The Chicago Cubs stayed hot on Tuesday night as they opened up a three game series with the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-4 victory. Awesome win for the Cubs who’s magic number is now four.

I really had my doubts about this game as they had to face off against the Brewers ace C.C. Sabathia. However the Cubs handed him his first loss with the Brewers as they scored four runs on nine hits in his seven innings of action. Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez both had rbi doubles in the game while Alfonso Soriano hit a solo home run off of Sabathia.

Henry Blanco added a rbi single in the eighth inning off of Brewers reliever Brian Shouse.

It was Ryan Dempster picking up the win and improving to 16-6. Dempster tossed six innings and gave up six hits and two runs. Both of the runs he gave up came off the bat of Prince Fielder when he hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning. It was a good outing for Dempster as he only walked one batter and struck out nine.

Carlos Marmol served up a solo home run to Fielder in the eighth inning and then the Brewers scored one more run in the ninth off of Cubs closer Kerry Wood. Wood got out of the jam in the ninth with two runners on base as he struck Fielder out on a off-speed pitch to end the game. Wood now has 31 saves on the season.

Cubs will be hoping for another victory on Wednesday night as they send Jason Marquis to the mound against Ben Sheets and the Brewers. If the Cubs can get another win, the magic number will be two and they will be looking to clinch the division on Thursday afternoon!

The Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs once again played a close ballgame but for the second straight game the Cubs came out on the losing end. They fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and were never able to battle all the way back and lost the game 5-3.

Sean Marshall was a spot starter in the game as he filled in for Carlos Zambrano who’s arm felt “heavy” and needs a couple more days of rest before he takes the mound. Marshall gave up three quick runs in the first inning as Ryan Howard had a rbi single and new cub killer Jayson Werth had a two run double. Werth also added a solo home run off Marshall in the fifth inning.

As for the Cubs offense, they scored two runs in the second inning on rbi single by Ronny Cedeno and Marshall. The Cubs attempted to rally late in the game as Henry Blanco had a rbi single to make the score 5-3, however with two runners on base, Alfonso Soriano struck out on a pitch that he shouldn’t have even swung at.

So at the end of the series, it ended about how I thought it would. The Cubs and Phillies split and now the Cubs are are up 4.5 games on the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs will now play a three game series with the Houston Astros while the Brewers will have a three game series with the New York Mets.

So how do you think the Cubs will do against the Astros? I say they take two out of three and pick up one game in the division.

The Chicago Cubs stayed hot as they won for the fifth straight time and defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon. The game was awesome because the Cubs swept the Pirates and it keeps pressure on the Milwaukee Brewers who will play tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals. No matter what, we know that the Cubs will be up atleast five games tomorrow.

Jason Marquis pitched awesome has he picked up the win and and is now 9-7 on the year. Marquis didn’t have that one big inning that hurt him like in the past few outings and it definately showed in his stats. Jason did not walk a batter and struckout three. In classic fashion, Carlos Marmol tossed the eighth inning and then Kerry Wood came in to get the save which was his 27th of the season.

For the Cubs offense, they struggled for most of the game as they were up there swinging at a lot of pitchers to make sure the game got finished before the rain came. They did not want to sit through a long rain delay as they had to fly back to Chicago right after the game. The two runs that they did score came on back to back plays in the seventh inning. The first was on a slow roller to third base by Ronny Cedeno that Reed Johnson scored on. Johnson went on contact and the ball was hit slowly enough it allowed him to score without a throw to home. On the very next pitch with Mark DeRosa at third base, Lou Piniella called for the squeeze play which Henry Blanco barely got down. DeRosa scored on the play but it could have easily been a double play the way Blanco bunted the ball up into the air. Sometimes you just have to get lucky.

So now the Cubs will head back to Chicago where they will open up a four game series with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies are playing some great baseball and are in the playoff hunt in the East division so it will be a very good series. I’m expecting the Cubs to take two or three games in the series.

