Well That Explains.....Nothing

Today came the sad yet hilarious news that a former Cub has been busted for steroid use. As you read that sentence, I'm sure a number of different names started popping up in your head. You probably started off by thinking Sosa, Nomar, or Gary Matthews Jr. I can tell you now that you are thinking in completely the wrong direction. Think worse, much worse. Worse than Corey Patterson? Absolutely. Jose Macias? Fo-Sho. Even worse than Jacque Jones?? Sweet Jesus yes.

That's right, Dusty's Golden Boy was banned for 25 games for testing positive for a banned stimulant. I'm surprised they even bother to test people with a .172 batting average. That's like testing a Mormon for alcohol, or Mike Tyson for sanity. You just figure you're not gonna find any, so why bother?

Start TheRiot

Much has been made of the French Connection, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot teaming up for double plays just like they did back at LSU. Today though, it was the Theriot-Lee combination in the lineup that did it for the Cubs. Theriot had 3 doubles and 3 runs, and each time he got a hit DLee followed up with one of his own. Lee scored the other 2 runs for the Cubs as they rebounded from yesterday's tough loss to take the series from the Brewers with a 5-1 win. Marquis pitched 7 solid innings while only giving up one solo homer, and Carlos Marmol continued his blistering pace by pitching 2 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.13. Everything just seems to be clicking for this team right now, as we've won 8 of our last 9 games, and 6 of those games were at home where the team has not played well in the past. But most importantly, the team got back to .500 and we're just about halfway through the season. Did anyone expect that two weeks ago? Not me.

Riding the Iowa Merry-Go-Round

Yesterday, the Cubs made yet another move, calling up the delightfully named Rocky Cherry from Iowa and sending Billy Petrick back down to the minors. Now I know what you're thinking, Billy who? Apparently we brought this guy up on June 26th and his major league debut was lost in the three-ring circus that was the Rockies series. So the only thing that surprised me about yesterday's move was that I had no idea Billy Petrick even existed.

But Billy didn't even have time to unpack his bags when he got to Iowa, as Cherry was placed on the DL today with a "right lat strain". I'm not sure exactly what that means, but as long as it's not his groin he should be alright. Either way, losing Rocky Cherry is never a good thing, as the guy has worked his way to a 2.38 ERA in the bigs, despite only being able to pull off a 6.75 ERA at Iowa.

EDIT: Turns out Billy didn't even make it back to Iowa. He drove home to Morris, IL, which is about an hour and a half from Wrigley, and was still there when he got the call. At least he's saving the Cubs some money on airfare.