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 Chicago Cubs used a eight run second inning as they finished off the Houston Astros with a 11-4 victory on Wednesday afternoon.  Alfonso Soriano had a three run shot in the inning and Mark DeRosa smashed a grand slam in the second inning as well.  Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto, and Jason Marquis also added rbi’s in the game as the Cubs offense was on fire.

Marquis finally earned another victory and is now 7-7 on the season.  Marquis gave up six hits and four runs over 6 1/3 innings.  Wasn’t that great of a start but it was good enough to get the job done thanks to the offense.  Sean Marshall tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings while Jeff Samardzija tossed the final inning without any problems.

Now the team will be on Thursday before they start off a huge weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals.  I’ll be at games on Saturday and Sunday and cannot wait!

It was an up and down game for the Cubs on Tuesday afternoon as they blew a 6-1 lead and then came back to defeat the Houston Astros 11-7.  Alfonso Soriano provided the big blast that broke the tie in the seventh inning when he hit a three run home run.  Soriano’s 20th homer highlighted a five-run burst and sent the NL Central-leading Cubs to their eighth win in 10 games.

Starting pitcher Rich Harden didn’t have his best game as he gave up eight hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings.  Bob Howry once again gave up runs as he was charged with two runs in 1 1/3 innings.  It was nice to see Kerry Wood back in action as he pitched a scoreless eighth inning before Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless ninth inning.  To make room on the roster for Wood, the Cubs designated Scott Eyre for assignment.

General manager Jim Hendry had been trying to trade Eyre for quite a while but was unable to get anything done.  The team designated him instead of sending Neal Cotts or Sean Marshall down.

What does everyone think about the Eyre?

Wow!  The Chicago Cubs beat up on the Milwaukee Brewers once again and completed a four game sweep of the Brewers up in Milwaukee.  The Cubs got great pitching from Rich Harden and great hitting in the game as they won 11-4.  The Cubs are now five games up on the Brewers in the division!

Harden threw seven innings to get his first win with the Cubs.  Harden allowed six hits and one run while striking out nine batters.  His only mistake was to Prince Fielder who hit a solo home run in the seventh inning.  Other then that one mistake, Harden was wheeling and dealing all game long.  Bob Howry tossed a scoreless inning in the eighth inning and then Scott Eyre was charged with three runs in the ninth inning.  Yeah you read that right, Howry threw a scoreless inning!  Eyre continues to struggle as he just isn’t getting used that much anymore.  He needs to get into a good rythum but I don’t think Lou has very much confidence in him right now.

The offense was led by Jim Edmonds who had two home runs and five rbi.  Edmonds first hit a solo home run in the third inning, and then added a grand slam in the fourth inning.  Kosuke Fukudome added a two run home run while Alfonso Soriano also had a solo shot.  Mike Fontenot had two rbi in a pitch hitters role and Aramis Ramirez added a rbi as well.

Overall it was a great series for the Cubs as they pretty much crushed the brew crew in every game.  The Cubs will now welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates into town for a afternoon game on Friday.  Hopefully the Cubs keep playing good and we can get another sweep and extend the lead in the division!

GO CUBS GO!

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!

It was another great game for the Cubs offense as they hammered Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Ben Sheets and went on to beat the Brew Crew by the score of 7-1.  The Cubs offense had 15 hits and scored seven runs while the Brewers struggled against Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano and did not score a run until the ninth inning.

Every Cubs batter had atleast one hit as everyone contributed on Tuesday night.  The team had seven straight hits to open the sixth inning and they blew the game open by sending ten batters to the plate and scoring five runs in the inning.

Kosuke Fukdome and Mark DeRosa led the team with two rbi each.  Aramis Ramirez went 4-5 with three doubles and also had one rbi.  Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano had the other two rbi for the team.  It was awesome to see so much production out of the lineup.  A-Ram was locked in at the plate all night long and had some great swings which was nice to see as well.

