Rich Hill performed well tonight. He pitched 8 innings, struck out 3 and only gave up 2 runs. Howry came in and closed things out for his 6th save. Ramirez hit the winning double to score Ryan Theriot and Derrek Lee. Koyie Hill hit a home run to score the first run for the Cubs.

Note: ESPN keeps reporting Kendal for Sean Marshal trade!!! They Corrected them selves. Good!

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Derrek Lee hit his 10th home run in the first inning off Aaron Harrang to give the Cubs a 2 - 0 lead.  In the second inning Jacque Jones walked and Jason Kendall moved Jones to second on a single. Sean Marshall bunted both Kendall and and Jones over and Soriano hit one deep to left field to bring in three more for the Cubs.

In the 5th inning Sean Marshall hit his first career double to start off the inning. Soriano came up and tried to knock him in with a line drive double to wall. Marshall tried to get in without injury but was called out on a play at home. Soriano took advantage and moved up to second. Theriot flied out and the Reds didn't want any part of Derrek Lee as they intentionally walked him. Cliff Floyd came up and punished the Reds for walking Derrek by driving a ball to left center to score Soriano. Lee stopped at third mainly because of the quick return to get Marshall earlier. The Reds walked Derosa to load the bases then brought in a new pitcher to strike out Mike Fontenot.

The ninth inning came up and it looked like the Cubs had this game in the bag as they had a 6 - 1 lead. Kendall came up and got on with "excuse me" single. Matt Murton struck out. The insurance man came up blasted another one to left field to give the Cubs an 8 - 1 lead.  Theriot came up with not much production from his bat but he walked twice and scored a run. Ryan struck out to give the two outs. Derrek Lee did the same to end the top of the ninth. Dempster was brought to finish things up for Marshall and Murmol. Sean went 6 innings, striking out 3 and only giving up 1 run. Mumol struck out 2 and shut down the Reds in the 8th. Dempster gave up the first hit for a double in the 9th inning. He then walked the next batter to bring out Larry Rothchild. He then walked another batter to load things up. So Dempster is used to save situations and likes to put pressure on him self. Dempster struck out the next man to get the first out. The next batter popped out to DeRosa. Theriot got a grounder to his right and forced the runner at second to end the ball game. 8 - 1  

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The Cubs pitched well both Saturday and Sunday but could not find the batting power with Ward, Floyd and Lee out of the line up.

The Brew crew won today so the Cubs are back to being 3 and half games out of first place. Monday will serve as a good day off as the Cubs will get Lee back.

Saturday's BoxScore                                                 Sunday's Box Score                                                                                                          

Wednesday the Cubs and Ted Lilly performed with their winning swagger to get within 2 games of the Brew Crew for first place. Lilly won his 11th game by pitching 7 innings striking out 2 an giving up a run for a 7 to 1 win. Scott Eyre came in an finished things off and is starting to look better.

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Thursday the Cubs took the day off and Marquis needs some work. Cubs got spanked 11 - 1 by the Cardinals. It's a good thing the Cubs alreay took 2 of the three games.

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Rich Hill came in on Friday an pitched 5 innings, striking out 8 batters an giving up only 2 runs. Then Rocky Cherry came in to give up 2 more runs to make it a 4 - 1 hill for the Cubs to climb. The Cubs came back and tied things up in the 9th but lost on a walk off single by the Reds.

The close games are starting to catch up with the Cubs again. Sweet Lou needs to give his bull pen a break today by getting some runs against the Reds. The bull pen has done well to hold things together so far but they are warn out.

Hopefully the Cubs can power their way passed the Reds and get the next two wins.  Monday is Philadelphia and the Cubs will have to preform a lot better than they are now to beat the Phillies.  

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Today the Cubs started out looking tired and weak. Then the spinach was handed out. Jason Marquis had a bit of an off day as he pitched 7 and half innings and gave up 2 runs. He hasn't been as stellar as he has in the past but he pitched well enough for the Cubs bats to lift him up for his 7th win.

Jacque Jones heated things up as he went 2 for 4 and drove in 3 runs. The Cubs put Murmol in to set up Howry for what looked to be a 3 - 2 save situation. Ramirez came up in the 8th inning and gave Howry some assistance to his 9th inning save situation by jacking a three run bomb for a Cubs 6 -2 win over the Diamondbacks. Of course Howry pitched well in the 9th. He has performed real good since getting more time on the mound.

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On Thursday (7/19/2007) the Cubs win a close one 9 to 8. Lilly pitched a lot of pitches in the first couple innings so it was very apparent that the Cubs would be bringing in the bull pen. Lilly pitched 5 innings struck out 1 and gave up 3 runs. 1 of the runs came from Barry Bonds bat in the 2nd inning. Petrick, Weurtz and Ohman struggled to keep the 8 - 3 Cubs lead. They combined to give up 5 runs. Ohman included a Barry Bonds home run with a runner on too. The bull pen needs to step up!

Luckily the Cubs have the bats going for them. The lead started in the first inning as the Cubs took a 4 -0 advantage. Soriano, Ward, Ramirez and Pagan all hit doubles. Jacque Jones went 4 for 5 to prove he is getting better. It was a tight 9 to 8 win but the Cubs brought in Carlos Murmol and Howry to give the Cubs the win.

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The Cubs are on a roll after dropping 1 out 4 games to San Francisco and giving the Giants slugger 2 Home runs to add to his record.

On Wednesday (7/18/2007) the Cubs Carlos Zambrano took to the mound some different pitching. He struck out only 3 on 5 innings and gave up no runs. Z only gave up two hits but a lot of the outs were ground ball outs. Z must have made some adjustments to keep the Giants guessing. The Cubs bats gave him a 9 - 0 lead by the 5th inning so it was time to give Z some rest. Sean Galagher came in and allowed 1 run in 4 innings and completed the game for the Cubs win.

Although there were a lot of run scoring plays with out Lee or Ramirez in the lineup Jacque Jones is the one that shined. He went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs in this game. Jones seems to be coming out of his funk and is starting to hit the ball better.

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