^{Ryan Dempster (5-5, 4.31 ERA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (7-7, 5.24 ERA)}

Story Lines

Well, Games 1 and 2 have been very interesting to say the least, but the Cubs still have a chance to win the series. To do that, the Cubs need a better performance out of Ryan Dempster.

Dempster was not sharp in his last outing, but of course he was just coming off the DL. According to Lou, Dempster had to take that start, because the Cubs did not have another option. Hopefully, one start was enough for Dempster to get tuned up.

Nolasco has been sharp of late, Since being recalled in June, he's lowered his ERA almost 3 runs. In his last two starts, he's given up 2 runs in 13 1/3 innings.

In other news, ESPN is slowly becoming my most hated network. They are now coming up with a new Documentry about Steve Bartman.

I mean, can we please give this story a rest? It is pretty crazy that this is still going on six years later. There is no way that game came down to Bartman.

The Cubs were dealt a couple blows last night with Carlos Zambrano and Aramis Ramirez leaving the game early. The Cubs say there was nothing wrong with either guy. It probably means Jake Fox will get a start today at 3B.

Who's Hot

Derek Lee - Lee had four hits and three RBI yesterday, including the game-winning HR in the 10th.

Ryan Theriot - Theriot came off the bench last night and picked up two hits, including his 2-run triple in the 9th.

Who's Not

Jeff Samardzija - AJ said this morning that he expects Jeff to shipped to Iowa, and I think he's right.

Kevin Gregg - That was a rought outing for the closer. He gets a couple runs of support and then gets the first two outs in the inning. Well, Carlos Marmol is not really breathing down his neck, so lets hope that it was just a one game blow up.

Conclusions

Unless you live in Chicago or Miami, you will not be seeing today's game thanks to Florida's crazy 5 p.m. start of the game. That means it gets blacked out on MLB Extra Innings. The Cubs could really use a good start to the trip before heading up to Ohio.

Well, that was fun.

A lot happened in last night's game. Working backwards: Soriano saw time at 2nd and 3rd in the 10th inning; Derrek Lee hit his 21st home run in the top of the 10th inning, after Kevin Gregg blew a three-run lead despite getting two outs and two strikes on the third hitter; of Carlos Marmol's first 17 pitches in the 8th inning, three were for strikes (he would get two strikeouts from that point); and Jeff Samardzija gave up three notable runs in 1.2 innings pitched in relief of an injured Carlos Zambrano.

Oh yeah, and the Cubs won.

This was a pretty wild game, a game that puts the Cubs in a bit of a bind today. With almost everyone in the 'pen having gotten some serious work, it seems like we can almost guarantee appearances from Jeff Stevens and Sean Marshall in today's game.

Speaking of guarantees, I can also almost guarantee that Jeff Samardzija will be sent to Triple A Iowa as soon as the Cubs add newly-acquired SP Tom Gorzelanny to the active roster. Furthermore, I hope he stays there for the rest of the season and figures out how the hell he's supposed to pitch. It's clear that this kid is not ready for the bigs, and in that case, why is he here?

Other storylines we'll need to keep an eye on going forward: what's up with Big Z's back? Zambrano left last night's game after three innings with back tightness. He claimed it wasn't serious at the time, but who knows what effect this will have on an already thin rotation?

Another injured Cub in last night's game was Aramis Ramirez. Rammy got dizzy after being hit in the "meaty part" of the forearm with a pitch. The dizziness thing sounds more like exhaustion or dehydration than anything serious, so we'll see if he plays in today's game.

Ideally, Ryan Dempster pitches seven innings today, Stevens and Marshall close it out, and the offense scores a bunch of runs. For some reason, I have a feeling it'll be a little more exciting than that.

Go Cubs!

^{Carlos Zambrano (7-4, 3.36 ERA) vs. Burke Badenhop (5-4, 3.46 ERA)}

Story Lines

The Cubs fell back to second place last night after the bullpen chose to explode, well Carlos Marmol chose to stop throwing strikes. It's not a big deal, the Cubs still are up in the loss column, and they still have a chance to take the series.

