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GAME 160 IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT] CHICAGO CUBS (78-81) @ HOUSTON ASTROS (87-72) @ THE JUICE BOX 7:05 pm CDT, TV: WCIU, Fox Sports Southwest

Andy Pettitte, LHP 17-9 2.42 ERA 165/41 K/BB, 17 HR in 215.1 IP	Carlos Zambrano, RHP 14-6 3.33 ERA 194/83 K/BB, 20 HR in 216.1 IP
2B Ryan Theriot	2B Craig Biggio
SS #Neifi Perez	CF Wily Taveras
1B Derrek Lee	3B Morgan Ensberg
3B Nomar Garciaparra	LF #Lance Berkman
LF Matt Murton	1B Mike Lamb
RF *Jeromy Burnitz	LF Jason Lane
C Michael Barrett	SS Adam Everett
CF *Corey Patterson	C Brad Ausmus
P #Carlos Zambrano	P *Andy Pettitte

I really had no idea that Andy Pettitte was having THAT good of a year. Z's quest for .300 will have to come from the right side. A hit in one or two at-bats will put him above .300, if he gets three or four at-bats and manages only a single hit, he'll stay below .300. 2 hits off Pettitte and he's a lock. Also, with 6 more K's, Z will top 200 K's for the first time in his career, plus help out my fantasy team. Macias's earth-shattering walk and solid throw last night weren't enough to get him in the lineup tonight. What's a guy have to do? Joking aside, good to see Theriot has recovered from his bout of food poisoning. I wonder if the Astros clinch before Sunday if Geovany Soto will get a start sometime this weekend? I don't believe he's gotten into a game yet since being called up. The Cubs can take the season series tonight as well, so far they're 8-5 against the 'Stros. They'll have to do it against their top 3, Pettitte tonight, Clemens tomorrow, and Oswalt on Sunday (assuming they haven't clinched by then). Puts the 'Stros in an awful spot if they end up tied with the Phils for the Wild Card as Brandon Backe will have to start a playoff death match. Of course having those guys pitching the next 3 games, where 2 wins clinch the playoffs is a good recipe for avoiding said death match. And be sure to come by Monday as we'll being posted our year end round-table discussion starting with the TCR writers. For the rest of the week, I'll try and keep the other playoff race summaries up-to-date after the jump.

40 Cubs are playing in Arizona now in a 3 week instructional week stint in Arizona. Apparently there are games involved. I'm sure there's someone out there who knows more about this than me. But here's the roster of players in case anyone cares. Pitchers RHP Alberto Alburquerque RHP Olivo Astacio LHP Alejandro Astorga RHP Justin Berg RHP Angelo Burrows RHP Marco Carillo RHP Julio Castillo RHP Robert Hernandez RHP Kyle Holden RHP Mark Holliman RHP Brett Jackson RHP Grant Johnson RHP Dary Maria RHP Jon Mueller LHP Mark Pawelek LHP Clay Rapada LHP Jayson Ruhlman RHP Roberto Sotolongo RHP Scott Taylor LHP Donald Veal Catchers Oscar Bernard Yusuf Carter Enrique Lujan Jake Muyco Mark Reed Infielders 1B Brian Dopirak SS Dylan Johnston 3B Scott Moore SS Jonathan Mota 1B Ryan Norwood 3B Elvin Puello SS Kyle Reynolds SS Joe Simokaitis 3B Brandon Taylor Outfielders CF Davy Gregg RF Ryan Harvey OF Wilson Inoa OF Victor Liriano LF Jesus Valdez LF J.D. Westphal -- There's a couple of recent trade acquistions like Justin Berg, Angelo Burrows and Olivo Astacio. A whole bunch of 2005 draft picks including 3rd rounder Mark Holliman, a RHP from Ole' Miss who never made it to any of the minor leage teams as he signed rather late. 1st rounder Mark Pawelek is there too, something I'm not so thrilled about. I'd love to trust the Cubs brass and think they know how to handle pitchers and their workloads, but I don't. I swear more of our pitchers get injured than stay healthy. Ryan Harvey and Brian Dopirak are both down there too. Maybe they can room together and discuss the finer points of looking good while striking out, maybe attend a guest lecture by Corey Patterson.

