When he realized that neither Jason nor I had themotivation to write up a Series Preview, our resident realist Rob revealed his belief that the Cubs should sweep the Nationals. And they would have, too, if not for those punk kids and that talking dog, too! No, actually, it was mostly the fault of Jason Marquis. Had he not lost the ability to throw strikes, the Nationals probably would have failed to climb back and win the first game of the series.

Thankfully, Rich Harden is no Jason Marquis. Harden gave another stellar performance today, throwing 7 innings of 2-hit ball and matching his career high of 11 strikeouts. Harden has been a pleasure to watch as he just appears unflappable and unhittable - in fact, he's strongly reminding me of Mark Prior circa 2003 with one exception - Lou Piniella isn't pitching Harden's shoulder or elbow into oblivion. His 109 pitches today are the second most he's thrown for the Cubs all year long. (He threw 112 pitches against the D-Backs over a month ago.) Contrast that with 2003 Mark Prior, who in 30 starts that year, threw under 109 pitches only 10 times. Yeah, screw you too, Dusty Baker.

Harden is now 4-1 as a Cub with a 1.47 ERA. The Cubs are an 80 win team and with 32 games remaning, there is still a good chance that they might finish the year 20-12 (that's a winning percentage of .625) and become the first 100-win Cubs team in more than 70 years. Me, I'd still rather see them win a World Series.

Oh, and one other thing about Harden.  At this point, if Rich and the Cubs faced Sabathia and the Brewers in the playoffs, even if I wasn't a Cubs fan, I think I'd have to bet on Harden.  He's amazing.

Offensively, Mark DeRosa continues to rip the ball. He's hit 4 homeruns in as many days, and with the aforementioned 32 games remaining, DeRo has already achieved career highs in homeruns, RBI, walks, and runs scored.

Additionally, the still-struggling Kosuke Fukudome hit a pinch hit homerun - his 9th of the year - and I have hopes that he'll soon pull it together and give the Cubs a solid month of the kind of offense we came to love back in April.

Series Recap: Okay, sure, maybe the Cubs should have swept. However, if the Cubs average 2 wins per every 3 games from here on out, I, nor you, nor anybody will be complaining.

For me, I'm just pleased knowing that the Cubs are now 5 wins away from matching last year's total - a feat they will likely accomplish before August ends. Before the month began, I speculated that they should and perhaps would need to win at least 17 to maintain a healthy lead on the Brewers. With 7 games remaining, they have won 15, and I'd argue that they are in position to win 20.

Granted, the Brewers have hung tough and they've kept up. In fact, I'm astonished by how well they've played. However, they won't keep up. The Cubs are just a superior team and, sooner or later, they'll discover that C.C. Sabathia has been writing checks that his arm cannot cash. In the meantime ...

Current Record: 80-50
Position in the NL Central: 1st place, 5 games in front of Milwaukee (who, at this posting, are tied 3-3 with Pittsburgh in extra innings) and 8 ahead of St. Louis
Best Possible Record: 112-50
Worst Possible Record: 80-82
On Pace For: 100-62
Magic Number: 28, as powered by CubsMagicNumber.com

After yesterday's depressing collapse, the Cubs apparently decided to get serious about beating the Nationals today.  Impressively, they did it by the same margin of yesterday's defeat - 7 runs - thanks to the bat of Aramis Ramirez and the pitching arm of Ryan Dempster, both of whom had very good days.

A-Ram hit 2 3-run homeruns, giving him 22 and 90 on the season.  I can't help but think of where the Cubs would be without him - fourth place and out of the playoff hunt.  For those of you who recently went back and re-familiarized yourselves with the Aramis Cock Fighting Controversy, while this is day 115 of the PETA protest of Wrigley Field, I am happy to report that most of the picket line breaks up at game time as the protestors sneak off to fill their seats.  Also, like the rest of you, I am shocked - shocked, I say - that Aramis has continued to dodge the bullets of angry cock-loving pitchers*, who continue to throw at him but somehow keep missing.  And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, trust me, you're better off not getting the jokes.

