Out At Home

Cubs 3 Astros 2

The roof was off at the Juice Box tonight, but the Cubs pitching staff was not. Glendon Rusch had another quality start. Rusch went 7 strong innings, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits. He actually beat Rodriguez for the 3rd time this year(3-1). Micheal Wuertz came in and pitched another fine 8th inning and Dempster picked up his 32nd save.

DLee and Matt Murton supplied the pop for the Cubs offense. Lee went deep for number 46 and Murton had a solo shot as well. Nomar added 3 hits and there are rumors he wants to stay in Chicago and the words 'play in the outfield' have been mentioned(will talk about this soon). The offense did not light up the sky, but with the pitching and defense the team played tonight, 3 runs was enough.

The excitement came in the 9th. Dempster had 2 outs and a runner on 1st. Charles Gipson was the pinch runner and he tried to score on a hit by Luke Scott. Corey Patterson made one of the best plays he has had in a long time. He fired the ball in to Jose Macias and Macias relayed a perfect throw to catcher Henry Blanco...Gipson out...Cubs win and the Astros' magic number is still 2. No champagne for you!!

I am trying not to sound to excited, it is only 1 win....but it is a win. The Cubs are now 3 games under .500 with 3 games left. Wouldn't a sweep be nice?

Friday - Carlos Zambrano(14-6/3.33) vs. Andy Pettitte(17-9/2.42)

Big Z had a bad game last week against the Astros and it would be nice to see him bounce back and finish the season on a winning note. Pettitte has never beaten the Cubs and hopefully that will not happen tomorrow. The Astros need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Maybe that in itself will fire up Zambrano. Lee is 2 hits short of 200 and it would be great to get that over with on Friday. The Astros will be eager to get the win tomorrow with the Phillies only 2 games back. Play to that, the Cubs need to make the Astros beat them...play smart and hard.

Have I mentioned how bad Milo Hamilton and Alan Ashby are? Just checking....

Be patient, keep Hamilton and Ashby quiet...and beat the (blankin') Astros!!!