5-3

Wow, another barn burner at PNC Park. Thanks to the magic of CLTV I missed the game. Sounds like Dempster actually pitched pretty good. Unfortunately, Rod Beck’s mustache had the night off and Kerry Wood blew his first save chance of the year. I can hear the doom criers already. “Wah, I want Carlos Marmol to close. Wah.” One blown save. Big whup. Doesn’t change the fact that Wood has been filthy thus far. These things will happen. Most importantly, the Cubs outlasted the Pirates and notched the win. Last April, we’d have lost both of these games. This ballclub seems like a leaner, meaner, tougher unit than the one that walked on the field in April 07. That’s a full season of Uncle Lou, coupled with the jettisoning of most of our dead weight in the off-season. While one major chunk of flotsam remains (Do the initials RC mean anything to anyone?) the fact remains that this is a much improved ballclub. The early errors are a little frustrating to be sure, but I think that’ll stop. These guys are simply too good to play that poorly and they have a manager who won’t stand for the kind of sloppiness for too long before he explodes. It’s been a little shaky thus far, but it’s a far cry from the outright suckiness of last April. This keeps up and Uncle Lou won’t have to kick any dirt around to fire this club up. Ramirez’s slumbering bat is awakening, Derrek Lee thinks it’s 2005 again, and Fukudome is showing why he was pretty much Hendry’s only target this year. DeRosa and Soto have been solid. Once the weather warms up a little, Soriano’s bat should thaw. If we get all these guys working, hopefully they can cover for Theriot and Pie.

Let’s hope the boys can rip off a nine inning win tonight with Kerry getting right back in the saddle. Rich Hill needs to go deep into this ball game, folks.