Gameday Open Thread

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Aramis Ramirez returns to the Cub lineup, and Ronny Cedeño gets a start at second base.

In the pitching matchup, Carlos Zambrano, who was one horrendous Kerry Wood inning away from winning his fifth game of the season last time out against Milwaukee, goes up against curveball-flingin' Aaron Harang, Zambrano beat the Reds in the middle contest of their three-game visit to Wrigley Field a few weeks back; Harang started the series opener and got smacked around (6 IP, 8 H, 5 ER) en route to a 9-5 Cubs win.

"Cubs win"...those are two words that haven't been used very often around here lately.

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So once again Lou puts Felix Pie in versus the most difficult of righties. Over the weekend, he got the start versus Adam Wainwright, but sat versus Lohse and Wellemeyer. Tonight he gets Johnny Cueto. It's tough being a rookie on Lou's bad side. Ramirez sits another day and Soto and DeRosa flip spots in the lineup.

Speaking of lineup construction, Dusty reminds us why we all grew tired of him. Griffey and Dunn are both struggling right now, but Dunn still is maintaining a 375 OBP versus Griffey's 310; naturally you bat Dunn 6th.

Sure would be nice to get the sour taste of last night's lost out of our mouths with a win tonight, preferably of the blowout variety.

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WIth the series and first place on the line, both teams have pitchers with a little extra chip on their shoulders. Ex-Cub Todd Wellemeyer goes for the Cards and ex-Cardinals pitcher Jason Marquis goes for the Cubs. A chip that Marquis carried around particularly well last year when he started four times versus the Redbirds with a 3-1 record and a 3.60 ERA. 

Be sure to join us during our in-game chat tonight, Sunday Night Baseball usually delivers a packed house. 

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Breaking News: The Cubs have demoted Rich Hill to AAA Iowa and replaced him on the roster with Sean Gallagher, who will be available to pitch this afternoon in St. Louis.

Of the now departed Hill and his one-inning, four-walk effort last night in St. Louis, Cubs manager Lou Piniella said:

"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues. C'mon.
Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best, but we
have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is, but I can't start
him anymore until this thing gets taken care of."

About this afternoon's game: With the stink of last night's loss still in the air, the Cubs try to square their series against the Cardinals. The Cards have won three in a row and five of six; the Cubs have lost six of eight. Still, the Cubs have MLB's third-best record, while the Cardinals, who better get to work if they're going to see that 90-loss season so many of us were planning for them, have the game's second-best mark at 19-11. (The D-backs lead the way at 20-9).

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First place is on the line this weekend in St. Louis, as the rivals battle each other for the first time this year. The Cards expected to struggle, particularly early on in the season while their pitching staff got healthy, are on top of the division. Mostly thanks to a patient offense (lead the NL in walks) and a surprising pitching staff, particularly from Todd Wellemeyer and Kyle Lohse.

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Fonzie returns to the lineup as the Cubs go for 2-of-3 against the Brewers and try to grab some momentum heading into big road series in Saint Loo and Cincinnati.

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The Cubs are one loss from dropping out of first place behind the Cardinals and into a second place tie with the Brewers. A loss would also give the Cubs their first real losing streak of the season (I start counting at three) and they'd lose a second consecutive series to their main competition for the Central crown. So yeah, today would certainly be a nice day for a win.

Dempster will take to the mound to try and help accomplish that and he did start the one lone victory in the opening series. We'lll happily take another six inning, two walk, five strikeout, one earned run performance if you have it in you. He hasn't had a lot of experience versus the members of the current Brewers (possibly the reason for his last success), but do watch out for Jason Kendall who's 13 for 28 versus Dempster for a 464/583/536 line.

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No, you're not imagining things--this is the Brewers' second visit to Wrigley Field in the season's first month while the Cubs have yet to visit Milwaukee and won't do so until after the All-Star break.

While the Cubs (16-9) were losing two of three on the road to the Nationals and scoring 10 runs this past weekend, the Brewers (14-11) were dropping two of three at home to the Marlins and scoring six runs. The Brewers, who led the NL in batting with RISP (.303) going into the series, went just 1-for-26 against the Marlins in those same situations.

