The Chicago Cubs took advantage of a huge San Diego Padres error as they scored six runs in the fifth inning to break open the game on Monday night.  The Cubs weren’t done with done however as they scored another five runs in the sixth inning as they went on their way to beat the Padres 12-3.

Alfonso Soriano hit a two run home run while Geovany Soto and Mark DeRosa also finished the game with two rbi.  Derrek Lee, Reed Johnson, Kosuke Fukudome, and Aramis Ramirez all finished the game with one rbi as well.  We can’t forget about big Carlos Zambrano either as he went 2-4 including a double off the right-center wall.

Zambrano threw seven innings to improve his record to 6-1 on the season.  Zambrano could have probably went longer in the game but with the Cubs up that much, the Cubs decided to let Scott Eyre and Bob Howry finish out the game,  Eyre had to be relieved after only getting two outs though so hopefully he will pitch better next time he is called upon.  Howry recorded the final four outs in the game.

With the win the Cubs are now up a game in the division as the St. Louis Cardinals lost up in Milwaukee.  The Cubs will try to make it a 5-0 current homestand as they face off against the Padres again tomorrow night with Jason Marquis getting the start.

How will Marquis do?  Will this be his last start if he struggles once again?

Carlos Zambrano pitched great on Tuesday night as the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 3-0.  Zamrbano improved to 5-1 on the season as he tossed eight innings and only allowed three hits in the game.  Zambrano was in trouble a couple of times but was calm and quickly worked his way out of the jams.  It was nice to see that the Reds were up there first pitch hitting quite a bit, it allowed Big Z to last longer in the game as his pitch count was getting up there.

On the 10th anniversary of Kerry Wood striking out 20 batters, he earned his fifth save of the season.  Talk about a career turn around from starter to closer for Wood.

Ronny Cedeno had a two run single in the fourth inning for the Cubs and Aramis Ramirez had a RBI single in the first inning.  It was great to see Ramirez back in the lineup after sitting out with a swollen wrist the last few games.

Kosuke Fukudome continues to struggle on the road however.  Fukudome went 0-3 on Tuesday night.  I wonder if this slump will continue for Fukudome as he is still trying to learn pitchers in the league. What do you think Cubs fans?

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The Chicago Cubs back on the winning track just like I figured they would.  The Cubs shutout the Washington Nationals on Saturday night by the score of 7-0.  Carlos Zambrano went deep into the game just like manager Lou Piniella wanted.

Zambrano tossed seven innings while striking out five batters and walking four.  Zambrano lowered his ERA to 2.21 with the seven scoreless innings.  Zambrano is now 4-1 on the season.  A much better start for Big Z then last season.

Michael Wuertz and Jon Leiber pitched the final two innings and pitched very well.

Derrek Lee led the Cubbies at the plate as he went 2-3 with three RBI.  Aramis Ramirez also had two RBI’s that came off a double in the eighth inning.  One player that struggled at the plate was catcher Geovany Soto who struckout five times, and everytime it was against a different Nationals pitcher.  I wonder if Soto gets the day off on Sunday to get a day of rest?

Ted Lilly will try to win the series for the Cubs on Sunday.  Hopefully he will do it and the Cubs will pick up another win.

The Chicago Cubs are playing some good baseball and that showed Monday night when they faced the New York Mets at Wrigley Field.  A 2-1 ballgame was quickly 7-1 after the Cubs put up five runs in the bottom of the eigth inning with some patience at the plate and timely hitting.

Aramis Ramirez first got the Cubs on the scoreboard with a two run home run in the fourth inning.  Ramirez is heating up the last couple of games, hopefully he continues to hit the ball with power and knock in some more runs.

With the score 2-1 heading into the eigth inning, Ronny Cedeno hit a bases loaded single to center field to put the Cubs up 4-1.  Cedeno really battled during the at bat and came away with the hit.  Cedeno was added to the lineup about 30 minutes before first pitch after Ryan Theriot was scratched with bask spasms.

After Cedeno’s single, Felix Pie came up to the plate and hit a three run home run his first home run of the season.  You could see how excited the young player was after hitting the home run.  He has been putting more work in at the batting cage and he just kept telling himself “go through your front foot” just like manager Lou Piniella has been trying to tell him.

Kosuke Fukudome had a huge at bat in the eigth inning as well when he made Mets reliever Aaron Heilman throw 10 pitches to him.  Fukudome said that he kept fouling off pitches that were close until he got a ball he knew he could hit hard and that is what he did as he hit a single to left field.

