Friday September 14

The power is finally showing some consistency as Aramis Ramirez (3 run HR), Alfonso Soriano, Daryl Ward, and Cliff Floyd all homered to lead the offense in the 6-2 win over the Astros. 

Steve Trachsel played a magician in escaping trouble, but only allowing 2 runs over 5 innings and the bulpen(Eyre, Wood, and Marmol), shutout Houston over the last 4 innings.  Jacque Jones helped out with a spectacular HR saving catch in the 9th.

What's ahead?  The Cubs still play 10 of their last 16 games on the road, while the Brewers play 10 of their 17 at home.  That is still advantage Milwaukee.  This is a very important weekend.  The Cubs play 4 games in 3 days at St. Louis.  The Cardinals are reeling, but the pressure is now off them and they would love nothing more than to ruin the season for "my" Cubs.  The Brewers host the Reds.  The Reds are hot, but the Brewers luck out and miss both Harang and Arroyo (who will pitch against the Cubs next week).  The Brewers have been great at home and a sweep is very possible.  If the Brewers do sweep, then the Cubs would have to win all 4 games in St. Louis just to stay tied in the loss column.  (We would be one game ahead in the standings, but just tied in the loss coulmn.)  And a 4 game sweep, including a DH, is not overly likely.  But this is a longterm view based on logic.  Sports laugh in the face of logic, so we'll just have to take it game by game, inning by inning, and pitch by pitch...

And in a weird twist, we have to root for the Braves to get hot and stay in the race, and root for the Padres to lose a few.  The Brewers play at Atlanta next week and then host the Padres in the last 4 games of the season.  We need San Diego to desperately need to win in those last 4 games. 

Go Cubs!!!

Yesterday's Results:

Cubs 6, Astros 2     Box:  http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2007_09_13_chnmlb_houmlb_1

Reds 5, Cardinals 4

Standings:

Cubs          75-71             --

Brewers      74-71             .5

Cardinals    69-75              5