Gameday Open Thread

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A win tonight and the Cubs are the proud owner of a winning road trip. They will aslo be the first team to 40 wins this season, a seemingly insignificant milestone that reader "JohnBeasley" shows is at the very least, a marker of good things to come.

First in the majors to 40:
2007: 6/9 - BOS (won World Series) and LAA (made playoffs)
2006: 6/11 - DET (won pennant)
2005: 6/8 - CHW (won World Series)
2004: 6/13 - NYY (made playoffs)

Source: BaseballRace.com

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And so, here we are:

The final, deciding game in the Cubs' and Dodgers' best-of-2,021 game series.

Who'd have thought it would come down to this?

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The Cubs go for their tenth (10th!) win a row, a feat they haven't done since 2001 when they strung together 12 wins in a row. It would also be their third straight series sweep. Oh, it's fun to be a Cubs fan these days.

On the mound, it's Ted Lilly still searching for his 2007 form. Things started looking up for him in May, that is until he met a 20 mph wind flying out of Wrigley last Friday. A wind the Cubs offsense used to pull off one of those miracle wins that it seems every good baseball team has at least once a season.

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The Cubs seek consecutive win number nine tonight versus the generally punchless Padres. While the Giants offense gets mocked for their futility, it's the Padres(3.66 R/G) and Nationals(3.74 R/G) currently battling for the bottom rung of the NL offensive ladder.

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How do you top a 7-1 homestand and an 8-2 homestand? What about a 7-0 homestand? And let's not even think about that the Cubs would be going for the tenth straight win if it wasn't for those two unfortunate blown ninth-inning losses in Pittsburgh.

All this home-cooking might be needed, as the Cubs head out for a West Coast trip that will see them on the road for 23 of their next 32 games.

Today's lineup features Micah Hoffpauir in the three spot. I wonder what Lou had to do to get Derrek to take a game off? 

Game notes fun after the jump...

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Former Cub Glendon Rusch makes his first appearance at Wrigley since September 4, 2006. After a none too successful comeback with the Padres earlier this year (6.41 ERA in 12 relief appearances), the Rockies signed him, sent him to Triple-A Colorado Springs, recalled him after two successful appearances for the Sky Sox, and you know now everything you need to know about what a desperate season the Colorado Rockies are having.

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With rain falling and plenty of those intimidating orange and red spots on the weather radar, we could well be looking at a rainout. That being the case, I'm going to save all of my good Omar Quintanilla material for another occasion.

This is the Rockies' only visit to Wrigley this season, and the Cubs have already made the trip to Denver, so a washout would presumably create a doubleheader. I imagine Saturday would be the DH day, so as not to complicate the teams' travel plans. (The Rockies play in Los Angeles Monday night, while the Cubs will be in San Diego.)

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The darlings of the National League in 2007 make their annual visit to Wrigley Field, bypassing the normal chartered bus in favor of an escorted ambulance. The Rockies find 1/3 of their starting lineup on the disabled list (Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe), along with five pitchers and Tulowitzki's replacement, Clint "Deer Meat" Barmes. It appears the devil is cashing in on the deal they made last August.

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Carlos Zambrano is fresh off that remarkable game in which he stroked four hits off a trio of Pittsburgh pitchers and, oh, yeah, also threw the first seven innings in a 12-3 Cubs win.

Z was 1-1 last year against the Dodgers, including a horrible outing last September at Wrigley. Lowe pitched twice against Piniella's men in '07 and came away with a pair of ND's. Derrek Lee, who is 10-for-22 lifetime (1136 OPS) against the former Bosoxer probably couldn't get to the ballpark today early enough. For his part, Lowe hasn't won a game in more than a month and has a 7.29 ERA in his last six starts.