Big Carlos Zambrano pitched great during his seven innings.  Zambrano only allowed five hits and one earned run.  He did walk two batters but also struckout four batters.  The doubel play balled came up big for Zambrano as he got four double plays off the Mets bats.  Zambrano is now 3-1 on the season as he is throwing the ball really well.

Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood pitched hitless baseball the last two innings of the game.

The Cubs and Mets will finish up the short two games series Tuesday afternoon as Ted Lilly tries to get on track and pick up his first win of the season.  Lilly needs to come out and get on track right away in the game so he can get a little bit of confidence going.  Hopefully he will do that and the Cubs will get another victory.

The Chicago Cubs fell to the Milwaukee Brewers on a cold rainy day by the score of 4-3 in 10 innings.  Carlos Zambrano and Ben Sheets both pitched a great game as both offenses both couldn’t hit the ball.  The problem was that the Brewers pullpen was able to save the day, unlike the Cubs bullpen.  Doesn’t that sound like the beginning of the 2007 season?

The Cubs didn’t have much offense other then Kosuke Fukudome who led the Cubs by going 3-3 with a three run homerun that tied the game in the bottom of 9th inning.  Fukudome was pretty much the only excitment for the Cubs on the offensive side of the plate.  I figured during a cold rainy day, there wouldn’t be very many runs scored, and that was the case until the last few innings.

One bright spot of the game was how well Carlos Zambrano pitched on opening day.  Sure he didn’t get the win, but he held the Brewers down for 6+ innings and kept the Cubs in the game.   It isn’t his fault that the offense sucked so bad.

I was pretty upset with how Kerry Wood and Bob Howry pitched today.  I figured they would pitch a lot better then they did.  But I do have to factor in the weather a little bit.  I’m not saying that as an excuse though.  They still need to go throw strikes no matter if it is snowing, raining, or 90 degrees.  Next time they will get the job done, and the Cubs will get the win.

The Cubs and Brewers will battle it out once again on Wednesday.  First pitch is scheduled for 1:20 Chicago time.  It will be Ted Lilly vs. Jeff Suppan.

The Chicago Cubs lost their first game in Cactus League action on Friday as the San Francisco Giants used some late inning runs to get by the Cubs 8-6.  It was a split squad team for the Giants as well so they didn’t have all of their regulars.

Carlos Zambrano pitched two innings for the Cubs.  He gave up one run, two hits, and struckout two batters in his two innings of work. � Big Z did have some trouble fielding a bunt and received and error on the play as well.  Nothing to worry about with Zambrano.  We all know he will be ready for opening day.

As far as the Cubs hitters, Kosuke Fukudome continies to get on base and draw walks.  He drew another two walks and scored two runs on Friday.

What hurt the Cubs in the game was Les Walrond giving up a grand slam to Ryan Rohlinger in the 8th inning.  That pretty much sealed the deal for the Giants.

We will try to have an update this weekend on how the Cubs do, but it could be on Monday as we have a lot of things happening this weekend.  Either way, GO CUBS!

Sorry I haven’t been able to get an update on the blog lately regarding spring training. I have been pretty busy the past week, but I’m here now, and ready to talk Cubs Baseball!

It was interesting to hear Lou Piniella say it would be a three person battle for the closers role as pitchers and catches reported.  Piniella mentioned Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol, and Ryan Dempster would battle it out.  Make you think what is going on as Dempster is supposed to get a look as a starter as well.  Then out of nowhere yesterday, Piniella said that Bob Howry would be the closer if the season started today.  Lol, does anyone know what is going on with the closers role?!

I thought it was pretty funny that Carlos Zambrano was wearing Fukudome’s jersey as the Japanese reported to spring training.  After playing with Fukudome for a little bit, Big Z then gave him his jersey as they all had a good laugh.  Gotta love a little joking around to keep the players lose.

As far as the starting rotation, it looks like the Cubs will be going with something like this:

1.  Carlos Zamrano
2.  Ted Lilly
3.  Open
4.  Rich Hill
5.  Open

Piniella really wants to split up the lefthanders Lilly and Hill.  I would probably pencil in Jon Leiber or Jason Marquis into that #3 spot and then the other in the #5 spot.  Leaving out Sean Marshall unless Piniella wants to have back to back lefties in the #4 and #5 spots.

How do you all feel with the pitchers?  What is the best rotation Lou can set up?  What is the best option for closer at this point?  Leave us a comment and let us know your opinion!

