What an exciting game it was today; Barry Bonds hit career home runs number 752 and 753, driving in 6 runs, and the Cubs still won! The Cubs offense has put up 21 runs in their last two games. Ted Lilly ended up getting the ‘W’ today, going 5 innings and giving up 6 hits. Our middle relief did not look very good today, giving up 5 runs of their own. Earlier in the year, these kind of games would have been lost. Our offense has been putting on a clinic for all of their opponents, its great to see the offense carrying the early relievers and getting the starting pitchers victories.
So let’s start with Barry Bonds; it was great to see him hit a couple historical home runs at Wrigley on his march to pass Hank Aaron’s home run record. Bonds must have been itching to hit a homer, he drilled the first pitch Lilly threw onto Sheffield Ave (the first on Sheffield, ALL YEAR.) His second homer of the game came in the seventh inning with 2 on and 2 outs with Will Ohman pitching. Read the rest of this entry »
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It was tough seeing a loss yesterday, us Cubs fans have not seen one of those since before the All-Star break. Even though we did lose to the Giants yesterday, it was still a close, suspenseful game. Barry Bonds did not play for the second straight game, and he also did not start today. If you had a chance to watch the game yesterday, the crowd was amazing! They gave Kendall a standing ovation on his way up to the plate for his first at bat. That’s gotta be a hell of a feeling, all 40k plus fans cheering extremely loud, all for u!
Well the game yesterday wasn’t so great for Kendall going 0-4, but lets get him situated before we start making any judgment on his play. Derrick Lee on the other hand, hit his 8th home run on the season, his second homer in three games. Now everyone can be quiet about Derrick Lee’s power drought, seems like it may be over! If you haven’t found out yet, D Lee will start serving his 5 game suspension today. He told the media that he fouled a ball of his leg pretty hard yesterday, so why not take a little break and rest his ankle while serving his suspension? Read the rest of this entry »
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Say hello to our new catcher, Jason Kendall. Kendall has been an offensive force (well maybe not this year) batting .298 during his career. The Cubs are hoping that Kendall can come around from his season long slump, in which he has been batting .226. Rob Bowen was sent out to Oakland along with a minor league pitcher in order to acquire Kendall. Bowen was having a horrible time batting for the Cubs. His defense behind the plate was excellent, very comparable to that of Kendall’s. This trade should give the Cubs more pop from their catcher position while bringing in the veteran catcher to work with some of the young pitchers. I hope we can see the Kendall who many pitchers feared just last year, any catcher would be better at the plate then Bowen or K. Hill. Welcome to Chicago Kendall!
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Houston has been swept out of town by our beloved Cubs. At the beginning of this game it looked like it could have been a blow out. Marquis ended up giving the Astros 6 runs over 4 innings. As the Cubs have been lately, they fought back and won. This time with a couple big homers from Derrick Lee and Angel Pagan. Derrick Lee ended a 35 game home run drought, the longest in his career.
The Cubs started their second half in a big way sweeping the Astro’s. During the three game stretch we have gained a full game on Milwaukee; who barely won the series against the Rockies. I’ve noticed many of the ESPN analysts now predicting the Cubs to overtake Milwaukee in the division, something I’ve been saying for quite awhile now! Read the rest of this entry »
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It’s nice seeing the Cubs back in action. Even though its only been a 5 day all-star break, I couldn’t wait to see the Cubs return to action. They started the second half in a fine fashion, Carlos Zambrano pitched lights out giving up only 3 hits and 3 BB in order to shut out the Astro’s 6-0. The club has picked up exactly where they left off in the first half, winning games. The Cubs are finally .500 at home!
Off the field, there has been a lot media attention on the Cubs lately. We have the bidders for the Franchise coming out of the woodwork, with the spotlight shining on Mark Cuban. Theres been positive talk of the Cubs resigning Big Z and even though the team is being sold, McDonough assured Cubs fans he can still write checks, big ones. Read the rest of this entry »
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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 1st 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! Read the rest of this entry »
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If you did not see the footage Wrigley Field yesterday afternoon, our field was covered in 5 inches of rain within an hours time. It looked as though Hurricane Katrina’s sister was coming to Chicago. But the weather subsided and the wonderful crew at Wrigley made it seem like it never rained.
The Friendly Confines did not really catch on fire, but it seems that our Cubs have. Last night was their 5th win in a row, and this afternoon they will go for their second consecutive sweep. Here is the pitching matchup for today…
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| Carlos Zambrano |
pitchers |
Jason Hirsh |
| 8-6 |
W-L |
3-6 |
| 4.27 |
ERA |
5.06 |
| In his last start, he gave up one run on three hits over eight innings. Zambrano was sharp, mixing his pitches well and displaying good movement on his breaking ball. (cubs.com) |
last start |
Hirsh had his second consecutive rough outing in his last start. He gave up five runs on seven hits while walking three over 5 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays. Hirsh has never faced the Cubs in his two-year career. (cubs.com) |
On paper, we sure have the upper hand in this matchup. The way Big Z has been pitching lately is lights out, I would be shocked if he gave up more than two runs. Hopefully our bats can stay hot, even though they don’t need to be too hot with Z on the mound, and we can sweep the Rockies.
More after the game
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