Yeah, this is a quite a bit late as the game was yesterday but I figured I would blog about it a little bit. What a frustrating game as the Cubs held a 4-0 lead heading into the sixth inning but then the wheels came off and the Nationals put a six spot up in the sixth inning to take the lead and go onto win the game 13-5.

The bullpen was absolutely terrible in the game. Neal Cotts gave up a grand slam, Bob Howry gave up a run, and Chad Gaudin allowed two home runs and six runs to score in the final two innings of the game. I hope this is just one of those games where your pitchers just don’t have it but come back and throw the ball good the next game.

It was also nice to see Derrek Lee actually hit another home run. It was his first home run since July 27th. Mark DeRosa also had a home run in the game as he reached Waveland Avenue in the fourth inning to score two runs.

The Cubs had a short turn around as they are currently playing the Nationals in game two. Need a big win out of Ryan Dempster and get back on the winning track.

The Chicago Cubs finished up a day - night double header against the Atlanta Braves with a 8-0 win in the night cap.  Earlier in the day the Cubs crushed the Braves 10-2.  It was the first time since 1992 where the Cubs swept both games of a double header.  Chicago now has won seven straight road games for the first time since June 12-22, 2004, and is 26 games over .500 at 73-47 for the first time since the team finished the 1984 season 31 games up at 96-65.  The Cubs are also up 3.5 games on the Brewers in the division.

Rich Harden picked up his second win with the Cubs and is now 2-1 as he tossed five innings and only allowed two hits.  Harden did work out of a couple of jams and his pitch count was getting up around 90 so he was taken out after five innings.  The Cubs are being very cautious with Harden and if he can give them five or six innings everytime out there they will be happy with that.  Chad Gaudin, Sean Marshall, Kerry Wood, and Neal Cotts all threw one inning of relief out of the bullpen.  Cotts was the only reliever to give up a hit as the entire pitching staff limited the Braves to only three hits.

Aramis Ramirez and Kosuke Fukudome led the team with two rbi’s each.  Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Jim Edmonds, and Mike Fontenot all chipped in with one rbi as well.  It was a big combined effort at the plate as the Cubs plated eight runs in the game.  The bats jumped all over the Braves pitchings from the get go and put a lot of pressure on the Braves bullpen.  I look for the bats to continue scoring runs and the Cubs to win again on Thursday night.

Now can we just start seeing the Brewers lose some games!?

The Cubs got things started off nicely with a 10-2 victory in the first game of two against the Atlanta Braves.  After last nights game was rained out, the Cubs came out of the gates and swung the bats very good while knocking out the Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton out of the game after only 2 1/3 innings.  The Braves bullpen had to throw a lot of pitches so I really like the teams chances of sweeping the double header.

Geovany Soto and Jim Edmonds had a great game at the plate.  Soto had a two run double and a two run home run to finish the game 3-4 with four rbi.  Edmonds had a two run home run and a rbi double to finish with three rbi.  Aramis Ramirez, Ryan Theriot, and Mark Derosa all added one rbi each as well.

Jason Marquis threw a lot of pitches as he worked out of multiple jams but lasted 5 1/3 innings to pick up the win.  Marquis is now 8-7 on the year with a 4.67 era.  Neal Cotts finished up the sixth inning after Marquis exited the game and then Jeff Samardzija pitched the seventh and eighth innings.  Bob Howry finished things up with a scoreless inning in the ninth.

The Cubs should be setup nicely for the second game of the double header as Rich Harden will start the game.  The Cubs still have Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol in the bullpen as well.  Hopefully we see a double header sweep of the Braves and then a Padres win over the Brewers!

GO CUBS!!

Yeah baby!  The Cubs beat down the Brewers once again and are now four games up on the brew crew in the division.  It was a 7-2 beating of the Brewers on Wednesday night for the Cubs that have them in position to sweep on Thursday.  And yeah, I like their chances to complete the sweep with Rich Harden taking the mound.

The Cubs got a great pitching performance from Ryan Dempster who threw seven innings and only allowed five hits and only one run.  Dempster is now 12-4 on the year and has been throwing the ball very well.  Chad Gaudin pitched a scoreless eighth inning and then Neal Cotts pitched the ninth and gave up a solo home run to Prince Fielder.  The run didn’t mean anything however as the Cubs had a huge lead.

