At this point in the season, the Cubs aren’t playing for much. Being the consumate professionals that they are, they’ll still have an impact on who makes the playoffs by winning some games now and then. And this week, the Cubs put a road block in front of the Astros and pushed them down a notch or two in the Wild Card standings.
Phil Nevin came up huge in the series opener. His three run homerun in the fourth inning gave Carlos Marmol what he needed to pick up his third win of the season. He walked six, but only gave up one run on four hits and he struck out six. Ryan Dempster picked up save number fifteen with a perfect ninth.
Yesterday was a matchup for the ages. The only current 300 game winners went head to head. Greg Maddux has been horrible lately, and this game was an improvement. Unfortunately, he didn’t win. He gave up three runs on seven hits through seven innings of work. Todd Walker was the Astros offense. He hit a two run shot in the eighth of off reliever Trever Miller. The Cubs managed only three hits off of Clemens. Looks like the Rocket’s back.
Carlos Zambrano threw a nice game this afternoon. One run on two hits and ten strikeouts over eight innings. Michael Barrett went deep with a homerun and he finished the game with two RBIs. Aramis Ramirez also went yard went his 17th of the season. Dempster ran into trouble in the ninth, but he got out of it and picked up save number 16.
The Cubs hit the road and head to the nation’s capital for three games. This series of no consequence to anyone, including Cubs and National’s fans.
