Another day, another Cubs win as the Cubbies took game two against the Phillies by the score of 3-2. It was a pitching show down between ex teammates in Rich Harden and Joe Blanton but both pitchers only lasted a little over five innings in the game. Once again it was the Cubs scoring late to win the game.

Alfonso Soriano crushed a home run off of Clay Condrey in the seventh inning for the winning run. Soriano absolutely  crushed the ball and it was a no doube about it home run. The first run the Cubs scored came in the fifth inning when Daryle Ward grounded into a fielders choice. It sould have been an inning ending double play, however Jimmy Rollins’s throw was high and Mark DeRosa was able to score. The second run for the Cubs came in the sixth inning when Kosuke Fukudome walked off of former Cub Scott Eyre and Ryan Theriot scored.

As for Rich Harden, he only lasted five innings as his pitch count got high right away in the game. Harden was wild as he walked four batters and struck out five. The Cubs bullpen was awesome as they held the Phillies scoreless the final four innigs of the game while the offense came from behind to get the win. Chad Gaudin, Jeff Samardzija, and Carlos Marmol all threw out of the pen. Samardzija tossed 1 1/3 innings to get his first win of his career and Marmol tossed 1 2/3 innings to get the save as he filled in for Kerry Wood. Marmol came in in the eighth inning and got the Cubs out of a jam as he struck out both batters. He added another strike out in the ninth inning as well.

So now the Cubs are up two games in the four game series and hope to make in three on Saturday afternoon. It will be Ted Lilly on the mound against Brett Myers for the Phillies.

The Chicago Cubs stayed hot as they opened up a three game road trip in Pittsburgh. The Cubs bats were smoking hot as they clobbered the Pirates by the score of 12-3. With the Cardinals and Brewers both off, the Cubs are now up a full five games in the division!

Kosukue Fukudome led the Cubs with four rbi as he went 3-4 in the game. The four rbi was a career high in a game for Fukudome in a Cubs uniform. Aramis Ramirez also stayed hot has he clubbed a three run home run to finish the game with three rbi. The Cubs also got single rbi’s from Derrek Lee, Henry Blanco, Jim Edmonds, and Ted Lilly. It was a huge performance out of the Cubs offense as they swung the bats very well and never really let the Pirates in the game.

Ted Lilly one his 13th game of the year as he tossed seven innings. He did allow two home runs which scored all three runs but there was plenty of run support to help him out. Bob Howry and Kerry Wood threw the last two innings of the game and both pitched scoreless innings.

So now the Cubs are up a full five games in the standings and are 31 games over .500! Wow, I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that the Cubs are 31 games over .500 lol. It is a good time to be a Cubs fan that is for sure!

Go Cubbies!

Another series down, and another series win for the Chicago Cubs as the defeated the Washington Nationals on Sunday by the score of 6-1. After losing on Friday, the Cubs came back to win the two games over the weekend to win the series and win theit 80th game of the year. The Cubs are now 80-50 on the year and are 30 games over .500!

Once again Rich Harden was dominate on the mound as he struckout 11 Nationals batters and pitched seven innings to pick up the win. Harden has been a great pickup for the Cubs and I feel like he could be the guy that gets the team farther in the playoffs. Harden only gave up two hits over his seven innings of action and is now 4-1 with the Cubs.

Carlos Marmol pitched the eighth inning and loaded the bases but did not allow a run. Jeff Samardzija pitched a scoreless ninth inning as well to finish off the Nationals.

Mark DeRosa, Geovany Soto, and Kosuke Fukudome both hit home runs. It was DeRosa’s fourth straight game with a home run as he has been HOT at the plate. In his postgame interview, he said he has just been seeing the ball great and guessing right when he needs to and is making good contact. Fukudome did not start and had a long talk with manager Lou Piniella about his struggles at the plate lately. He did get the game and hit a two run home run in the seventh inning.

So the Cubs will be up atleast 4.5 games no matter what happens with the Brewers game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs will fly to Pittsburgh this evening for a three game series against the Brewers and then come right back to Chicago for a homestand against the Phillies and Astros. Lets hope for another series win in Pittsburgh and then a winning homestand against the Phillies and Astros. It’s a great time to be a Cubs fan!

Tuesday’s night game against the Cincinnati Reds could be the one game that really seperated the Chicago Cubs from the rest of the division. Behind seven strong innings from Rich Harden, the Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 and went up six games on the Milwaukee Brewers and eight in a half games up on the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m not saying the Cubs have things locked up, but if they can extend this six game lead into a an eight or nine game lead this week, things will be looking very good for the Cubs.

Harden through his best game in a Cubs uniform as he limited the visiting Reds to only two hits in seven innings of action. Harden once again struckout atleast ten batters which was his fourth time in seven starts for the Cubs. Harden also bunted in the first Cubs run when Geovany Soto scored from third in the fifth inning.

Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood had no problems shutting down the Reds in the eighth and ninth innings as the combination kept the Reds hitters guessing at the plate over the final few innings.

The Cubbies added four runs in the eighth off relievers Reds relievers Mike Lincoln and Bill Bray. Derrek Lee started things off with an RBI single, Aramis Ramirez then hit a double down the left field line that scored a run. Kosuke Fukudome then had a two run single to center field with the bases loaded to score two more runs.

The Cubs improved to a season-high 29 games over .500 at 77-48. Chicago has won seven of eight and 17 of its last 21.

Ted Lilly will be going to the mound on Wednesday evening against Bronson Arroyo. It seems that the Cubs either hit Arroyo very hard and score a lot of runs, or they have problems with his junk pitches and struggle at the plate. It will be interesting to see how the game turns out.

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!?

What a way to kick off an exciting weekend of baseball between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals!  The Cubs and Cards played extra innings and it was the Cubs coming out on top with a 3-2 victory in 11 innings on Friday afternoon.  Great pitching and timely hitting for the Cubs was what pushed them over the top.

Jim Edmonds, playing against his former team had two solo home runs to lead the Cubs with two rbi.  Edmonds went deep in the second and seventh innings of the game.  Without Jimmy, the Cubs would have been shutout and lost the game.  Great game for Edmonds!

The game winning run in the 11th inning came off the bat of Henry Blanco who was hitting with zero outs and the bases loaded.  Blanco signled to left field and Derrek Lee scored the winning run.  Lee started the inning off with a walk and then moved to third base on a single by Aramis Ramirez.  Cardinals pitcher Ryan Franklin then walked Kosuke Fukudome to load the bases before Blanco’s game winning hit.

On the mound it was Bob Howry picking up the win to improve his record to  5-4.  Howry looked pretty good in his one inning of action as he threw a lot more breaking balls early in the count then he has been.  Great to see Howry out there throwing the ball like he is capable of.

Jeff Samardzija allowed one hit in two innings as he did a great job as well.  Jeff has really been throwing the ball well and Lou has a lot of confidence in him right now.  Ted Lilly pitched 7 1/3 innings before being taken out in the eighth inning for Carlos Marmol.  Marmol finished up the eighth inning by recording the final two outs.

The Cubs and Cards will battle it out Saturday afternoon in the second game of the series.  The game will be shown on FOX so make sure you tune if you can’t make it to the game. I’ll be sitting out in the bleachers with my wife and I can’t wait!

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!

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!

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!