That was a pretty dissapointing series for the Chicago Cubs as they lost two our of three games against the Houston Astros.  On Sunday the Cubs were finally able to win at least one game in the series and Ryan Dempster tossed eight inning and the Cubs offense came around for a 9-0 victory.  It was nice to see atleast the offense come around one game in the series.  I feel the Cubs could have easily took two out of three in the series and the offense been hitting the ball like they are capable of.

It was a huge win for Dempster who finally won a game on the road for the first time since June 2, 2006.  Dempster is now 11-4 on the season after picking up the win.

Now the Cubs will travel to Arizona to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday evening.  Rich Harden will make his second start for the Cubs as he will face off against Randy Johnson.  This is a big series for the Cubs as they need to keep on winning to stay ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers.

How do you think the Cubs will do against the D-backs?  Leave us a comment and let us know!

It wasn’t the outcome that the Cubs players were all hoping for as the American League beat the National League All Stars 4-3 in 15 innings.  Both teams had their chances to score in the late innings but it wasn’t until the 15th inning that the A.L. pushed across the winning run.

The Cubs players didn’t do badly in the game.  Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome both went 0-2 including a strikeout each.  Soto also allowed two runners to steal bases but he really didn’t have a good shot at either runner as they had huge leads.  Aramis Ramirez went 0-0 with a walk in the ninth inning.  He was then replaced by Cristian Guzman who pitch ran.  The Cubs pitchers did great as Carlos Zambrano threw two scoreless innings while Ryan Dempster and Carlos Marmol both pitched a scoreless inning each.

It was very funny watching Big Z throw a 96 MPH fastball to Manny Ramirez and then come back with his slow curve ball that went over the head of Manny.  Both players laughed it off and then Z was able to get him to ground out to second.  Dempster and Marmol struckout a combined five batters in their two innings of action.

Now if the Cubs do happen to make it far in the post season, they will not have home field advantage for the series.  That is the part that really sucks about losing the all star game.  What are your opinion on that?

First off I’d like to say sorry for not having and update after yesterday’s game.  I had to head out shortly after the exciting game and didn’t get back until the late hours.  I was able to watch most of today’s game as the Cubs lost the series finale to the Giants by the score of 4-2.   Basically the Cubs ran into Tim Lincecum who through eight strong innings to shut down the Cubs.  Ryan Dempster lost his first game of the season at Wrigley Field.

The offense could not come up with the big hit that they needed to get to get a good rally going.  They did push across a run in the 9th inning on a Geovany Soto rbi single but Daryle Ward struck out and Ryan Theriot grounded out with a runner on third.

At the end of the first half the Cubs are 19 games over .500 with a 57-38 record.  The team is also 4.5 games up on the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the division.  Every Cubs fan has to be happy with how the first half of the season has turned out.

Now lets set back and watch the All Star Game where 8 Cubs players have been selected.  Carlos Marmol was added to the roster this morning when Kerry Wood informed the league that he would not be available to pitch in the game due to a blister.

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 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!

The Chicago Cubs defeated the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night by the score of 6-5 after Mike Fontenot hit the game winning home run in the top off the eighth inning off Giants reliever Tyler Walker.  Fontenot came up big for the Cubs as the Giants had just tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Giants were able to tie the game up when Ray Durham hit a three run home run off of Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol.  I don’t know what is going on with Marmol but I sure hope it is all mental and nothing physical is wrong.  Marmol just hasn’t been the same the last two weeks or so.  Even though Marmol gave up the three run homer, he ended up getting the win in the game and is now 2-3.

Kerry Wood was finally back in the game and in the spot where he could get the save for the Cubs.  Woody gave up one hit but struck out two batters and nothced his 21st save of the year.  Wood has had a great year so far in the closers role.

Ryan Dempster pitched a quality start for the Cubs as he lasted six innings.  Dempster gave up a two run homer to John Bowker but that was really his only mistake in the game where he gave up five hits and two runs while striking out seven.  Even with the quality start, Dempster is still winless on the road this season.