Carlos Zambrano heads back to the bump for the Cubs. Carlos is 3-1 in July with a 2.63 ERA, and has been pitching much better of late. The Cubs need a quality outing out of Big Z since Rich Harden only went 5 innings last night

There is not a whole lot of other news going on in world of the Cubs. The waiver trading period starts today, and it will be interesting to see how the Cubs act during this month. The Cubs only glaring need is at 2B, but it seems the platoon of Jeff Baker and Mike Fontenot will continue for the time being.

The Cubs were also terrible with runner's in scoring position last night. The Cubs only had six chances and they came up empty in every single one of those chances.

Who's Hot

Jake Fox - Fox picked up his 8th HR and 25th and 26th RBI last night. He only had one hit, but it was big at the time. I have a feeling that Fox might be a little bit of trade bait in the offseason.

Aramis Ramirez - Another day, two more hits. Granted they were both singles, but he keeps hitting and that is what matters.

Who's Not

Carlos Marmol - It was just one outing, but it was rough.

Top 2 in the order - Ryan Theriot and Kusoke Fukudome went a combined 0-for-8 last night. The Cubs are not going to win many games with that happening.

Conclusions

The Cubs are not going to win every night, but it would be nice to take Game 1 of a series. They are now .5 game back again in the NL Central and 1 game out of the Wild Card. I have a feeling it is going to come down to the very end.

The obvious reason for why this game went to crap had to do with Carlos Marmol walking two Marlin batters in the bottom of the 8th inning. If he gets outs, maybe we go a little longer, maybe the Cubs score later on, and so on and so forth.

But really, the offense wasn't exactly killing the ball tonight either. I don't know how many additional outs the Cubs would have needed to give the hitters enough time to take the lead. The Cubs were 1-for-12 at the top of the line-up, with Derrek Lee collecting the only hit among the first three Cub hitters.

Volstad was good. All we could muster off of him was a bloop and a blast, and that happened relatively late in the game.

For the Cubs, Harden was decent; 11 Ks is awesome, but five innings is not. Harden also gave up an RBI double to the opposing pitcher.

On a positive note, John Grabow's debut went well. He did walk a batter, but retired the next three Marlins hitters he faced.

In the end, I'm chalking this one up as an off night for the offense. Let's put some more pressure on the starting pitcher in tomorrow's game.

Go Cubs.

^{Rich Harden (7-6, 4.55 ERA) vs. Chris Volstad (8-9, 4.44 ERA)}

Story Lines

The Cubs are once again in first place thanks to a comeback victory by the Dodgers last night in St. Louis. After St. Louis struck for Matt Holliday, Mark DeRosa and Julio Lugo, the Cubs went out yesterday and dealt for John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny.

The move has been discussed at length, but it probably helped the team. For one, it does give the Cubs another arm in the bullpen to go along with Sean Marshall, even if he gets out right handers better than lefties. The Cubs should get better on their own over the next few weeks with Ted Lilly, Geovany Soto and Reed Johnson coming back.

Tonight's game starts a long road trip for the Cubs. They make trips to the Marlins, Reds and Rockies, and this is a very important time for the Cubs to continue to play well.

Rich Harden heads to the bump tonight, and it will be interesting to see  how he pitches at night after all the fuss the last few weeks. Harden's been great since the All-Star brek. In three starts, he's 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA with 21 strikeouts and two walks. Harden's lack of walks have been the key for him, but that's true of any pitcher.

Who's Hot

Aramis Ramirez - The "Real" Aramis Ramirez is back, and maybe stronger than ever. Ramirez has crushed the ball of late with a .520 average with four HR's and 10 RBI. That translates to a 1.746 OPS during the streak.

Kosuke Fukudome - It is no shock to see the Cubs turn things around when Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano starting to hit. In his last 7 games, Fukudome is hitting .409 with a 1.109 OPS.

Milton Bradley - He's still hitting a lot of singles, but he does have two home runs in the last week. His line in the last week of .333/.483/.619 is showing real signs of improvement. Overall, his OPS is up to .776. Still not great, but getting better.

Who's Not

Mike Fontenot - I really thought the Cubs would make a deal for a 2B, but it does not look like it is going to happen. Even with his two hits yesterday, Fontenot's still just 3-for-17 in his last six games.

Conclusions

The Cubs have traditionally struggled with the Marlins, but they did take 3 of 4 back in April during a homestand. Hopefully, the Cubs can find a way to take 2 of 3 this weekend.