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Cubs go for the series win and a winning road trip (3-2).

Lilly is coming off his first win and best outing of the year, on Tuesday when he beat the Mets. Though his pitching line was pretty attractive--6IP, 4H, 1ER--he also walked four and needed a couple of key pitches to avoid some serious problems.

The Cubs may face a good test in young Lannan, who fanned 11 New York Mets in just six innings on April 17th, then blanked the Braves for seven innings this past Tuesday, on his way to a victory over John Smotz.

Ronny Cedeno, hitting .400 (10-for-25) over the last week, gets bumped up in the order to seventh, Henry Blanco gets the obligatory Sunday start for backup catchers, and Geovany Soto gets a much needed day off, during which he can contemplate an atrocity so awful, veteran baseball man Lou Piniella has never seen anything like it.

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And so it falls to Cub ace Carlos Zambrano on this, Hack Wilson's 108th birthday, to reverse the curse:

The Chicago Cubs have never won a game in Washington's Natonals Park. For the love of God, they've never even held a lead!!!

The Chicago offense went hitless in seven AB's with men in scoring position in Friday night's 5-3 defeat. Ryan Theriot, however, was able to extend his National League lead in Caught Stealing.

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WIth tonight's first-ever visit to Nationals Park, the Cubs will have played in three different cities in three different time zones, necessitating somewhere around 2,700 miles in air travel, all in a little over 72 hours. Gotta love those schedule gremlins.

Even with yesteday's loss to the Rockies, the first-place Cubs have won 8 of 10. After opening the season 3-0, the fifth-place Nationals, who needed 13 hits against the Mets on Thursday to raise their team average to .233, have lost 16 of 20.

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Pinch-hitting/pinch-running specialist Jason Marquis gets to try his hand at pitching this afternoon at Coors Field as the Cubs play the Rockies and seek their seventh consecutive win, which would match their longest streak of a year ago.

MLB Press Pass Game Note of the Day: At 15-6, the Cubs are nine games over .500, something they didn't accomplish last season until September 22nd, when they beat the Pirates to rise to 82-73.

In Marquis's one start at Coors in '07, last August, he had one of his best outings as a Cub (6 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB). In fact, throughout his career, Marquis has been outstanding in this park (3-0, 2.49 over 21 2/3 IP with just one homer allowed).

The home team has lost four games in a row, and in each of them, the Rockies had a lead heading into the eighth inning. The last time they won was last Saturday, at Houston in a game started by Aaron Cook, who allowed the Astros just four hits over seven innings.

Cook is an impressive 2-1. 2.14 over 21 innings lifetime against the Cubs, and our non-pitchers are a cumulative 9-for-42 against him.

My favorite moment from Wednesday night's Cub win:

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Rich Hill's flyball tendencies and big curve meet the thin air of Denver where he's 0-2 with 10.1 IP and an 11.32 ERA over his career. The Rockies counter with one of their many heroes from last year's late season surge to the NL pennant, Franklin Morales. 

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Normally you'd feel confident about a Ted Lilly vs Nelson Figueuroa match-up, but Lilly's fastball never made the flight from Arizona. And the Mets offense usually isn't too forgiving for someone trying to "figure it out".

I was shut-off from the Internet yesterday and had to rely on desperate measure to follow the game...my cellphone. By the 8th inning I figured out how to follow the game through MLB's gameday for your phone. I literally tuned in during Cedeno's at-bat and the screen kept refreshing with foul ball after foul ball, I figured it would eventually end with a breaking ball in the dirt and Ronny swinging. Imagine my surprise when I saw "Ball in Play, run(s) scored". And then Felix Pie with the cherry on top home run. Let's get the sweep!

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WGN Radio is reporting that Kosuke Fukudome has a sebaceous cyst on his forehead which is causing some swelling in his right eyelid and thus, some vision problems. However, according to WGN's Cory Provus, Fukudome is on medication and is expected to return to the lineup on Monday.