The remaining 4 series for the Cubs are Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Florida, and then Cincinnati again. All of our series are 3 games series, and the first two will be at home, the final 2 will be away. As for the Brewers they have to face Houston first, then head to Atlanta for 4 games. After these two series are complete hopefully the Cubs will be 3 or 4 games above them in the race. For their final two series Milwaukee will be home against The Cardinals for 3 games and The Padres for 4 games.
The final two weeks look very promising for The Cubs, I would be confident in saying if they took 7 of the final 12 games they would easily take the division and move onto the playoffs. Â The Brewers have a tough road ahead Atlanta and San Diego will give them a run for their money, considering San Diego is at the top of the wild card and has some of the best pitching in the league.
I am looking forward to our first playoff birth since 2003, when we came 5 outs from a World Series appearance. Go Cubs
Hey there Piniella - Friggin’ hilarious parody of Hey There Delilah. Check out the link to see the youtube.com video!
First place has never felt so good! The Cubs are now up 2.5 games above the Milwaukee Brewers and 3 games up on St. Louis in the NL Central division. Last night the Cubs beat the Brewers to win the series, which will be the last time we see the Brewers all season. So do the Cubs have what it takes to make it to the playoffs this October?
Well first off, we are in the weakest division in the Major Leagues, but you can’t sell the Cubs short. They only won 66 games last year, so you have to give a hand to Mr. Piniella and the new players coming over this year for making such a difference.
Has anyone noticed our starting pitching has been a little shaky lately? Well not completely, Hill and Lilly have been quite consistent. Our Ace, Zambrano, has been garbage in his last five starts, posting an ERA above 7 for the month of August. Jason Marquis and Marshall have also been inconsistent lately. In order to make it to the playoffs we need our starting pitching to keep the Cubs in EVERY game by giving up 2 or less runs over 6 innings plus. If the our rotation can manage, we should be able to take this division.
Up next we have the Astro’s - wouldn’t a sweep be nice. Even though you can never bank on a sweep, pulling further ahead this time of year would be just what the doctor ordered for the Cubs and all their faithful fans.
It’s been a real long time since I have been able to blog. After seeing the ninth inning come-from-behind victory last night, I was really looking forward to blogging about it.
What a game last night, the Cubs looked like stone statues in the first 8 innings of yesterdays ball game, which didn’t take over 2 hours and ten minutes. Tim Lincecum the rookie phenom from San Francisco, pitched 8 scoreless, and dominating innings last night. The wheels did seem to fall off for him in the ninth inning, when Theriot wrapped a double down the line to start the 9th. After The-riot, Lincecum walked Jaque to put two on with no outs. And then the man who’s bat seems to be heating up, Derrick Lee, tied the game with a single (his signature hit) to right center.
The Cubs ended up scoring 5 runs in the 9th thanks to an RBI by Derrick Lee, 2 RBIs by Cliff Floyd, and 2 RBIs by “The Beast” Jason Kendall.
I think we all got a little frightened when they flashed the score of the Brewers game in the eight inning. The Brewers were up 7-2 on Arizona and the Cubs were looking at Lincecum pitching a shut-out. Maybe that’s what sparked the Cubbies, but either way we won and remain tied for first with the Milwaukee Brewers. St Louis also won last night, and we can’t let them come any closer than they already are!
Tonights game is featuring Rich Hill and Barry Zito. The Cubs have not been very good against lefties this year, but Rich Hill looked electric in his last start against the Cardinals. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 3 hits and the only run came off a home run. Hopefully the Cubs will give Hill enough run support and he’ll continue pitching well, GO CUBS!
Finally, the Chicago Cubs veered off their path of destruction by taking back-to-back games from the smoking hot Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Jason Marquis brought back memories of the first month of the season when he gave up only one run(zero earned) over 6.2 innings pitched. Aramis Ramirez has been out with a soar wrist and looks to come back Tuesday after the night off on Monday. The Cub’s Rich Hill will look for win number seven tonight, going for the sweep of the Rockies.
Jason Marquis had one of his best outings of the year last night; the only other time he has given up no earned runs was in April against his old St. Louis Cardinals team, and early May facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was taking a look at Marquis stats and realized how often he gives up runs. I found it remarkable that he could only give up one run at a stadium that is known to be a hitters park. But sure enough, us Cubs fans love to see Marquis throwing the ball well and getting many batters to ground out with his sinker ball.
Well, it’s been awhile since my last blog, but I wish I wasn’t coming back on a losing note. The Cubs ended up losing the series to the New York Mets with today’s 8-3 loss, they also lost Soriano when he strained his quad rounding second base. Kerry Wood also made his first appearance out of the bullpen in over a year. Tom Glavine received his 300th career win today at Wrigley, it was his second attempt at the feat that only 22 other pitchers have accomplished, only 4 other lefties. The Cubs are off to a seven game road trip tomorrow to face the Houston Astro’s for 3 games and the Colorado Rockies for 4 games.