Overview
What a difference a week makes, eh? Last Friday the Cubs were 1.5 games out of first place with the Astros and Brewers not far behind. Now the Cubs are in first after going 6-1 at home and the NL Central race seems less like a swingers orgy and more like a monogamous relationship.

The Cubs are 11-3 since the All-Star Break and are playing like the team everyone was having wet dreams about during the winter. They hit road next and will not be returning to Wrigley until August 11. First stop: South Beach.

Although the Marlins have won seven of their last eight games, they are currently 6 games behind the Phillies. Let’s not be fooled though my friends, the Marlins certainly have something to play for.

In their only meeting of the season, the Cubs took three of four games from the Fish in Chicago.

Needless to say, that means practically nothing now because this Cubs team is different than anything we’ve seen so far this season. Say what you will about the difficulty of their opponents during this hot streak, but the Cubs offense is straight ballin’ homie. I guess that makes this preview particularly hard write because the Cubs are actually…like…good on a consistent basis.

Alas, I will push on. To the matchups!

The Matchups
Friday, July 31st – Rich Harden vs. Chris Volstad
Baseball Reference has Volstad listed at 6’7’’…wait for it…and 190 lbs. Holy crap. Someone get this guy a cheeseburger before the wind picks up. While Big V can bring the heat with his fastball, the guy has suffered some control issues in his last two starts. He’s allowed 4 walks in both contests (giving up 1 earned run and 4 earned runs respectively). Expect the Cubs to be patient and test Volstad’s control.

After Rich Harden’s last start, at least we know that he is NOT a vampire. However if he is actually a vampire, then we are all screwed because they can walk among us during the day. Seriously though, Count Harden threw six innings giving up just 1 run while striking out 8 Reds during a DAY game at HOME. Since the ASB, Rich is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA. He vants to strike you out.

Saturday, August 1st – Carlos Zambrano vs. Burke Badenhop?
We may not know what carcass the Marlins are going to roll out on the field for the Cubs to feast on, but all accounts seem to point to Burke Badenhop. This guy has been used mostly as a reliever all season, so it’s safe to say he won’t last more than 5 innings at best. Like Russ Ortiz, Badenhop (a righty) is stronger against left-handed hitters. I’m not sure if you saw what the Cubs did to Ortiz yesterday, but he was waived after the game by the Astros. Just saying.

Zambrano finally pitched like an ace in his last start but he still didn’t get the win. Such is life. The Marlins don’t take many walks (10th in the NL) and are notorious hackers. This should please Big Z as he seems to work better against teams with little patience. I predict many strikeouts. And the people rejoiced.

Sunday, August 2nd – Ryan Dempster vs. Rickie Nolasco
Nolasco, the “ace” of the Marlins’ staff, has not had an outstanding season so far. With a 7-7 record and a 5.24 ERA, I see no reason to fear him. One could argue that Nolasco is getting better as evident by the 2 earned runs he has given up in his last two starts. But one could also argue that my master’s degree will get me a job sometime soon. In both cases, you’d be wrong.

Dempster got shelled in his last start. To be honest, the guy should have probably pitched a minor league assignment before coming back to the big squad. Besides his walks, what worries me most about Dempster is the number of homers he has given up. In 2008, Demp gave up 14 dingers all season. Guess how many he has given up this year. That’s right, 14. This could be a high scoring affair.

Conclusion
I really like all the matchups this weekend for the Cubs. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to think they could pull off the sweep. However I’m predicting they’ll lose at least one game (most likely Dempster’s start).

Like I said above, it’s hard to tell what to expect from the Cubs now. They could just be teasing us and we’ll have Cubbie Blue Balls at the end of this road trip. Or perhaps they will kick ass across America and come back to Wrigley in first with a nice lead.

I now want to use this space to welcome the newest members of the Cubs to our team: John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny. Although I’m not thrilled about moving Marshall out of the bullpen, this was a decent trade by Hendry. So welcome to the team guys. We’ll love you until you screw up. No pressure.

Go Cubs.

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A big thanks to Yarbage for kindly covering for me while I was away.  Naturally the Cubs took advantage of my absence by playing some of their best baseball this season.  I'm not going to take a deep look into things because that would be redundant, but I'll give a few quick spins on the games played this weekend.

Game One

Cubs lose, yadda yadda, season over, etc. etc., more of the same old tailspin rhetoric that feeds so much content into this blog.

