Ted Lilly threw seven innings and recorded his 1000th strikeout on Saturday as the Chicago Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 9-3.  Lilly had his pitches working for him finally as he recorded his second win of the season and is now 2-4 on the season.  Lilly also had his second career extra base hit with a double.

The Cubs only scored in two innings but they used a six spot in the fourth inning and then three more runs in the seventh inning to blow the game open.  Mike Fontenot had a three run home run while Geovany Soto had a two run double in the fourth inning.  Kosuke Fukudome had a pair of doubles among his three hits and drove in two runs as well.

The Cubs will try to win the series as the two teams play on ESPN Sunday night.  It will be Jason Marquis vs former Cubs pitcher Todd Wellemeyer.

Also before the game Rich Hill was sent down to Triple-A Iowa and Sean Gallagher was called up.   Early reports are staying that Jon Leiber will take Hill’s spot in the rotation, and that Gallagher will be pitching out of the bullpen.  Hill will stay in the minors until he regains his control and can last more then a couple innings in a game.

The Chicago Cubs ended a dissapointing three game series with the Washington Nationals on Sunday with a 2-0 loss.  There were only eight hits in the entire game for both the Cubs and the Nationals, but the Nationals made sure that two of them scored runs.

Ted Lilly didn’t pitch too badly, but did allow two earned runs in his six innings of action.  Lilly gave up four hits and two runs while striking out seven batters.  Lilly dropped to 1-4 on the season with the loss.

Once again, the Cubs left a ton of men on base on the game.  This time it was 18 runners that were left on base as the offense struggled getting some hits.

The Cubs do have an off day on Monday so hopefully they will recoup and get back on track Tuesday when they open up a series against the Milwaukee Brewers.  Another early series with the Brewers where the Cubs can pick up some big divisional wins.

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.

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!

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?

Tough night tonight for the Chicago Cubs as they fell to the Florida Marlins by the score of 4-2.  The Marlins scored all four of their runs in the second inning off of Ted Lilly.  Lilly definately did not have the game that he was hoping for.  He was behind in the counts early, and gave up bloop singles and then a couple of hard hit balls in the 2nd inning that ultimately lost the game for the Cubs.

The Cubs did try getting a rally going in the 8th when Craig Monroe hit a two-run homer but that was all the offense they really had.  Aramis Ramirez was ejeced in the 9th inning after he flew out.  The umpire was calling the outside pitch a strike all night long, and Ramirez was pissed for having a ball called a strike before he flew out.  Marc DeRosa struck out on the same pitch to start off the inning as well.

As I’m writing this, the Brewers are currently ahead of the Cardinals 4-1 so if that stands that Cubs will only be up 2 games in the division with 5 games remaining.  We hate the Cardinals but we need them to help us out tonight.

The Chicago Cubs broke though with a run in the 8th inning and then made sure to hold onto the 3-2 lead against the Cincinnatti Reds Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.  The made sure the Cubs would atleast be in a tie for first with the Brewers and could be up a game in the divison if the Astros can beat the Brewers who are currently in extra innings.

It was a crazy 8th inning of the game as Ryan Theriot started off with a single to right field that Ken Griffey Jr. bobbled which allowed Theriot to move to second.  Derrek Lee then hit a sharp single to right field and while Griffey was attempting to make a hard throw into homeplate he looked to have some sort of abdominal strain.  Theriot wasn’t sure what was going on, and with only one out in the ballgame, he stayed at third base.  With Theriot on at third, and Lee on at first, Matt Murton hit a sinking line drive to left field that Adam Dunn appeared to catch but the umpire ruled that he trapped it as Theriot scored from third.  Replays did show that Dunn did indeed make the catch and the Cubs finally got a break that would usually go against them.

Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto hit two solo homeruns in the game as well.  Soriano hit the first pitch in the bottom of the 1st inning and then Soto connected in the 5th inning.

Ted Lilly through an awesome game on the mound tonight to lead the pitchers.  Lilly threw seven strong innings while allowing five hits and two earned runs which were both solo homeruns.  Lilly came up big tonight and got out of all the jams that he was in.

Bob Howry came in and finished out the last two innings of the game.  It was a somewhat suprising movie by Lou Piniella when he kept Howry in the ballgame to pitch the 9th inning after sitting on the bench during the long bottom of the 8th, but Piniellas move worked and the Cubs went on to win.

The Cubs have an off day tomorrow before starting a weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field.  I feel the Cubs need to sweep the Pirates to stay with the Brewers in the division.  Lets hope after the weekend the Cubbies are ahead in the division by a few games!  GO CUBS GO!

Ted Lilly picked up his 15th win of the season today as the Chicago Cubs cruised past the St. Louis Cardinals 12-3 at Wrigley Field.  I blogged yesterday that I thought this was a must win for the Cubs if they want to stay in contention for a division title and that is exactly what they delivered.

Lilly was the man on the mound as he pitched seven strong innings only allowing five hits.  Two of them being homeruns by Jim Edmonds and So Taguchi.

Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee got to Cardinal starter Joel Pinero in the 4th inning when they went both connected with homers to give the Cubs the lead for good.  It was a huge 4th inning as the Cubs scored five runs and pushed the lead to 6-1.  Lilly even contributed in the 4th as he hit a 2 RBI double.  Jacque Jones and and Jason Kendall also had RBI’s in the 4th inning.

Ramirez hit his second homerun of the game in the 8th inning.  Lets hope A-Ram stays hot and leads the Cubs to the post season.  We all know that he isn’t playing at 100% but is hustling out there and swinging the bat very well.  We also know he plays good defense at thirdbase and has saved the Cubs pitchers many times, so he needs to be the lineup all the way to the end!

With the 12-3 win over the Cardinals, the Cubs will now travel onto Houston to face the Astros in a three game set.  This series is HUGE for the Cubs and their playoff chances.  With the Brewers playing the Pirates, I expect them to sweep the Pirates so the Cubs must do the same against the Astros.  You never know how things will go in the “Juice Box” in Houston, so lets all hope the Cubbies swing the bats well and score some runs and win some ballgames!

Interested in Cubs Playoff Tickets?  Click here and buy them now before prices go any higher!

The Chicago Cubs got a much needed win tonight as they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 8-2.  It was a big 8th inning that put the nail in the coffin for the Dodgers as the Cubs scored four big insurance runs.

The Cubs got on the scoreboard with the first three runs of the ballgame behind a RBI single by Geovany Soto that scored Craig Monroe in the second inning, and then two runs in the third inning behind a big Aramis Ramirez 2-run homerun that score Mark DeRosa.

In the 5th inning, Derrek Lee singled to right field and scored DeRosa from second base.  That gave the Cubs a 4-1 lead.

It was then onto the big 8th inning when the Cubs pushed across four big insurance runs.  With Soto at first base via the walk, Ryan Theriot came up in a pitch hitters role and hit a line drive double to right-center field that scored Soto.  Jacque Jones then came to the play against a drawn in-infield and hit a single up the middle that plated Theriot who had stolen third.  With Jones at third, and Alfonso Soriano at second, DeRosa hit a single to left field that pushed the lead to 8-2 Cubbies!

Ted Lilly pitched an outstanding game tonight and that is exactly what the Cubs needed from him.  Lilly lasted 6 2/3 innings while only allowing two earned runs while striking out three and walking one batter.  Very good performance tonight for Lilly, and even better that he had some offensive support.

Carlos Marmol, Bob Howry and Ryan Dempster closed out the final 2 1/3 innings to secure the win the Cubs.  It was a huge win as the Brewers and Cardinals both also won tonight.  The Cubs remain .5 games ahead of the Brewers in the Central Division.