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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!”

Ouch, another tough start for Chicago. It was only 4 runs in the first inning today given up by Sean Marshall. I was surprised to see Marshall pitching so poorly; he has been known for his consistency and his quality starts since he came up earlier in the year. The Cubs did come back with 2 runs at the end of the 1^st inning, but it wasn’t enouh. After going through the batting order in the first, the Brewers didn’t let up. Marshall let them score another 3 runs in the second inning. He continued throwing fastballs down the middle of the plate and was unable to strike any Brewer out. His control was not as accurate as it has been all year. Marshall finished after 2 innings, giving up 7 runs on 7 hits…. DAMN! (more…)

We should have won 3 out of 4 in Atlanta, but Dempster had to come in early and BLOW the game. The bullpen had to start early last night; after two batters Ted Lilly was ejected from the ball game. The umpire said that Lilly intentionally hit Renteria, but why would he do that after two strike-outs? Wouldn’t he have waited until the Braves got at least ONE hit?

I think the ump should deal with some consequences for this incident! I mean sure, Soriano got drilled the game before on the first pitch, but I don’t think Lilly intentionally hit Renteria, and sure as hell didn’t deserve to get booted from the game! Piniella was on with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan during the game, and they asked if the umpire gave warnings to the team before the game, and NO THEY DID NOT! So even if it was intentional, how could you eject a player before even warning them? (more…)

Ted Lilly is having a horrible game today. The third inning just ended at Miller Park and the Cubs trail 5-0. Lilly has been hanging curve balls over the heart of the plate, working into hitters counts, and has only struck out 1 so far. Over his last couple starts Lilly’s command has not looked so sharp. I haven’t seen him fooling pitchers on his breaking ball or blowing fast balls by hitters. Does Lilly have split personalities or something? Because, I don’t know if this is the same pitcher we saw last month. (more…)

Yes it is officially the fifth game in a row the Cubs have lost. Even though the Cubs lost 8-5, the game was still exciting. After a horrible fifth inning, Carlos Zambrano took his frustration out on Michael Barrett by giving him an ear full and then following up with a couple swings. (more…)