58-40: Bats Find Life as Cubs Avoid Sweep

The Cubs' Cajun Connection of Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot came up big yesterday, helping the Cubs post a 9 run advantage for Ryan Dempster, who proved to be the stopper. The Cubs lost the series to the Astros and some ground to the Cardinals and Brewers. It was nice to see some signs of life from the Cubs' offense, especially the man from Japan, Kosuke Fukudome, who's looked lost at the plate over the past couple weeks. He still had some at bats Sunday where he didn't look real comfortable, but he doubled and scored twice. The final double was hit with authority, the swing more like what we'd become accustomed to from #1 Slugger in his brief. MLB career. I'm not giving up on the Fukker, as he's been too good in the Nippon leagues to suggest that he's going to continue to struggle. You don't win a couple batting titles without knowing how to hit and I'm sure he'll continue to make adjustments.

Saturday, the Big Moose wasn't as sharp as he had been before the break and the Astros took advantage. El Toro Loco did provide the lone Cub run, homering to set a new franchise record for home runs by a pitcher. What's Spanish for "Babe"? Ted "The Killer" Lilly pitched well on Friday, but received no run support save an Edmonds homerun.

Why can't this team win on the road? I thought we were supposed to be cursed at Wrigley. not the other way around. We're running out of time to figure this shit out. Hopefully, Soriano's return will provide a spark and the Cubs can get on another solid run of baseball. We've managed to hold onto first, but the Cardinals and the Brewers are both playing better ball of late. This team needs to win on the road if we're going to win this division. I don't know what they need to do, but they need to do it fast.

In other news, Milwaukee decided the Rickie Weeks experiment is a bust, trading for Ray Durham to solidify their infield. Durham's a veteran, currently hitting .293. This seems like a solid move for the Brewers, getting a veteran presence to stabilize some of the youth on their ballclub. Judging by the average, he can still hit a little bit as well. All this tells me is that Brewers aren't just going to quietly pack up their tents and fade away and neither are the Cardinals. God forbid anything should ever be easy. Such is life, such is baseball.