Cubs win big in laugher over Astros

The Cubs did lose on Tuesday night, I do not really want to talk about that game, any game in which Ryan Dempster starts I feel the Cubs will lose, he is just not very effective. He got hit hard, I honestly thought he would give up 10 runs in that game. I guess the bullpen was brutal as well, the lone bright spot, if you could call it that was that Roy Oswalt hurt his back and had to leave the game in the second inning, therefore further taxing the Astros' bullpen.

Yesterday's game was complete domination by the Cubs. They got off to a quick start, scoring 6 runs in the first inning, highlighted by an Alfonso Soriano 3 run-HR. Reed Johnson also injured himself during his second at-bat of the inning fouling a ball off of his foot, and breaking his foot (he will miss at least a month). I expect Sam Fuld to be called up to replace Johnson, but I am not sure how much playing time he will see, due to the fact he is a lefty, and Soriano and Fukudome are playing well.

The Cubs offense all had a good day, everyone had a hit with the exception of Fukudome and Mike Fonetenot (who walked in his only at-bat). The game was essentially over after the first inning. Aramis Ramirez hit his 9th HR of the season and is really playing well as of late. Andres Blanco hit his first career HR in the 8th, well after the game was out of reach. Micah Hoffpauir may have gotten some of the critics off of his back with a triple, the first of his career. Also, Jake Fox, who came in to play for Soriano had a nice game with a Sac-Fly and an RBI single, they guy is a flat-out run producer. There are too many good things to say about the Cubs bats yesterday, what a great team effort! Since Ramirez's return the Cubs have scored 10+ runs three times, where they only had done so twice without him, we are seeing just how valuable he is to our line-up.

The pitching was the real story yesterday as Randy Wells went out and pitched 8 innings allowing no runs on 6 hits, walking two, and striking out only one. He was dominant to say the least, no baserunner reached second base against him until the 8th inning, his last. He pitched a lot of ground balls, resulting in 3 GIDP for the Astros. Wells earned his 7th win in 8 games and is now 7-4 with a 2.84 ERA on the season. Once he has enough innings pitched he could be near the league lead in ERA and a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year. In addition to Wells, Mitch Atkins pitched the 9th in his MLB debut, he shook off a Jeff Baker error and induced yet another double play to end the game. From what I saw, Atkins did not look all that bad, he threw strikes (7 out of 8 pitches) and looked poised out on the mound. Hard to understand how this guy had a 6.92 ERA at AAA-Iowa, he was considered an outside chance to make the club out of spring training. I would expect to see Atkins again in September if he continues to pitch well.

Up next: The Cubs and Astros finish their 4 game series this afternoon at 1:20pm on WGN TV and Radio. Kevin Hart (2-1, 2.08 ERA) vs Russ Ortiz (3-5, 4.75 ERA). Hart has had back-to-back strong outings, I am not really sure if we can expect him to do it again? His track record in the minors would suggest he can not. But he has been keeping the ball down, all he really needs to do is go out there and keep his team in the ball game. I would like to see 6IP and 3ER, maybe 4ER. Russ Ortiz is a familiar face to the Cubs hitters, they have seen him twice already this season, winning once and losing once. The last time Ortiz had the Cubs' number, this time, I see them scoring some runs off of him, possibly a lot of runs. The Cubs have the Astros on the ropes, if Ortiz does not have his best stuff out there, he will have to remain in the game, due to the overuse of the Astros Bullpen, thanks to Oswalt's injury and Mike Hampton's turd of a start yesterday, not to mention the 13 inning game on Monday. If the Cubs can score a few runs today, like say 5, they should win this game and take three of four from the Astros. The Cubs are currently 1/2 game out of first place trailing the Cardinals who defeated the Dodgers in 15 innings last night, thank you LA for blowing the lead in the 9th you bunch of over-rated jerks! One last thing, Mark DeRosa looks like a dick in a Cards uniform.