(*Sorry.  Really couldn't help myself.)

Oh, Mark DeRosa hit his second homerun in as many days, giving him a career high 17.  I can't get over how great an acquisition he's been for the Cubs.  Along with about 20 other guys on the team, the Cubs wouldn't be where they are right now without him.

Dempster, meanwhile, pitched into the 8th inning, exiting after giving up a single and beaning Lastings Milledge.  Carlos Marmol relieved him and did what Carlos Marmol does best - glare the opposition back onto the bench.  All told, it was a very fulfilling day for the Cubs, and with Rich Harden pitching tomorrow, they have a great chance of taking the series against the Nationals before moving on to more easy prey - the Pirates.  It should be fun to watch.

Ouch.  The Cubs suffered a painful loss yesterday, after having achieved an early lead of 4-0.  In case you were wondering, this 7 run loss is not their worst defeat of the season, it just feels that way because the Nationals are just as bad as most of the Cubs teams that we grew up watching.  Point of fact - the Cubs lost 9-0 against the Reds back on May 7th, they lost 10-3 vs. the White Sox on June 27th, they suffered a 9-2 beating against the Diamondbacks on July 22nd, and the Cardinals beat them 12-3 just this month on August 9th.  What is true is that 13 runs is the most surrendered by this pitching staff all year long, although they were outscored 21-7 over a span of two days on the 26th and 27th of June. 

Blowouts are certainly painful, although Len and Bob pointed out during yesterday's broadcast that the Cubs have lost something like 19 games by 1 run.  I think that's worse.  

Coincidentally, while the Cubs were getting beaten up by the Nationals, the Brewers and Cardinals were also participating in a couple of blowout games, although they were on the right side of them.  Milwaukee won their game against the Pirates 10-4, and the Cardinals defeated the Braves 18-3.  Unfortunately for all involved Central Division parties, it still only counts as 1 in the standings.

So, looking at the game yesterday, I'm sure that you - like I - am asking a single, simple question: wha' happen'd?  

After scoring 4 unanswered runs in the early stages of the game thanks to a sweet steal of home by Soriano and homeruns by Derrek Lee and Mark DeRosa, Cubs starting pitcher Jason Marquis suddenly remembered in the 6th inning that he sucks.  He surrendered a leadoff single to Bonifacio, and then he misplaced the strike zone, walking Guzman and Zimmerman.  Lastings Milledge sac'ed in Bonifacio, Belliard doubled in Guzman, and as Jason Marquis Walk of Shamed his way off the mound, Piniella turned to Neal Cotts to get the team out of that ugly little mess.  Cotts proceeded to walk Austin Kearns and surrender a grand slam to Willie Harris.  Harris, by the way, is a .255 hitter who went 2 for 4 with 2 homeruns and 6 RBI on the day.  When he gets his next contract, he should promise to divvy up 5% of it to Cotts and Chad Gaudin.

After Cotts exited the game, Lou apparently decided that it wasn't possible to win it, so he turned to the Gas Can who gave up 2 hits and another run in his one inning of work.  Then, Gaudin must have drawn the short straw, because although he clearly didn't have his best - or any - stuff, Lou forced him to pitch 2 innings of brutalizing, demoralizing baseball.  The Nationals scored 6 more, adding insult to insult, and for a day the worst team in baseball beat the hell out of the best team.

Luckily, the Cubs have 2 days to extract bloody revenge.  Ryan Dempster, 14-5 with a 2.92 ERA, will be taking on the 5-9 Odalis Perez.  Rich Harden, 8-2 with a 2.04 ERA (1.50 since joining the Cubs) will be squaring off with the 2-9 Jason Bergmann.  There's no such thing as a guaranteed victory in baseball, but I think we'd all agree that the Cubs have to be the favorites this weekend.