The toughest opponent for the Cubs to beat this season has not been the Phillies, the Cardinals, or any of the other usual suspects. The most challenging team to beat has been…the Pittsburgh Pirates? The Cubs entered today’s game with a 1-6 record against the Bucs, and were 0-5 in Pittsburgh. They have had a tough time pushing runs across against Pittsburgh pitching, and the Cubs pitching staff had been about the only one in the league that the Pirates had been able to hit. However, the unbeatable Carlos Silva delivered another dominating performance in front of a sparse crowd (announced crowd of 12,378, but it is estimated that there were only about 3,000) at PNC Park on Monday afternoon as the Cubs handled the Pirates 6-1. Today’s win moved Silva to 8-0 on the year, and made him the first Cub since King Cole in 1910 to win his first eight decisions with the team. Silva went seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits, while Jeff Stevens and Sean Marshall finished off the ball game.
It will be a quick turnaround tomorrow, as the Cubs head up to Wrigley Field North/Miller Park for a three game set with the Brewers. Chicago is 5-1 against Milwaukee and 3-0 at Miller Park this season. That one series that they played this year in Milwaukee was probably the best stretch of baseball this team has played. They had all facets of their game on track and outscored the Brewers a ridiculous 25-4. It would certainly be nice to see some of that hitting return.
The Cubs enter the series at 26-31, seven games behind both the Reds and the Cardinals who are tied for first place at 33-24.
Here are the probables for the three game series in Milwaukee:
Game 1: Ted Lilly v. Yovanni Gallardo
Game 2: Carlos Zambrano v. Randy Wolf
Game 3: Ryan Dempster v. Dave Bush