Boy oh boy, these last two weeks are gonna be fun. We're pretty much reduced to personal milestones and the .500 mark, so here's a handy clip-and-save for the last twelve games: * Greg Maddux needs three more wins to get to 15 wins for the 18th straight season, and the Cubs will juggle the rotation so he gets a shot. * Carlos Zambrano needs two more wins to match his career high of 16, set last year. If he gets those two wins, he'll have 50 for his career. He's already set a career high in strikeouts, and is over 200 IP for the third straight year. * Zambrano is also currently hitting .303, easily the highest mark of his career and the best batting performance by a Cub starting pitcher since Mike Krukow hit .314 in 1979. His SLG of .474 is the highest by a Cub pitcher since Dave Roberts slugged an even .500 in 1978. * Derrek Lee is 6 homers away from 50, 6 extra-base hits away from 100, 12 hits away from 200, and 27 total bases away from 400 for the season. He also has a five point lead in the batting race, a race I ridicule and make no mention of unless a Cub has a chance at winning it. * Jeromy Burnitz is 2 homers away from 300 for his career, while Todd Walker is 2 away from 200. Walker also has a good shot at a new career best in SLG. *Michael Barrett is 1 homer and 8 RBI away from tying his career highs (16 and 65), set last year. He's also in range of new career best in OBP and SLG. * Henry Blanco has a good shot at career highs in AVG and SLG.

The weekend is coming, the Cubs were on the losing end of the division-clincher (sort of, maybe) last night, and not even the fact that the game was called on account of rain with the tying run on-deck can excite me enough to string together a full column. Who knows, maybe Jose Macias would have gotten on, and then Mighty Jerry would have hit a game-tying grand slam, but we'll never know, will we? Anyway, on to the bullets... * I flipped on Wednesday night's game when I got home from Washington D.C. and it was the bottom of the 10th inning, and I swear to God, the first thought that went through my head was, "how are the Cubs going to blow this game?" It's sad, but what's even sadder is that they managed to do it in the very next inning by walking the leadoff batter, making the wrong throw on a sacrifice bunt, and making the wrong throw on a sacrifice fly. Van Buren, Hill, and Hairston thus add themselves to the long, long list of Cubs who apparently never learned the fundamentals of the game. I haven't seen a team this poor in the basics since I don't know when. By the time Sean Casey hit his inevitable bases-clearing double, I didn't have the energy to complain about why Hairston was playing so shallow. It's just demoralizing sometimes. * Since I turned on the game late, I missed Michael Barrett getting hit in the head, but it looks like he could be back in the lineup as soon as today. He appears to have avoided a concussion, which is good news. * How about that Matt Murton? It's Small Sample Size City, but it looks like maybe he can make it at the major league level. Hopefully the 100 ABs he got this year will convince Dusty to give him a shot at a full-time job next spring. Bruce Miles has some advice for Dusty on how to take credit for Murton's success. * If you want to read Paul Sullivan's version of the exact same notes that are in Mike Kiley's piece, it's right here. Kiley does scoop Sullivan on the whole "Nomar and Mia are class acts" story, but other than that it seems like the beat reporters' seasons are winding down, too. * Former TCRer Derek Smart writes about What Went Wrong this year over at Baseball Anaylsts. Good stuff. We'll have our own versions up in the next few weeks. * Predicted Cardinals line-up for today's post-clinch game: CF: So Taguchi 2B: Hector Luna 1B: Chris Duncan LF: Reggie Sanders 3B: Scott Seabol RF: John Mabry SS: Abraham Nunez C: Mike Mahoney [UPDATE 2:00 PM] GAME 148 IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT] ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (94-54) @ CHICAGO CUBS (72-75) WRIGLEY FIELD, 7:05 pm CDT, TV: WGN, Fox Sports Ohio

Glendon Rusch, LHP 6-8, 4.62 ERA 99/49 K/BB, 11 HR in 126.2 IP	Matt Morris, RHP 14-8, 4.04 ERA 104/30 K/BB, 17 HR in 171.2 IP
SS David Eckstein	LF 3rd Generation Mediocrity
CF * Jim Edmonds	SS #I Control Dusty's Brain
1B Albert Pujols	1B M.V.P.
RF Reggie Sanders	RF *Shows Up, Hits, Goes Home
2B Mark Grudzielanek	3B Will Play Third For Pennant
RF So Taguchi	2B *I Left Boston For This?
C Yadier Molina	CF *0-4, 4 K
3B Hector Luna	C Perfectly Adequate Backup
P Matt Morris	P *Just a Swingman

LaRussa is playing a whole lot more veterans than I thought he would. Unfortunately, so is Dusty.