There has been another prediction from a Cubs pitcher at the beginning of Spring Training.  Last year Carlos Zambrano said he would win the Cy Young award and the Cubs would win the World Series.  Well of course neither of those things happened.  And now this year, on the first day of that pitchers and catchers reported, Ryan Dempster said the Cubs will end the 100 year draught and win the World Series.

As I read that, I just think what in the hell are you talking about Dempster?  The team would be better off without you on the roster in my opinion.  I do wish Dempster the best as he is still with the Cubs, but c’mon how many fans out there can really say they want Dempster on the team this year?  I suggest he get some control of the ball and actually help this team out in the beginning of the season, and stop saying the Cubs will win the world series.

Cubs fans, what do you think about Dempsters comments?  Good to be thinking that way?  Or would you rather just have him be quite and get ready for the season?

The 2008 Cubs Convention was held this past weekend at the Chicago Hilton.  There were trade rumors, batting order announcements, the rumors about the Cubs being sold, and much much more throughout the weekend so I’ll try to give you all a little cliffnotes version.

First off about the trade rumor, it was one that has been talked about before involving Marlon Byrd of the Texas Rangers.  Jim Hendry would like to get him if possible and platoon him with Felix Pie in centerfield.  I’d rather just let Pie bat against lefties and righties if he is going to be the everyday centerfielder of the future.

Onto the batting order that Lou Piniella came out and said he would us if opening day were today.  Alot of people won’t agree batting batting Ryan Theriot in the second spot as they would rather see Mark Derosa there.  Flip flop DeRosa and Theriot in the lineup and I don’t think it would be that bad of a lineup to be honeset.

1.  Soriano
2.  Theriot
3.  Lee
4.  Ramirez
5.  Kosuke
6.  DeRosa
7.  Soto
8.  Pie
9.  Pitcher

It appears that the Cubs more then likely won’t be sold for quite a while.  The owners would like to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field to squeeze out more money in the deal, and then sell the team as a seperate deal.  One thing I do like is the fact whoever buys the team will have to keep them at Wrigley Field for a certain amount of years.  Right now they are saying 10 years but that could be more around 20 years when the sale goes final.

One interesting comment was made by Carlos Zambrano when he said he would let Ted Lilly pitch opening day.  Zambrano hasn’t won on opening day, and would rather let Lilly try.  Lilly says he is up for it if given the opportunity.  Zambrano didn’t come out and say much more then that which was a good thing lol.

Cubs Blog

Exactly what the Cubs did not want to happan has happened and they are returning to Chicago down 0-2 in the NLDS series.  Terrible starting pitching, and terrible hitting last night combined for a 8-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Diamondbacks are now one win away from moving onto the NLCS.

Ted Lilly served up a fastball right down the middle to Chris Young and it was all downhill after that.� Lilly clearly didn’t have his stuff last night, and it showed when he shook off Geovany Soto’s curveball call to throw a fastball.  Young smoked the ball into the left-center bleachers to give the D-backs the 3-2 lead.

People are saying Lilly did not act as a professional when he threw his glove down on the mound after serving up Young’s homerun, and I agree it looked terrible.  Keep your emotions together man, we are going to need you in Game 5.

As far as the hitting goes, can the team please stop swinging and crappy curve balls that are bouncing at the plate?  Sit on fastball / slider and hit the hell out of it.  If you see a slow curveball coming, let it go.  If you swing, you are going to either drive it into the ground or miss.  More times then not, the hitters missed last night.

Aramis Ramirez is still hitless in the series, Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano and striking out like crazy.  The Cubs can’t score when they do get runners into scoring position.  Stop trying to hit a 400 foot homerun every damn time when a runner is on and try to atleast move them over if you have less than two outs.  Pitchers need to get their bunts down and help out as well.

So where do the Cubs go from here?  Well Rich Hill needs to come out and have a good game against Livan Hernandez on Saturday.  Hernandez is going to get up there throwing more junk and the hitters need to learn to lay off that crap and hammer the fastball.  I feel if the Cubs can win on Saturday which I think they will, they will also win on Sunday with Big Carlos Zambrano against Micah Owings.  That puts back in Arizona with a Brandon Webb and Ted Lilly matchup.  Yes, Ted Lilly will be back in the snakepit where he just got rocked.

I’m keeping my faith.  I truely feel we will win the next two games and get back to Arizona.  What do you all feel?