After having taken three straight from one of the best teams in the NL, the Cubs now have the benefit of playing another NL West team that is tremendously under-performing this season. The Padres are a projected playoff contender, and they are likely to climb back to the mean at some point this season, but for now they are easy pickings for a resurgent Cubs offense.

The Cubs thumped the Padres tonight. After threatening in 3 of the first 4 innings, it caught up with San Diego in the 5th when the Cubs exploded for 6 runs. Soriano connected on 2 more hits tonight, including a 2-run homer, and then the offensive onslaught really began. Theriot walked, Lee singled, Ramirez singled in Theriot, the 'dome walked, Soto singled in 2 runs, then DeRosa in 2 more runs, and all of that happened before the Padres made a single out.

Adding insult to injury, in the bottom of the 6th, the Cubs scored 5 more runs off of a lot of walks, a couple of singles, and an error. In fact, all told, the Cubs scored their runs off of 13 hits and 9 more walks.

Speaking of Soriano, he has left his slow start in the dust.  So far, in the month of May, Alfonso is batting .310 with a .348 OBP and an OPS of .919.  The Fonz has 5 doubles, 2 homeruns, and 9 RBI so far this month.  In other words, he's finally coming around.

Meanwhile, Carlos Zambrano continued his strong start. He went 7 innings on 96 pitches, struck out 5, walked 2, and he currently has an ERA of 2.03. Thanks, Moose. We'll take it.

I'm sure that things would be different if only Mark Prior could look at a mound without his shoulder aching. Instead, he's a mere weeks - or days - away from this: