a three run home run to Adrian Gonzalez that brought the Padres within one run.  Lou Piniella then brought in Kerry Wood who got ex-cub Michael Barrett to fly out to deep left field to end the game.  Wood ended up getting the save which was his 15th of the season.

Jim Edmonds went back to San Diego and had a pretty good night at the plate for the Cubs.  He doubled twice and had two rbi against his former team that released him earlier this season.  I could see the Padres fans all thinking “Why didn’t he hit like that when he was here?” lol.

Ryan Theriot also went 3-5 with a rbi while Aramis Ramirez 2-5.  Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome had one rbi each as well for the Cubs.

The Cubs will go for their ninth straight win on Tuesday night when they play the second game of their West coast road trip.  If the Cubs can do well on this West coast swing, I think they are going to have a great month of June and really improve on their record.

What do you think Cubs fans?  Are the Cubbies going to have a great month of June and go up six or seven games in the division?

Last Sunday, I was down in the dumps as I watched (in person) Alfonso Soriano drop a fly ball with 2 outs in the 9th at PNC Park. Despite the “Bartman” chants from the Pirate fans and the loss that eventually resulted, I told myself, everything happens for a reason. Fast forward a week: the Cubs haven’t lost again.

The 5-3 win today completed the 4 game sweep of the Rockies and the 7 game home stand, with no losses to be found. Sean Gallagher got his 3rd win, picking up a career high 8 strikeouts. Alfonso Soriano hit another homerun, a solo shot in the 6th. Aramis Ramirez who went 3-3 had an RBI single, and Jim Edmonds has another multi hit performance with a double, triple, and 2 RBIs. Kerry Wood worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save. Coming up next for the Cubs is a 7 game road trip to the West Coast starting with 3 in San Diego - game 1 tomorrow night.

Mike

Alfonso Soriano hit a two run home run and a rbi single as he led the Chicago Cubs past the visiting Colorado Rockies by the score of 5-4.  With the win, the Cubs have now won six straight games to stay on top of the Central Division standing.

Soriano has really heated up in he month of May as he is up to 12 home runs and 34 rbi in the lead off position.  He is making better contact right now even though he is still swining at almost every pitch it seems like.

Besides Soriano’s three rbi, Geovany Soto and starting pitcher Ryan Dempster both had one rbi in the game.

Speaking of Dempster, he lasted five innings and picked up the win to improve to 7-2 on the season.  Dempster should didn’t have great command of his pitches today as he gave up two home runs and walked four batters.

Michael Wuertz, Neal Cotts, Bob Howry, and Carlos Marmol all pitchd out of the bullpen.  Wuertz, Cotts, and Howry did well, but Marmol gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning even though he picked up his third save of the season.  Things could have been a lot worse for Marmol in the ninth inning except Kosuke Fukudome made a nice jumping catch near the wall on a flyball right beforeScott Podsednik took Marmol deep.

The Cubs will go for their seventh straight win and the four game sweep of the Rockies on Sunday afternoon.  Sean Gallagher will be facing off against Ubaldo Jimenez.

It seems that not even Jason Marquis‘ mediocre pitching can keep the Cubs down on this homestand. The 8-4 win over the Rockies on Thursday night was the Cubs’ 4th in a row. Marquis gave up 3 runs on 7 hits in 5 plus innings but did not factor into the decision. The Cubs got the first 2 runs on an RBI double by Aramis Ramirez in the 1st and a solo homer from Derrek Lee in the 3rd. Up 3-1 in the 6th, Marquis loaded the bases and then was pulled. Recently recalled Neal Cotts gave up the game tying single and then the Rockies got the lead off Michael Wuertz in the 7th.

The Cubs quickly responded with 2 of their own in the bottom half when Alfonso Soriano scored on an error and Geovany Soto drove in Ryan Theriot with a sac fly. Micah Hoffpauir got his first major league RBI in the bottom of the 8th and then Soriano picked up a 2 run single for more insurance. Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood pitched scoreless innings of relief to close it down. The Cubs go for 5 straight at Wrigley on Friday afternoon; 1:20 PM CT.