The Cubs beat the Giants today 12-6 and the game wasn't even as close as the score would indicate. In a nutshell, the Cubs offense opened a can o' whupass on the hapless Giants and got strong performances out of the pen by Cotts, Ascanio and Hart. Dempster and Gallagher gave up one run each in the first four innings; Cedo and Caridad (who?) each got touched up for two runs each.

The Cubs offense was paced by a humongous day at the plate by Mike Fontenot - he had a big three-run homer and a triple and scored two runs. Theriot was the plate-setter, going 3 for 3 with 3 runs scored. Felix Pie got two hits and scored three of the Cubs' runs before being replaced by Sam Fuld in center, and Derrek Lee contributed with two RBIs.

Noticeably absent were Ramirez and Soriano - the Cubs announced that neither would be start but I've yet to see why they were held out of today's game. Hopefully neither reported to camp out of shape or not limber. In all it was a great start, a real morale lifter; the Cubs pay SF again tomorrow at 2:05 CST.