Lookee What I Found

It's a couple of victories!

The Cubs managed to take two in St Louis and win a series. They are now sitting on 88 wins and are 5 1/2 games up on Milwaukee (lost to the Phils last night) and 8 1/2 up on the next teams in the Wild Card hunt. Amazingly, Houston is one of those teams and they are tied with the Phils now at 80-67.

Now the Cubs are getting a breather as the hurricane resulted in two cancelled games in Houston [pause for a prayer for the weather beaten masses]. The sizzling Astros are 9-1 in their last 10 and the Cubs are hoping this time off will cool them just a bit.

On Wednesday, the Cubs got 8 innings and 1 earned run (in the first on a Pujols ground out that scored Izturis) surrendered from Lilly. Hell of an effort. The Cubs managed 4 runs in the second inning, which started out with 4 straight singles and was aided by 2 errors from Felipe Lopez at third. The inning also featured Ted Lilly barreling into Molina at home plate, catching him in the jewels with his knee. Soriano nailed Izturis at the plate in the third, which would turn out huge as Woody would give up a Pujols double followed by a Ludwick homer to cut the lead to 4-3, the eventual final score.

Thursday was no less fun. Harden went six innings and gave up 2 runs in the sixth inning. Six is pretty good, but there was more Cub Angst this morning as reports of lowered velocity and Harden fading in the sixth came across the wire. It doesn't take much to get people in a tizzy. Soriano and Fukudome both added outstanding catches in the eighth inning and Samardzija, Marmol and Wood locked it down. The Cubs posted two runs in the fifth without a hit thanks to a succession of events - a walk, a rare Pujols error, 2 more walks (The Riot walked scoring Soto) and a ground out (Lee grounded out, scoring Johnson). DeRosa and Fontenot hit back to back doubles to add another run in the next inning.

The ninth was another doozy as Wood gave up a lead-off double. The bunt that followed was fielded by Lee, who fired to third. With Ramirez having to backpedal to the bag after charging the bunt and the runner on the move, it would have been a miraculous play. As it happens, it was anyway as Brendan Ryan overslid third after beating the tag and Aramis got him on the retag. He looked safe, but it was bang bang. A bloop single then put 2 on and 1 out before Woody K'd Miles and induced a pop up from Pujols, who had us all worried.

Two strange wins, but you take what you get. I'm still concerned about the hitting, but the Cubs made some runs out of nothing (or the Cards gave them out for free with purchase of a hot dog) and the pitchers navigated a tough lineup to get it done. The bunt play last night was typical of the Cubs lately, with Lee opting for the ridiculous play at third rather than the out at first (though perhaps Miles beats it anyway) and Ramirez doesn't actually hold the tag through the slide, he holds it up to the ump before realizing the runner was in the dirt past third. They still got the results, but boy is it tense. Soriano has been on target in the field and Fukudome proved his glove yet again.

The Cubs now face 16 games in 15 days. With the concerns for Big Z and Harden, this could really push the staff. Expect some of the middle relief to get rode hard. Either Z or Marquis is going to have to eat some innings on Sunday. I expect it will be up to Marquis regardless of how he is pitching.

Magic Number: Division 11, Wild Card 8