Game Two

Ryan Theriot.  I told my best buddy - not a Cubs fan - about the unlikelihood of Theriot's granny and his response was this:

If you look up "due" in the dictionary, they've got a picture of Ryan Theriot hitting that grand slam below the definition.  Probably my favorite part of this game was that the Cubs were down at various points by a lot of runs.  They were down 3-0 when they scored their first run of the game, and were down 5-1 when they went on their rampage, scoring 7 times before the Marlins were able to tack on a garbage run in the 9th.

Impressive events of this game - Theriot's granny, and Lee, Soto, and Fontenot - three of the now-legendary Questionable Quartet - combined for 2 hits each and went 6 for 10.  The team as a whole also drew 5 more walks, and while Rich Harden was chased the Succeptible Seven - also known as the bullpen - allowed only 1 earned run in 5.1 innings of work.  Cudos to Neal Cotts for almost succeeding in facing the minimum.

Game Three

Speaking of due, Ryan Theriot apparently decided that he likes the taste of the longball and hadn't had enough.  So, he hit his second homerun in as many days - doubling his total for last year - leading the way to an easy romp in Game Three. Wherever he's vanished to, Pseudo-Goat Rider Colin must be scratching his head over the sheer improbability of Theriot's offensive outburst.  (Consequently, we at GROTA will now refer to Theriot as "Juice" for obvious reasons.)

Every playing member of the Questionable Quartet got hits in this game as well, including Derrek who went yard.  The offense drew 5 additional walks, and Ted Lilly (who also hit a double) went 8 innings, striking out 10, and taking the lead for the title of Most Reliable Pitcher on the staff.  Oh, and Aaron Heilman struck out all 3 batters he faced in the 9th.  He's turning out to be shockingly good.

Game Four

And finally we have the decisive game.  On the plus side, Carlos Zambrano threw 5 innings of decent baseball before - on the down side - exiting with a sore hammy.  The Cubs are apparently going to shut him down, but I haven't read anywhere if he'll be taking a trip to the DL or just having a turn skipped in the rotation.

Regardless, the Cubs collected 6 runs from 9 hits and a Bakeresque 0 walks, including homeruns from two members of the Questionable Quartet - Derrek Lee and Mike Fontenot.  In this series, Fontenot's seen his AVG go from being around .230 to .266, and he now has 5 homeruns on the season.  Not bad for a guy who  some of our readers had given up on after about a week into the season.

Conclusions
The Cubs did what they needed to do - they beat the crap out of a first place team who I happen to hate with a hot, fiery passion.  Again a big thanks to Chris for covering for me while I was away

Maybe the Cubs will build on this play and hammer away at the Giants tonight.  After a week or so of harping about consistency, though, it's nice to see 3 games won by 6 runs or more in which different players contributed every night toward the offensive barrage.  That's what good teams do.  That's what the Cubs will do this year.

Current Record: 13-11
Position in the NL Central: 2nd place, 3.5 games out of first
Best Possible Record: 151-11
Worst Possible Record: 13-149
Record needed to win 110: 97-41
On Pace For: 88-74

Quick Links
Series Preview: Marlins at Cubs
Game Recap: Marlins 8, Cubs 2
Game Recap: Cubs 8, Marlins 6
Game Recap: Cubs 6, Marlins 1
Game Recap: Cubs 6, Marlins 4

P.S. The Carlos Zambran-0-Meter desperately needs to be updated.  It's at the very top of my to do list when I get home from work tonight.  Apologies for those who enjoy seeing the meter rise.

I didn't see any of today's game as I watched the Astros beat the Braves in Atlanta. By the way, the Braves might have the worst lineup in the majors right now if you were wondering.

As for the Cubs, Derrek Lee's grandslam in the fifth inning was enough to send the Cubs to a 6-4 victory. Apparently, Carlos Zambrano strained his hamstring beating out an infield single in the fifth inning that caused him to leave the game. I couldn't find anything on Zabrano's injury, so we will just have to wait and see.

During the top of the sixth, I remember looking at the Brave's scoreboard in right and seeing the Marlins with the bases loaded. I wondered what Zambrano was doing, but it makes a little more sense now. Angel Guzman did manage to get out of the jam by only allowing one run.

