Awesomest. Game. Ever.

Wow. Just wow. This was probably the greatest game of the season so far. The offense held their own, with Soriano hitting his third solo home run in this three-game series. The defense was stellar, with Izturis and Fontenot both making diving catches, Derrek Lee pulling off a ridiculous play at first, Pagan diving on the warning track to make a catch, and Soriano nailing the runner at home. The pitching was equally phenomenal, as Sean Marshall, Carlos Marmol, Will Ohman, and Bob Howry combined to shut out the White Sox. Combine that with the confusion surrounding the interference play and Ozzie getting tossed, and this game cannot be matched for fun and excitement. Unless you're my White Sox fan brother, that is. He likes to yell angry words when things don't go his way. My house hasn't been very quiet for the past month.

Oh yeah, and we SWEPT the White Sox. At the Cell. Booyah.

We've got Jason Marquis up against the Rockies tomorrow. Let's see if we can keep some momentum going for once.

Cesar Izuseless is....Useful

Picture this scenario. I'm relaxing on the couch watching a Cubs game. We're losing by one run, which is not surprising in the least. So naturally, I dozed off. I awoke to the sounds of my mother yelling at me that the Cubs scored and they were winning. When I opened my eyes I found this to be true. But then she told me that Cesar Izturis hit a two-run double to take the lead. This left me no choice but to call her a bold-faced liar and denounce her as my mother. Oops.

That's right, Izturis came through in the clutch to put the Cubs ahead, and they actually won a series. Against an AL team. With a winning record. I know, I find it hard to believe too.

Also, Koyie Hill got another hit, raising his average up to .182, or 6 points higher than Jason Marquis. At least now I will almost feel comfortable about the Cubs using him as a pinch hitter.

But of course, when the Cubs finally win 2 in a row, so do the Brewers. We're still 5.5 games back.

BP (May 4th, 2007)

It's been a hectic week, and I started to think that the team's recent success was somehow attributed my lack of presence on this blog. But screw it.

• What is the deal with Izturis? Does Lou absolutely adore him? That's gotta be the case when this once gold-glover owns nearly half of the Cub errors this spring, yet he's still seeing plenty of time. Not to mention, his average is hovering around the .200 range. (Then again, who am I to argue when we're winning?)
• No, I'm going to argue. I'm going to make a case for Ryan Theriot to play short. I've said it before, this guy needs to be in the lineup everyday. I don't care that we already have 2 everyday shortstops on the roster (who can't hit). Heck, it really doesn't matter where he's playing, but he's shown that he deserves more than one pinch-hitting bat a game. This kid should be permanently squeezed in the 2-hole between Soriano and Lee.
• Besides that, I'm not terribly offended with how Lou is handling the outfield dilemma. It's working, and we're winning. But the Cubs are sure making him work for his paycheck. I'm curious to see what's going to happen once we get off the four man pitching rotation next week (Thank God Wade Miller is done).
  
• What happened to Michael Barrett this week? His offense disappeared. I've got him tagged for one hit in the five games, 1 for 21 to be more precise. Here's hoping he gets his swing back soon. (1 for 21 ?! I thought that's what we pay Blanco for...)
• And finally, the Annual DeRosa-Bonds Rivalry is turning out to be more of a massacre right now. DeRo is stuck on 4 while Bonds is way out in front with 9 at publication.

Go cubs. -rfs

This can only end in tears

Didn't watch the game today, I had other things going on. Which I'm actually happy about, because from the looks of things the entire 9 innings would have been frustrating. Marquis gave up three runs early on and we never recovered. I'm not even going to completely blame the pitching here, our hitting has been lackluster and we just can't produce any runs. I'm about to start lobbying for Felix Pie to get called up just to shake things up a bit.

On a side note, Soriano will not get exactly one hit every game this year. He was 0-for-3 today. Marvelous.

Game Summary for April 10th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Astros, 4-2
  
• Player of the Game: Derrek Lee. Went 2-4 with an RBI. Not much else to get excited about in this game
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Cesar Izturis. The Gold Glove winning shortstop committed three errors in one game today, the first Cubs shortstop to do so since Shawon Dunston back in 1997. Not even Alex Gonzalez or Ronny Cedeno could pull off such an incredible feat in their terms of service with the team. And do you remember Cedeno's problems with throwing the ball early on last year? Everytime he got it to Lee in time was a miracle.
  
• Comments: The Astros went up early in the first inning and we never came back. That's what it all comes down to. We got something going in the 9th inning, but after scoring two runs Murton popped up to end the inning. He would have been the subject of Lou's wrath today except that Cesar's errors were very uncharacteristic of his reputation as a fielder. Plus I like Murton better, plain and simple. As for pitching, Marquis didn't do that badly, just made some mistakes in the first and that was enough.
  
• Magic Number: Still 157, pending the results of the Pirates and Reds games today. Kind of sad that those are the teams we are chasing at the moment.