After splitting a day night double header with the Cards Saturday, the Cubs beat St. Louis 4-2 on Sunday to take 3 of 4 in the series and push the red birds 7 games back in the Central. The Cubs scored all 4 runs in the 3rd inning on a 3 run homer by Matt Murton and an RBI single by Ronny Cedeno. Jason Marquis went 6 1/3 innings giving up only 5 hits and 1 run. Mark Mulder got the loss and Ryan Dempster picked up save #28. The Brewers kept pace with a 5-2 win over the Reds who come to Chicago for 3 to start the week.

-Mike

The Chicago Cubs are no longer in first place in the Central Division after falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates today 10-5.  It was not the way the Cubs wanted to finish the road trip as they dropped two out of three against the Pirates.

Chicago got off to a promising start, taking a 2-0 lead in the second on former Pittsburgh catcher Jason Kendall’s two-run single up the middle against Matt Morris.  Matt Murton and Jacque Jones both scored on Kendall’s single.

It wasn’t long though as the Pirates rocked Cubs starter Steve Trachsel who only lasted two innings in the game. In his two innings of play, Trachsel let up six earned runs on six hits and one walk.  A Freddy Sanchez triple in the second inning with the bases loaded was the dagger for Trachsel.  Terrible performance out of the veteran that was brough in to help spark the team and give them a few good outing down the playoff run.

Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto both homered as they tried to bring the Cubs back, but the Pirates pushed across three more runs in the 8th inning to secure the win.

The Cubs play a huge game tomorrow afternoon as they play the St. Louis Cardinals in a make up game due to the rainout a few weeks ago.  This is a must win for the Cubs, they must come out and throw a good game, and hit the ball around the park.

It was Back 2 Back home runs by Matt Murton and Alfonso Soriano in the 6th inning that gave the Cubs the lead and eventually the insurance run that they needed as they beat the Milwaukee Brewers Thursday night at Wrigley Field.  With the win, the Cubs are now ahead of the Brewers by 2.5 games and the Cardinals by 3 full games.

It was a scary 9th inning however has Ryan Dempster had the bases loaded and walked in one run already as Kevin Mench came to the plate with two outs.  Mench hit a hard groundball to shortstop that Ryan Theriot was able to handle and throw to 2nd base where Mark DeRosa was waiting.  Talk about almost a heat attack lol!

Carlos Marmol, who entered the game in the sixth after Chicago starter Ted Lilly worked five innings, got the victory with two innings of relief, striking out five.  Marmol is the Cubs best reliver at this point, I just hope his arm is ok after throwing all the innings that he has.  I don’t like him throwing two innings a game, but hopefully the coaching staff and trainers know what they are doing with the young kid.

The Cubs will now start a three game series with the Houston Astros on Friday afternoon in Chicago.  The first game will be Sean Marshall for the Cubs against Wandy Rodriguez for the Astros.  Lets go Cubs!

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Two bad starts in a row for Big Carlos Zambrano now.  Tonight Zambrano lasted seven innings even though he gave up 11 hits, two walks, and six earned runs in the game.  Carlos was getting the ball over the plate a little to much and he was hit hard by the Cincinnatti Reds offense.

Speaking of offenses, it was nice to see Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez go back-to-back in the 4th inning.  Jacque Jones also connected for a solo homerun in the 6th inning.  It was a rocket shot that reached Sheffield Avenue.  The Cubs did a nice rally going in the bottom of the 8th inning but Daryle Ward popped up to shallow center field with runners on second and first base.  In the 9th inning, Matt Murton did hit one to the warning track in left, but was a few feet from the ivy covered wall, and then Mike Fontenot came up with a runner on first, and flied out to deep right field and his ball was caught at the wall as well.

It was a good thing that the Cardinals beat the Brewers tonight.   The Cubs are still back 1.5 games behind the Brew Crew but we still think we can catch them.  The Cubs just need to get on another roll and win four out five games.  We can put the Cardinals out of this race this weekend, with a big series at Wrigley Field.  Lets get business done!

