Lilly vs. Wainwright

July 25th, 2007

Cubs; ESPN 2; 8:10 PM ET; vs. Cardinals; Wainwright, 9-7, 4.18 ERA vs. Lilly, 10-4, 3.51 ERA

The Cubs enter play today 3 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the NL Central. They also enter 1.5 games back of the San Diego Padres in the Wildcard. Not too shabby considering how much time the Cubs have to actually overtake these teams in the standings.

There are no teams standing in the way of the Cubs in the Central, and in the Wildcard it appears that only the Braves will make a ripple through the quiet water. Not that I am begging for excitement, far from it, I want this to be as easy as possible.

With yesterday's win, Zambrano ties himself for the major league lead in wins. With 13, he is tied with 3 other pitchers. Tonight Ted Lilly aims for his 11th win, which would put him ahead in the un-official stat 'Most Wins With New Team', which just gauges how he's doing with the Cubs so far wins-wise.

Thanks,

Ryan

For One Night, Everything Clicked

July 21st, 2007

Cubs; WGN 9; 1:05 PM ET; vs. Diamondbacks; Owings, 5-5, 4.92 ERA vs. Hill, 6-6, 3.70 ERA

Today I will lay back on my fuzzy couch with my Ernie Banks jersey on, watching the Cubs play on channel 19, Superstation WGN. I will relax, knowing that everything that I had wanted to happen in baseball world happened. Every team that needed to lose to make the Cubs better in the NL Central and the Wildcard lost.

Yesterday, the Cubs won 6-2 after getting down 2-1 on a Chris Young homerun off of Marquis, who had a great start by the way. The Cub game yesterday was at 2:20 PM ET, and there were no other games until 7:05. This gave me plenty of time to check standings, probable starters, stories, and still have time to play with my kitten.

I wanted the Padres or Dodgers to lose. If 1 of them wins, the NL West has 1 sole possessor, and so does the Wildcard. Well, by sheer luck, both of them lost, letting the Cubs be 2 back in the Wildcard. I wanted the Braves to lose also. They lost 4-2 to the Cardinals, a team that hardly matters at all at this point.

Finally, the most important of them all, the Brewers lost, pulling the Cubs to withing 2.5 games of the NL Central lead. The Cubs are 51-44, and have a 3 game win streak, winning 7 of 8 sinc the all-star break. So, back to the title, for one night everything clicked.

Thanks,

Ryan