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A Laugher. (And we were the ones laughing!)

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W - Zambrano (4-3 ). The fight against high-blood pressure L - Maine (5-1) Important things to take from this game. 1. The Latest Lineup: For two days in a row, Theriot leads off and Soriano hits third. 2. Fontenot's 2007 debut : While I'm sure he is too esoteric of a player and the move too inconsequential for anyone here to have an opinion about it, nonetheless I will point out that he stroked a double in his pinch-hit appearance. 3. Like the title says: It's been a long time since we had a game that was over, early. Let alone, in a good way. 4. Z's return to form. Z had several dominating innings, and several more innings where he successfully avoided potential disasters, the sort of one-bad-inning-to-ruin-a-good-start events that we've seen from him before. He only struck out 3 through 8, and gave up a couple of shots to Shawn Green. But still, it was a great improvement. 5. Ramirez's mammoth grand slam. Aramis hit a tape-measure grand slam to blow the game open in the sixth. You'll be seeing it on the sports highlight show of your choice. And now, for what you really came here for....

A Lilly for Mother.

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W - Lilly (3-2), Mom. L - Lieber (1-2) S - Dempster (8) Important things to take from this game: 1. Lee's pain in the neck. Derrek Lee wasn't supposed to start today, due to a sore neck. He talked his way into the lineup, but then left after the end of the first inning. For the day, he was 0-1 with a GIDP. Daryle Ward came in to replace him at first. Early report from Len is "neck spasms, day-to-day." 2. The great starting pitching. Lilly was absolutely dominant, allowing one hit (which should have been an out) through seven. He got several called strike-threes on the Lilly-hammer. Lieber was hitable, but succeeded in pitching out of a few jams (with some help from the Cubs.) All told, it was a crisp, clean, refreshing game through seven. With that choice of adjectives, I feel the need for a cheap domestic "beer." 3. The Eighth Inning. With a 2-0 lead, 94 pitches thrown and only one hit allowed, Lilly comes out to start the eighth. Helms singles, Nunez singles, and runners are at first and third with no outs. Ruiz lines one to Ramirez, who catches it but then tries to double the runner off of first. It was ill-advised to begin with, before accounting for Ramirez's wild throw. The runner on third scores, the runner on first advances to second, 2-1 Cubs. A soft fly-out gets the second out. A line out to Soriano, and we escape the inning. Should have been scoreless, but could have been much, much worse. 4. The Ninth Inning. The Cubs load the bases with one out, and Ward up. Fabio Castro comes in to face Ward, Cubs respond with DeRosa off the bench. DeRosa is among MLB leaders with 4.33 pitches faced per AB. That percentage will be a bit lower, after walking on four pitches, for a much needed insurance RBI. Another run scores on a Ramirez FC, which should have been an inning-ending DP. Dempster pitches an effective ninth, with two ground balls, and an Utley single that ended with a Soriano assist, as he tried to stretch it to a double. My more extensive write-up is below.

The Tribune is now reporting that Pie will lead off and play center for today's game in Chicago. As of this hastily written post in response to the briefest of announcements at ChicagoSports.com, there is no explanation of how the roster will be worked to fit Pie. Soriano reports he is feeling much better, and the MRI is negative. (No indication of a torn hamstring)

The First of our 97 Wins

Game Center Box Score Play-by-Play Box Score Game Chart Photos W - Lilly 1-0 L - Arroyo 0-1 S - Dempster 1 Not much to report here. If you missed the game, Lilly looked every bit as dominant as his box score suggests. 7 IP, 1 run, 1 BB and 9 K. To my untrained eye, he seemed to be throwing both a hard and a slow curve, each one with excellent control, while mixing in a fastball, also with terrific command. He started to labor a bit in the seventh, but even the obnoxious-even-by-MLB-Broadcaster-standards Reds' announcers had to credit Lilly with a masterful performance. Dempster looked shakey in the 9th. After walking Encarnacion with one out and going ball one on Griffey, we had our first Lou Piniella Moment of the season. LouPa stormed out of the dugout, barked about five words at Dempster, and stormed back to the dugout. As best as I could tell, the remarks ammounted to (translating, since we're a family-friendly blog) "Gentle fireman, if I might be so humble as to suggest, would you please consider directing the baseball over home plate, with your next toss? Thank you, kindly." Ryan then threw the next pitch (another ball) before Lou had made it back into the dugout, before settling down (somewhat) for the save. Offensively, the middle-infielders provided the pick-me-up, with run-scoring singles by Izturis and DeRosa. With the Cards dropping their third straight to the Mets, the Good Guys are already one and a half games up on the pre-season favorites. Life is good. Reminder- early game time tomorrow, 11:35 AM Central