GO CUBS!

The Chicago Cubs stayed hot as they opened up a three game road trip in Pittsburgh. The Cubs bats were smoking hot as they clobbered the Pirates by the score of 12-3. With the Cardinals and Brewers both off, the Cubs are now up a full five games in the division!

Kosukue Fukudome led the Cubs with four rbi as he went 3-4 in the game. The four rbi was a career high in a game for Fukudome in a Cubs uniform. Aramis Ramirez also stayed hot has he clubbed a three run home run to finish the game with three rbi. The Cubs also got single rbi’s from Derrek Lee, Henry Blanco, Jim Edmonds, and Ted Lilly. It was a huge performance out of the Cubs offense as they swung the bats very well and never really let the Pirates in the game.

Ted Lilly one his 13th game of the year as he tossed seven innings. He did allow two home runs which scored all three runs but there was plenty of run support to help him out. Bob Howry and Kerry Wood threw the last two innings of the game and both pitched scoreless innings.

So now the Cubs are up a full five games in the standings and are 31 games over .500! Wow, I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that the Cubs are 31 games over .500 lol. It is a good time to be a Cubs fan that is for sure!

Go Cubbies!

What a way to kick off an exciting weekend of baseball between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals!  The Cubs and Cards played extra innings and it was the Cubs coming out on top with a 3-2 victory in 11 innings on Friday afternoon.  Great pitching and timely hitting for the Cubs was what pushed them over the top.

Jim Edmonds, playing against his former team had two solo home runs to lead the Cubs with two rbi.  Edmonds went deep in the second and seventh innings of the game.  Without Jimmy, the Cubs would have been shutout and lost the game.  Great game for Edmonds!

The game winning run in the 11th inning came off the bat of Henry Blanco who was hitting with zero outs and the bases loaded.  Blanco signled to left field and Derrek Lee scored the winning run.  Lee started the inning off with a walk and then moved to third base on a single by Aramis Ramirez.  Cardinals pitcher Ryan Franklin then walked Kosuke Fukudome to load the bases before Blanco’s game winning hit.

On the mound it was Bob Howry picking up the win to improve his record to  5-4.  Howry looked pretty good in his one inning of action as he threw a lot more breaking balls early in the count then he has been.  Great to see Howry out there throwing the ball like he is capable of.

Jeff Samardzija allowed one hit in two innings as he did a great job as well.  Jeff has really been throwing the ball well and Lou has a lot of confidence in him right now.  Ted Lilly pitched 7 1/3 innings before being taken out in the eighth inning for Carlos Marmol.  Marmol finished up the eighth inning by recording the final two outs.

The Cubs and Cards will battle it out Saturday afternoon in the second game of the series.  The game will be shown on FOX so make sure you tune if you can’t make it to the game. I’ll be sitting out in the bleachers with my wife and I can’t wait!

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?

You are probably feeling like I am right now after watching that Cubs-Orioles game.  Can we just forget that the game even happened? The Cubs should I say Jason Marquis were rocked by the Orioles as they lost 11-4.  Marquis was hammered early and often as he only lasted four innings after giving up seven runs.

It was just Marquis however, three Cubs relievers gave up runs as they pitched in relief of Marquis.  Jon Lieber and Michael Wuertz both gave up one run while Scott Eyre gave up two runs.  I sure hope that todays game was just a one game fluke because they pitched badly.

Eric Patterson led the Cubs with two rbi at the plate.  Patterson has really been swinging the bat well since being called up.  Henry Blanco and Daryle Ward both had rbi’s as well for the Cubs.  Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot both finished the game with two hits.

Hopefully the players will go enjoy a nice meal with their families this evening and then get ready to play the White Sox Friday afternoon down on the south side.

The Chicago Cubs were not able to extend their 14 home winning streak to game as the Baltimore Orioles got the better of them on Tuesday night.  The Cubs had their chances in the ninth inning as they loaded the bases with no outs but then it seemed the next three batters swung at everything in site and ended the came with three straigh strikeouts.