Big Z threw eight scoreless innings while striking out a season high nine batters to get the win.  Zambrano is now 12-4 on the year with a 2.80 era.  Big Z did show some emotion in the game when he popped up a sac bunt attempt and then broke the bat over his leg.  Atleast he wasn’t getting to hot headed out there on the mound.

Jeff Samardzija came in and pitched the ninth inning and gave up one run.  He was mostly throwing fastballs and just letting the Brewers hit it.  I don’t have a problem with that one run scoring because the Cubs had such a big lead and with a big lead all you can ask the pitcher to do was throw strikes and that was what he was doing.

The Cubs are now up three games on the Brewers and and four games on the Cardinals in the division.  Let’s all sit back and hopefully watch another Cubs victory over the Brewers on Wednesday night!

Now that is the way to kick off an exciting four game series with the Milwaukee Brewers!  The Cubs came away with a 6-4 victory on Monday night and if the next three games are as exciting, we are going to be in for one great series!  Once again there were plenty of Cubs fans up at Miller Park to root on the team and that is always great to see.

The Cubs got to Brewers starter CC Sabathia in the first inning when Alfonso Soriano missed a home run by two feet and led the game off with a double.  He later scored on a rbi single by Derrek Lee to put the Cubs on top 1-0.  In the third inning, Soriano smoked a solo home run about 30 ft farther then his lead off double.  With the score at 2-0 the Cubs did not score again until the seventh inning when Lee grounded into a fielders choice and Ronny Cedeno scored.  The Brewers should have got out of the inning but Rickie Weeks throw to first base was wild.  Reed Johnson had a nice break up slide that forced Weeks to make the bad throw.

Things got really exciting in the ninth inning with the game tied at 4-4.  Lee added another rbi on a double that scored Soriano and moved Mike Fontenot to third base.  Fontenot then scored on a infield single by Mark DeRosa to make it 6-4 Cubs.  The offense came through when they needed to and that is what they are going to have to do this entire series if the Cubs want to extend their lead over the Brewers.

On the mound it was Ted Lilly starting the game and throwing six innings while giving up seven hits and three runs.  Lilly gave up back to back solo home runs in the sixth inning to J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun.  Those two pitches were pretty much his only mistakes of the game.  Bob Howry once again gave a run on a solo home run to Russell Branyon.  Howry is stinking it up right now out of the bullpen.  Chad Gaudin ended up picking up the win as the threw the eighth inning.  Carlos Marmol was electric in the ninth inning as he got Gabe Kapler to fly out to the warning track to end the game.  Marmol picked up his fifth save of the season in the game.

Now the Cubs will send Carlos Zambrano to the mound against Ben Sheets of the Brewers.  It should be a classic pitchers duel and hopefully Big Z will be on top of his game!

On Sunday the Cubs came back from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Florida Marlins by the score of 9-6.  Most of you were probably thinking “oh crap here we go again” when the Marlins got up 5-0 behind two home runs from Mike Jacobs.  However, the Cubs kept battling back and the bullpen held on for the victory.

Mike Fontenot had a big three run double that proved to be the game winning hit in the seventh inning.  Alfonso Soriano also connected on a three run home run that tied the game at 5-5.  Derrek Lee tacked on a solo home run as well.  That is the kind of offense that we seen in the first half.  Hopefully Sunday’s game is the first of many where we see the Cubs bats really heat up.

How about Jeff Samardzija throwing two scoreless innings and recording three strikeouts to pick up the save?  Good outing by Samardzija as he was able to blow people away with the fastball pretty much.  If he can establish that off speed pitch, he could be a good one.  However if he relies on the fastball too much, he is going to get hit hard once the hitters realize he is throwing 80% fastballs.

So now the Cubs are up one game on the Milwaukee Brewers as they take the short drive up to Milwaukee to start a huge four game series on Monday night.  Let’s all hope the hot bats carry over from Sunday and the pitching holds up for the Cubs to kick off the series with a victory!

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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