Carlos Marmol had another adventure in the 8th inning. He gave up a lead-off home run to John Baker, followed by a walk to Hanley Ramirez. He was able to get out of it. Then, Kevin Gregg picked up the save to the Cubs a 3-1 series victory.

Mike Fontenot hit his fifth home run, but Milton Bradley went 0-for-4 to push his average down to .116.

The Cubs picked up a half-game on the Cardinals, who were rained out. It was good to see the Cubs string a few wins together, and hopefully Ryan Dempster can put together a qaulity start against the Giants tomorrow.

^{Ricky Nolasco (1-2, 6.92 ERA) vs. Carlos Zambrano (2-1, 4.64 ERA)}

Story-lines
Can the Cubs finally win a series, and a four-game one at that?
Can Ryan Theriot hit a third home run in as many days?
Can Carlos Zambrano be dominating on the mound?

These all things that I’m looking for as the Cubs try take 3-of-4 from the Florida Marlins. Well, maybe not the Theriot home run, but that would be really nice. After scuffling for over a week, the Cubs are back over .500 with a 12-11 mark. A win today, and the Cubs would have honest-to-God winning streaking heading into a two-game series against the Giants.

If the Cubs are going to compete, the Cubs need Zambrano to start throwing some dominating innings. He has pitched better in each of last two starts, and it would be nice to see that trend continue.

Who’s Hot
Ryan Theriot – as long as Theriot keeps hitting home runs and triples, he will stay on the hot list. The man’s on fire after he doubled his home run total from last season, on May 2nd no less. Call me crazy, but he just might hit three or four this season.

Mike Fontenot – Don’t look now but the other LSU grad has a 1.000 OPS in his last seven days. During that time he is hitting .292 with eight RBI. If anything good has come out his early season slump it is that Aaron Miles didn’t take the chance to take his job.

Zambrano – Big Z has four hits this week, including his first bomb of the year. He also has pinch hit in three straight games, which means his timing is ready for today.

Who’s Not
Aramis Ramirez’s calf – As nice as it has been to some Cubs hit better, we need to have Ramirez back in the lineup. From what I read it looks like tomorrow might be the day. I would rather see him sooner rather than later.

Milton Bradley – Not to beat a dead horse, but Bradley still hasn’t really started hitting. He is improving (he’s got 4 hits in his last 15 at bats). His average still stands at .128 on the season, but with a .320 OB. He didn't play yesterday, so maybe he is ready to bust out.

Conclusions
The Cubs are playing better, and it has translated into wins. Lets go out there today and get a third in a row. I won’t be able to catch today’s game, because I’m heading to the Braves game to hang out with friends. If there isn’t a recap when I get home, I will post one a little later tonight.

Ok, who is spiking the kool-aid with HGH? No really, because this is the craziest thing since Ryan Theriot hit two home runs in one game. Anybody remember that one? I didn't, but thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the information. Actually the entire offense was pretty good today with every regular getting a hit except Kosuke Fukudome, who ended up walking twice.

Theriot's blast in first inning was all that Ted Lilly would need. Lilly threw a brillant 8 innings, while striking 10 on the way to his third win of the year. Lilly's only mistake came in the fifth inning to Cody Ross, or he might have tossed a complete game.
The best thing about Ted's preformance was he didn't walk a hitter. Maybe it will rub off on a few more of the Cub pitchers.

The Cubs got all of their six runs off Marlin stater Anibal Sanchez, including another RBI by Mike Fontenot in the first inning that scored Fukudome to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

Taking inspiration from Dan Haren, Lilly came up with a huge 2-out, 2-run double in the third to give the Cubs a 5-run lead, which was more than enough. Derrek Lee added a home run in the fourth for good measure, and possibly a little ray of light that he isn't totally done.

Micah Hoffpauir continued to prove that he belongs on a MLB roster with two more hits and a walk. Of course the walk ended up as a caught stealing after Joey Gathright did his best Ronnie Cedeno impression by oversliding the bag.

More importantly, the Cubs were able to win for the second day in the row, and the Deadbirds finally lost to the Nats. The Cubs find themselves four back with one last game against the Marlins tomorrow. The Cubs have a great chance to take three out of four tomorrow if Carlos Zambrano can pitch well. At least he should be ready to hit after his third straight day pinch hitting.

Enjoy the rest of the night, and go Cubs.