Cubs 7, Phillies 3; Cubs Remain 1.0 Game Back of Beermakers

Last night, the Cubs took the second game of the series from the Phillies. Jason Marquis was nothing short of lame last night, as he went 6.0 innings, gave up three runs, all earned, walked three and struck out four and gave up a homerun to Pat Burrell's corpse. The bullpen was great last night, as Ohman (using "great" and "Ohman" in the same sentence has got to be breaking the laws of nature), Marmol and Howry tossed 3.0 scoreless, and more importantly, walkless innings.

What's more important last night were the amount of walks Cub hitters compiled last night--five. Five walks. Somewhere, Dusty Baker is shaking his head at those "clogged bases."

Mike Fontenot had a pinch-hit, RBI single, raising his average to .311. I'd like to elaborate on Mike for a minute...I know when he got called up, he was hitting a robust .400 (round-about). He's levelled off a bit since that time, now back down to an Earthly .311. However, if your batting average comes down and mitres off around .300, you'll remain in the bigs for a long while. I hope he can keep it up and maybe have a chance at winning the 2B job next year. There are many "ifs" in that kind of scenerio, like free agency additions to the outfield, which affect where Mark DeRosa plays. If the Cubs can get a viable option in right field, be it a free agent or somebody like Matt Murton, then DeRosa most likely will be rooted at 2B with Theriot growing in to his role at SS. Not too shabby, but hopefully Mike will remain on the squad for quite some time.

The Brewers did win last night, as they edged the Mets in 13 innings, crushing Tom Glavine's hopes of a 300th win. Tom's wife was in attendance at Miller Park, and as the Mets fell, she had this look on her face like "Oh, shit...I came all the way to Milwaukee for this crap?" Priceless...

Well, the Cubs and Phills go at it tonight at 7:05 in game three of the four-game set. The pitching matchup is the 73 year-old Jamie Moyer versus the 13 year-old Rich Hill.

One more note...The cocktease cometh. He was strong in his outing for AA, and is expected to be added to the Chicago bullpen in the next couple days. A very, very pleasant surprise. Here's to you, Kerry...Mr. "Have 17 Surgeries, Yet Never Give Up on My Mountains of Talent" Guy. Beware...I hear he eats babies.

Go Cubs.