Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 1:20 PM CDT

for Harden? unacceptable.

Also unacceptable.

thought wandy might weave some magic there

our scoreless inning streak.

they just mentioned on the radio that Harden has not given up more than a run at any of his games in Chicago yet (small sample size).

make him work a little. he hasn’t gone deep all that much this year, and has gone less than 6 in 4 of his last six (going back to Oakland).

wow. blum should have been out by a mile.

i was just thinking, when you’ve got a guy like Harden, running 3 x in a row didn’t seem v. bright

Presumably, Cooper also knows Cincinnati is not the place to give Berkman that day off, seeing that the slugger has a .360 lifetime average over 37 games at Great American Ball Park. Berkman has 18 homers, nine doubles, 47 RBIs and an .824 slugging percentage at the Reds’ downtown stadium.

nice hit w/ RISP. 2-1 cubs

could be one of those games. fortunately we won yesterday and tomorrow might be a more favorable matchup.

c’mon Wandy, let’s keep this under control!

I joined the game in progress . Astros down 3-1 in the second , Cubs have two men on base and no outs

missed on four straight to A-Ram with the bases juiced. that’s some Dempster shit right there.

need to stop the bleeding!

again!

banged hard off the wall in left center after jumping to make the catch on a liner in the gap.

losing 5-1 now. wandy’s magic is gone

I went to another part of the building . Came back to a 6-1 game. Cubs still have two men on base – now with 2 outs.

we can get some runs against harden!!!....................

Geary may not be available. Sampson pitched two on Sunday. we can’t lose Wandy after just a couple of innings. even if it’s ugly, he’s going to need to struggle through a few more, just to save the bullpen.

12-pitch 1-2-3 inning! let’s get three more of those and hopefully we can chip away at the lead in the meantime.

Do that 5 more times!

okay, Wandy’s holding… we’re chipping… it’s all going to plan.

6-2 Flubbies.

RBI Triple!!

taint over yet!

since it occurred after I stopped watching the game on TV. For the good of us all, I will continue not watching.

Hmm.. coulda done did better than that. Oh well

with a nice 8-pitch, 1-2-3 inning. now sitting at 81 pitches through 5. should be able to go at least one more. Harden sitting at 74.

if we can get into the bullpens with a three-run deficit or less, that’d nice.

Dinger to right!

6-5 Flubbies!

JD and Brown say that Blum has a vesting option for next year which is based on number of PA, and, with his success and use so far this year, he is likely to get the option.

Nice

Lo..get to it!

Wandy lifted and we weren’t able to capitalize on the RBI situation.

I’m missing most of this game running around the building today; but it’s nice to come back to my office to good news.

:(

Come on! (Well, two.. but we really need that one)

Steal third Matsui!, You can do it!

$$%#$$#!

we’ve GOT to win this one. this is just too good.

Now the Cubs are just a whisper in Tropical Storm Astro

Awesome.

Terrible at bat strinking out on a bad pitch
Now he misplays a ball in right

How did the tying run score?

Now Soriano.

who was probably in the clubhouse.

It’ll be a double switch. Lance for Blum, hitting 9th (fourth next inning), and Brocail for Wright, hitting 5th (and will hopefully pitch into the 8th).

1 and 2.

Soriano goes yard. Brocail blows it.

10-7 Flubbies. Now we’ve got some more work to do.

Nuts. 10-7.

Thank you for losing the game for us again.

This is ridiculous managing.

Brocail falling apart. Lee flairs a single (also might have been misplayed by Pence) and Theriot scores. 11-7 bad guys.

Maybe he was expecting a rainout today?

for only a few mintues and suddenly it’s 11-7 Cubs.

It’s going to take some ninth inning to win this one.

But in today’s game it could happen.

Entropic’s favorite up.

Cubs 11, Astros 7.

to end the game

They had it, then lost it.

but considering we were chalking it up as a loss in the bottom of the 2nd, only to see them climb back into it… could be worse.

hopefully we can knock around Marquis tomorrow and Backe can finally give us a start that lasts more than 5 innings (seems like it’s been a while). still have a shot to win our 6th series in 7 tries.

Chris Hicks, who was a closer for Georgia Tech. We’ve now signed all but one of our picks from the first 15 rounds, our 3rd round pick Chase Davidson (lefty power-hitter).

What a crazy bunch of pinch hitter wrangling there in the seventh.

I think Sweet Lou knew he had to stop the Astros crazy train right here and now or face the possibility of being ignominiously swept at Wrigley and putting the Cubs into one of their typical down-the-stretch funks.

Hardball Times is running a series on the ten worst hitters in a certain batting slot since 1957 (50 years of candidates).The current page is on the # 7 hitters. Astros are represented (and no – Adam Everett is not one of hte ten worst hitrters itn eh #7 slot – he is only the 14th worst of the past 50 years) .

Coming in at the tenth worst #7 hitter since 1957 is Scott Servais , catcher for the 1994 Astrso when ihe batted .180 in the 7 slot (.190 overall).

Brad Ausmus, catcher, took seventh worst # 7 hitter for his performance in 2003.

The second worst hitter was not on the Astros as a player I don’t think. His worst year at #7 was with the Giants. But Hal Lanier had a stint as Astros Manager. Intersting ly , 3 of the worst #7 hitters became MLB managers (Sparky Anderson and Joe Girardi are also on the list)

Servais, Ausmus, Joe Girardi and the absolute worst #7 hitter since 1957 according to the Hardball Times article – Kirt Manwaring (1997 Rockies)