Ronny Cedeno, Kosuke Fukudome, and Henry Blanco all struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning.  I don’t know why all three of them went up there swinging the bat like they were considering how George Sherrill was throwing the ball.  Make him throw some strikes before you go up there hacking like that.

Sean Marshall who was just called up from Triple A pitched 4 2/3 innings as he gave up seven hits and four runs in his return to the big league team.  Marshall started the game off strong but then started to fade in the fourth and fifth innings.  I don’t know if it was fatigue or what but he really lost control over the game in the fourth and fifth innings.

Michael Wuertz pitched one inning after Marshall left the game and he didn’t fare to good.  Wuertz gave up two hits and three runs in only one inning of action.  Neal Cotts, Jon Lieber, and Carlos Marmol pitched the rest of the game for the Cubs without allowing another run to score.  Marmol still didn’t look that good out there, hopefully get can figure out what is wrong and get it fixed soon.

Jim Edmonds had a three run home run in the seventh inning that made the score 7-4.  Edmonds led the team with three rbi.  In the eighth inning the Cubs scored two runs on a Aramis Ramirez single.  Fukudome also had a solo home run in the game as he scored the Cubs first run.

Hopefully the Cubbies can start a new home winning streak on Wednesday night as they will send Ted Lilly to the mound against the Baltimore Orioles.  GO CUBS GO, lets get back on the winning track!

I should also mention that Daryle Ward is back with the big league club and Micah Hoffpauir was sent back to Triple A.  Ward is expected to be the DH this weekend against the White Sox.

Lol, another come from behind win for the Chicago Cubs as they battled back from a 8-0 deficit to beat the Colorado Rockies by the score of 10-9.  Jim Edmonds, Henry Blanco, and Mark DeRosa came up big in the sixth and seventh innings for the Cubs as they won their fifth straight game.

Edmonds finally did something good at the plate for the Cubs as he went 3-4 with three rbi.  One of Edmonds hits was a solo home run in the sixth inning.  Blanco and DeRosa both had two run home runs in the seventh inning to finally give the Cubs a lead in the game.  Kosuke Fukudome also went 3-2 with a two run home run.

On the mound for the Cubs, starting pitcher Ted Lilly had a dissapointing game as he only lasted eight innings.  Lilly gave up eight hits, seven runs (four earned) on the game.  Lilly should have been better against the Rockies, it was just a bad outing for him.  Jon Lieber came in and pitched  3 2/3 innings and gave up five hits and two more runs.

Scott Eyre, Carlos Marmol, and Kerry Wood finished up the game.  Marmol struckout the side in the eighth inning and then Wood recorded his 13th save of the season.  Eyre recorded the win and is now 2-0.

Another comeback win for the Cubs, lately it has taken them five or six innings to get going but then they explode out of no where.  A win is a win, not matter how you get it I suppose!

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The Chicago Cubs were not able to complee the sweep of the Cincinnati Reds as the Reds crushed the Cubs 9-2 on Thursday afternoon.  Terrible pitching by Ted Lilly and Jon Leiber really hurt the Cubs, and then Cubs were not swinging the bats like they had the last two games against the Reds.

What are the Cubs going to do with Lilly?  He has struggled all three outing this year, and just can’t locate the ball at all.  His velocity is down and he doesn’t have enough movement on his balls to get batters out.

Also, what was up with Henry Blanco attempting to bunt with runners on first and second and Lillly on deck?  Len and Bob were even wondering what the hell was going on.  It appears that Blanco missed some signs or the coaches got the wrong signs from the dugout.  Anyway, Blanco and Lilly were the only Cubs to record an RBI in the game.

The Cubs will now start up a series with the Pittsburgh Pirates with an afternoon game on Friday.  Rich Hill gets the start for the Cubs as he hopes to get the first win for the Cubs from a left handed pitcher.