Sunday September 9

Carlos is back!!!

Carlos Zambrano pitched like an ACE last night and it was needed badly.  He was his mid-summer self in shutting the Pirates down with just one hit through 6 innings.  He ran into a little trouble in the 7th, but the other Carlos quickly put out the fire.  Where would we be without Carlos Marmol?  Out of the race.  He has been just short of perfect.  And I love how Lou uses him.  He uses him when we are in the worst trouble.  He is our shutdown guy.  Then Bob Howry bailed Marmol out in the 8th and Ryan Dempster closed it out in the 9th. 

Alfonso Soriano hit another HR and just might be starting a hot streak when we need it the most.  Now it the rest of the offense can get hot too.

Imagine, for a moment, if Soriano, Lee and JJ had just average power numbers.  Most teams need their stars to have career years to make it to the playoffs.  We may still win the division with our stars having subpar years and Aramis having to hit well through a lot of pain.  ARam is a true warrior.  If they could just have career Septembers and Octobers now....

Yesterday's Results:

Cubs 5, Pirates 1     Box:  http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2007_09_08_chnmlb_pitmlb_1

Brewers 4, Reds 3

D-Backs 9, Cardinals 8

Standings:

Cubs             72-69              --

Brewers        72-69               --

Cardinals       69-70               2