The Chicago Cubs stay hot in Denver as they beat the Colorado Rockies 6-2 last night at Coors Field.  It was a hell of a game all around for the Cubbies as they got good starting pitching by Jason Marquis, and the bullpen gave a little bend but did not break in the late innings.  The Cubs offense lead behind Jacque Jones helped out the team by jumping ahead of the Rockies and holding on to win the second game of the four game series.

Marquis finished the game lasting 6 2/3 innings while giving up only one earned run.  He did hit Jeff Baker in the head in the seventh inning and was why Lou pulled him.  He thought that Jason was rattled after Baker was hit and didn’t want any other damage to happen.  I was sitting 8 rows behind homeplate/cubs dugout and the crack of that helmet was pretty damn loud. I was suprised Baker was moving around as much as he was to be honest.

Jacque Jones sure likes Coors Field this year.  Batting the in the #2 spot for the second straight game against the Rockies, Jones went 3-5 with and driving in two RBI’s.  Matt Murton also hit one out in the thin air of Colorado in the ninth inning.  I didn’t think his ball had a shot to get over, but it carried into the second row in right field.  Jason Kendall also stayed hot for the Cubs as he finished 3-4 and driving in two runs.  I love getting production from the bottom of the order like that!

The Cubs and Rockies will play again tonight at Coors Field.  It will be Rich Hill facing off against Josh Fogg.  Lets win another one Cubbies!

After scoring only 5 runs in the entire series in Houston, the Cubs put up a 10 spot to beat Colorado 10-2 at Coors Field Thursday night. Jacque Jones had a big night with 4 hits and 4 RBIs. He drove in Ryan Theriot for the 1st run of the game in the opening inning. The Cubs got 3 in the 2nd thanks to a Garrett Atkins error scoring Jason Kendall. Jones followed up with another hit to make it 4-0. Matt Murton led off the 3rd with his 3rd homer of the season. The Cubs would add 4 more that inning. Mike Fontenot and Kendall had RBIs as well. Ted Lilly picked up his 13th win of the season going 6 innings giving up only 2 runs. The bullpen finished off the game as Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol, and Bob Howry pitched scoreless frames. With 3 games still to be played in Denver, the Cubs send Jason Marquis to the mound against Aaron Cook Friday night.

The Cubs were playing come from behind all day long and quite couldn’t take the lead for the Phillies in the 8th inning, and then the Phillies pushed across three insurance runs in the top half of the ninth to defeat the Chicago Cubs 10-6.  The teams split the series at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs remain in first place of the Central Division by .01% over the Brewers who lost to the New York Mets.

We blogged earlier today that the starting pitchers needed to go farther into games, and today Sean Marshall only lasted 2.2 innings while giving up seven runs on nine hits.  He got hit, and got hit hard all day long.  With the short outing by Marshall, the Cubs once again had to go deep into their bullpen as they used four other pitchers the rest of the game.

Rocky Cherry, Scott Eyre, Michael Wuertz, and Will Ohman all threw out of the bullpen.  Everone threw very well except for Ohman who allowed three runs in the top of the 8th inning that gave the Phillies some insurance runs.

Alfonso Soriano went 3-5 on the day but did not have an RBI.  Those picking up RBI’s for the Cubs were Mike Fontenot with two, and Ryan Theriot, Derrek Lee, Jacque Jones, and Matt Murton all chipping in with one RBI apeace.

The Cubs start a big series with the New York Mets tomorrow afternoon at Wrigley Field.  It will be Carlos Zambrano facing off against Orlando Hernandez.  I think the Cubs should do good off Hernandez who can get wild at times.  Lets start of the series the right way Cubbies!

The Cubs are playing some exciting baseball right now.  Do you have tickets for home or away games? If not you have got to order them through StubHub!  Where fans buy and sell tickets!