Running on High

Well, the Sox series was a blast. Home runs galore, a tense first game with spectacular ending, and some good old fashioned whoop ass on the Sox. The Cubs did some damage with the home field advantage and cruised into the Baltimore series on a high.

Wrigley was hopping and the fans were in force. That is the kind of atmosphere a fan can really dig (except for some of the rowdies that needed to be taken care of by security). The upcoming turn on the South Side should be just as raucus. I'll see you there.

The Cubs took that momentum and a 14 game home winning streak into the Baltimore series and promptly took it on the chin. Marshall was only average in giving up 4 earned and Wuertz and Cotts followed up with subpar performances, though Wuertz was not charged with any earned runs thanks to a Patterson error. However, after going down 7-1 through six innings, the Cubs hitched up their pants and made it a ball game at 7-5 after eight before loading the bases in the 9th and going down with three straight strikeouts. The never say die attitude is part of the new Cubby swagger and, as a fan, it's good to see.

The Northsiders came back on Thursday with a 7-4 win and hopefully are starting another winning streak. Lilly notched his 8th win and Wood his 20th save. Edmonds hit his seventh home run, getting 2 RBIs, scoring 2 runs and walking 3 times. Soto had 2 hits, 3 rbis and 2 walks.

As the team heads to the weekend, Fukudome is banged up a little, but it is good to see D. Ward back. Word on the street is that Soriano is healing well and still would love to be back for the All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium. Middle relief is not having a good stretch right now, with little positives coming from the lefties and some shaky outings by Marmol in the set-up role.

On the plus side, Jim Edmonds has responded this month, hitting .352 (19-54) in June with 5 doubles, 5 homers, 18 RBIs, a .438 on-base percentage and a .759 slugging percentage. That's good news while Soriano continues to mend.