Alfonso Soriano was a monster at the plate for the Cubs as he was on base five times and collected three singles in the game.  Ryan Theriot had a great game as well as he finished 3-3 with three rbi.  Derrek Lee, Reed Johnson, and Mark Derosa all had one rbi each in the game as well.

Now lets root for another Cubs victory on Thursday afternoon as Rich Harden takes the mound.  Expect Sean Marshall to come into the game if Harden has any troubles.

GO CUBS GO!

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.

It just wasn’t a good day to be a Chicago Cubs pitcher on Thursday as all five Cubs pitchers gave up atleast home run.  The Cubs gave up a total of seven home runs and twelve runs while they lost 12-7.  The Cubs still took two out of three from the Reds, but it would have been nice to get the sweep.

Ted Lilly, Michael Wuertz, Jon Lieber, Chad Gaudin, and Neal Cotts all gave up home runs.  Lilly and Lieber both gave up two while Wuertz, Gaudin, and Cotts all gave up one each.  Bad day to be a Cubs pitcher when the wind was blowing straight out.  Gaudin and Rich Harden have to be thinking so this is what it is like to pitch at Wrigley Field during the summer.

The Cubs didn’t have a bad day at the plate as they scored seven runs, they just couldn’t keep up with the Reds.  Mike Fontenot hit a two run home run for the only long ball for the Cubs.  Ryan Theriot added a two run single while Derrek Lee had a rbi double.

The Cubs will now wait for the San Francisco Giants to fly into town as they will play a three game series this weekend.  Make sure you get out there this weekend and catch a game.  Rich Harden will making his Cubs debut on Saturday!

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After the big news of Rich Harden being traded to the Cubs, Cubs fans were treated to a good game against the Reds.  The Chicago Cubs had held the Reds to only two hits until the ninth inning when they scored a run and had three hits in the inning.  The Cubs were finally able to finish off the Reds to pick up a 7-3 victory.

Ryan Dempster improved to 10-0 at home as he pitched seven innings to get the win.  Dempster gave up two hits and one run while walking four batters and striking out five batters.  Dempster let his defense really help him out in the game as Aramis Ramirez had multiple nice plays on ex Cub Jerry Hairson Jr.

Neal Cotts came in to pitch the eighth inning but walked two batters and was quickly pulled in favor of Carlos Marmol.  Marmol had no problems getting the Cubs out of the inning.  It was Marmol’s third straight great performance as it appears that he is back on track.  Bob Howry tossed the ninth inning and had some problems as he gave up three hits and one run.

Geovany Soto had a two run home run and a sac fly to lead the team at the plate with three RBI.  Soto has now hit 16 home runs and has 55 rbi on the season.  Mike Fontenot added a two run home run to dead center field in the sixth inning.  Ramirez had the other rbi for the Cubs which came on a sac fly in the third inning.

Great win for the Cubs as the Cardinals and Brewers both won.  The Cubs remaine up 3.5 games on the Cardinals.

The Chicago White Sox got the best of the Chicago Cubs in their crosstown showdown on Friday afternoon.  Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Dempster got rocked right from the beginning of the game as he gave up eight runs in only 2 1/3 innings of action.  It was not the start that Dempster and the Cubs were hoping for.

The White Sox scored seven runs in the third inning alone.  Nick Swisher hit a grand slam off Dempster for the big hit for the Sox.  Jon Lieber tossed 3 1/3 innings of relief and he gave up four hits and one run.  Michael Wuertz also gave up a run in relief.  Neal Cotts was the only reliever not to give up a run and he pitched 1 1/3 innings.

On the offensive side of the plate, Geovany Soto, Jim Edmonds, and Mike Fontenot all hit solo home runs.  Too bad there wasn’t some runners on base when the home runs were hit.  Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez both went 0-4 and had a dissapointing game.

The Cubs have now lost four straight road games, and six of their last ten games.  Sean Gallagher will take the mound on Saturday for the Cubs as they try to get back on the winning track.

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.