Jim Edmonds swung the bat good once again as he had a two run home run in the sixth inning.  Geovany Soto added two runs on a rbi single in the seventh inning for the Cubs.  Matt Murton got the Cubs scoring going in the second inning when he grounded into a double play and Edmonds scored.  Of course Fontenot also had one rbi in the game with his game winning home run.

The Cubs will now send Sean Gallager to the mound on Thursday as the Cubs and Giants will battle it out once again before the Cubs fly to St. Louis for a big weekend series.

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 Cubs seem unbeatable at home. Victories over the cross town White Sox finished off the 3 game sweep and marked the Cubs 14th straight home win. Saturday’s game was all about the 4th inning. The Cubs got 9 runs to turn a 4-1 defecit into a 10-4 lead. Jim Edmonds was the front end of a back to back homerun coupling with Mike Fontenot and then the back end of one with Aramis Ramirez later in the 4th. Jason Marquis didn’t pitch great, but the offense got him the win. Jose Contreras picked up the loss and Kerry Wood nailed down the save in the 11-7 victory.

Sunday night was all about Aramis Ramirez once again. He went 2-4 with a solo homerun and an RBI double. Eric Patterson also hit his first major league homerun, a 2 run blast in the 5th. Derrek Lee added a couple of RBI as Ryan Dempster went 8 strong for his 9th straight home victory in a 7-1 win. Next up for the Cubs, a 3 game set at Wrigley with the Baltimore Orioles, starting Tuesday night.

The Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays played their first game against each other ever and it was the Rays taking the 1-0 series lead with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night.  The Cubs offense struggled until the late innings when they attempted a comeback but they still came up short by one run.

Reed Johnson almost tied the game in the ninth inning when he bunted with Kosuke Fukudome on third base with two outs in the inning.  Johnson laid down a very good bunt however Evan Longoria was able to bare hand the ball and make a bouncing throw to first base where Willy Aybar was able to dig it and hold on for the third out.

Earlier in the ninth inning Mark DeRosa scored on a passed ball.  DeRosa singled with one out in the ninth inning and then moved to third base on a double by pitch hitter Fukudome.  Fukudome also had a chance to score on a passed ball but he choose to stay at third base as the ball bounced to the Rays catcher pretty quickly.

Neal Cotts took the loss for the Cubs and is now 0-1 on the season.  Cotts gave up a home run to Longoria and then a rbi single to Eric Hinske in the seventh inning.  Starting pitcher Ryan Dempster pitched the first five innings for the Cubs.  Dempster gave up six hits but only one run which came on a home run.

The Cubbies will try to get back on track on Wednesday as Big Z takes the mounds.  I like the Cubs chances at evening the series at 1-1.  What do you all think?

Ryan Dempster tossed a complete game for the Chicago Cubs on Wedneday night as they defeated the Atlanta Braves by the score of 7-2.  The complete game by Dempster was the first complete game by a Cubs pitcher this season.  The complete game was huge because it saved the bullpen from having to pitch in the game.

The Cubs got out to a good start at Kosuke Fukudome hit a three run home run in the first inning to put the Cubs up 3-0.  The Cubs then got two runs in the second inning and two more runs in the third inning.  In the second inning, Ryan Theriot had a two run double and in the third inning both runs came on a rbi single by Jim Edmonds.

One bad thing from the game however is that Alfonso Soriano was hit a by a pitch on his left hand and the pitch actually fractured part of his fourth finger.  Soriano will more then likely be out for two to three weeks as he as to be able to squeeze his fist and fit the hand into his glove before he can make a return.  It really sucks to see Soriano get hurt as he was just starting to get into another groove and hitting the ball pretty good.

I would expect Micah Hoffpauir is already on his way to Chicago or he will be early in the morning.

So how will the Cubs do as Soriano is headed to the disable list once again?  Leave us a comment and let us know your opinion.