The injury to Soriano could keep him out of the lineup 4-5 weeks. Pulling a quad is not a very pleasant experience, you could tell when Soriano was grimacing after turning up the speed. With the NL central and NL wild card races heating up, it’s a tough time to lose Soriano to injury. Soriano has been cooling down at the plate lately so maybe this could be a good time for Jaque Jones and/or Mike Fontenot to turn on their A games. The Cubs have been able to maintain winning records when their big guys have been out; remember when Derrick Lee sat out for 5 games and Aramis Ramirez was out on and off? Don’t expect the team to fall apart now that Soriano is out for an extended amount of time. Just a thought, maybe someone else can prove they can hit better than Soriano out of the lead-off spot. Not that Lou would give anyone else the opportunity upon Soriano’s return, but lets see what happens.
It was great to see Kerry Wood back in a Chicago Cubs uniform and pitching well. According to ESPN’s radar guns, Wood was throwing his fastball between 93 and 95 MPH. We also got a chance to see his curveball that we’ve missed for so long. Wood did strike out Reyes on a beautiful pitch to end the 7th inning. I’m sure every Cubs fan will join me in saying “Welcome back, Kerry!”
Well, I’m off to see the Cubs face off against the Phillie’s tonight at Wrigley. I haven’t been to a game since the Piniella “Freak Out,” so I’m hoping this game will be just as good! Tonight we have a terrific pitchers duel, Cole Hamels is going for the Phillie’s tonight, he has been lights out lately and his record is 11-5. The Cubs have the train aka Ted Lilly going for his eighth straight win. Lilly has won his last 8 decisions and his last 7 in a row!
My prediction for tonight is a good pitchers duel early on, but after the batting order goes around once, someone is going to light Hamels up! Not everyone realizes Soriano hits balls that are about 2 inches from the ground out of the park. And keep your eyes on Derrick Lee, he has hit 5 home runs in his last 8 games. I think it’s safe to say his power stroke his back.
With a win tonight the Cubs have come within 2 games of the NL central leading Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs dominated the Cardinals tonight, winning 7-1 with Ted Lilly on the mound. Ted Lilly’s record in his last 8 starts is 7-0, 6-0 in his last 6. It is only a matter of time before the Brewers go into 2nd place in the NL central.
The story of today’s game was Ted Lilly. He went 7.0 innings and gave up 6 hits, while walking 3 and striking out 2. If you watch Lilly pitch, you can see his control is outstanding, he is hitting his spots and throwing good breaking balls. Lilly was an excellent pickup for the Cubs in the off-season, he could end up winning 17-18 games the way he is pitching.
But let’s not forget about the other starting pitchers, Zambrano became the first pitcher to 13 wins in the NL. Could this be his Cy Young year? If anyone remembers, Zambrano made a prediction at the beginning of the season that he would win the Cy Young and the Cubs would win the World Series. Everyone laughed when he said that, and especially 4 weeks into the season, when Zambrano was 1-5 with an ERA close to 6.00. Now the tables have turned and the Zambrano is leading the NL in W’s and the Cubs are creeping up behind the Brewers like a Bear about to attack!
It’s not just a couple players making big plays and leading the team, it’s a team filled with chemistry and A SHITLOAD of good players. When I see the Cubs starting line-up I see 5 players batting around .300 or better. Lou has come into town and really made some noise. Players have a hell of a lot of respect for the man and I think they know they have to play hard or go home. We have already seen Izturis get traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Rookie Ryan Theriot take his position. This is a good sign, last year I felt like the clubhouse atmosphere was to relaxed, kind of like Dusty’s attitude. Couldn’t have a better man come into town then Lou Piniella.
The meltdown Lou Piniella had on June 2nd was the turning point of this season. I was lucky enough to witness the madness of sweet Lou at Wrigley on that wild day. It was the Cubs sixth straight loss and they were 9 games below .500, that not so elusive number (anymore). My fellow Cubs fans and I all thought the Cubs were screwed just like last year, but we knew we had the right pieces of the puzzle. Sure enough the Cubs went 18-8 in their remaining games in June and are now 14-6 so far in July. Something just clicked that day. Maybe the players realized that this man Piniella wants to win just as bad as they do. You should have seen how red Piniella’s face turned that day, it stuck out like a giant red pepper from 150 feet away. That day I was quite upset seeing a loss at Wrigley, but I look back and would not take back going to that game for ANYTHING! It was amazing!!!