Boxscore

The Astros beat off both the Cubs and the rain yesterday, as 4 pitchers combined to blank Chicago.

That bizarre trade for Latrell Hawkins is looking golden now. He pitched one-third of an inning for the save! One-third! That’s a whole out.

The game had two different rain delays. The first one lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes right after the 5th inning was completed. The second delay was in the bottom of the eighth and lasted only 39 minutes before the game was called.

The Astros have now won 4 in a row, while the Cubs modest 2-game winning streak was broken.

Just as AOL’s “partnership” with the scantily-clad-and-poor-cue-card-reading Fantasy Sports Girls was giving women sport bloggers a bad name, 15 women who don’t need a sleezeball pervert to write their suggestive commentary for them were launching Playing the Field.

Per their–our–about page:

Featured on this site are some of the best female sports bloggers on the net. These women are smart, sports savvy, and will kick your butt in fantasy ball. Consider this your hub for the best writing women in sports have to offer. You’ll find stuff that will make you laugh, make you think, and sometimes make you crazy. But that’s just like a woman, isn’t it? Throughout this site we will cover everything and anything about sports that deserves our attention. And probably a few things that don’t. But we promise to always entertain you and make you wonder why women don’t rule the sports blogging world. Yet.

Ideas for PTF content include everything from fantasy sports advice to our vision of what our favorite players’ blogs would say, (if they actually wrote them for themselves). Whatever the topic, you’re sure to find something interesting in each woman’s box.

Boxscore

The Cubs made quick work of that battle for first place with the Brewers. They won the second game easily and widened their lead to 3 games, which ensures they will have first all to their little beary lonesome no matter what happens in the final two games of the series.

Last night’s game was kind of a letdown. I’d hoped for another close one like the first one, and with Carlos Zambrano going against Ben Sheets it was certainly possible. But Sheets sucked and Zambrano didn’t. The Brewers offense consisted of an RBI from Mike Cameron. That’s not good enough most nights, let alone when your ace pitcher allows 6 in 5 1/3.

The Brewers have been outplayed these first two games of the series, and they were the team playing better baseball beforehand. It is making me rethink my assessment of the Brewers. We’ll see how they do in the final two games. Maybe without the big pitching guns, Milwaukee’s bats will wake up. I hope so; I’m getting bored.

Boxscore

The first game of the four-game battle for first between the Cubs and Brewers did not disappoint. Well, you could say that C.C. (yes, I’m still using periods) Sabathia didn’t pitch as well as expected after his last three complete games for Milwaukee, but that’s quibbling. He was still solid, allowing 3 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.

No, the real disappointment was my out-of-the-blue 100 degree fever that had me asleep around the halfway point of the game. Stupid sick body wanting to heal. As if sleeping will help.

It looked like the game might go into extra frames when it was tied at 4 in the 9th, but Derrek Lee wanted to go home. He smacked a 2-run double off Salomon Torres, and the Brewers were unable to come back against Carlos Marmol.

Chicago now has a 2 game lead on Milwaukee, although I imagine the Brewers plan on doing something about that today.

Boxscore

The Cubs came back against the Marlins and Jason Marquis’ incompetency yesterday, to return to sole possession of first place before heading to Milwaukee.

Marquis de Suck lived up to his nickname, allowing 6 runs in 6 innings. However, the Cubs showed their first signs of offensive life in the last week or so when they dropped a 4-spot on the board in the 7th to take their first lead of the game. Mike Fontenot provided the bulk of that, with a pinch-hit 3-run double.

Newcomer Jeff Samardzija got his first career save, ably filling in for a disabled Kerry Wood.

Now the Cubs head to Milwaukee for a series I hope to catch a few games of. The Brewers are about the only team playing exciting baseball in the Central right now, and it would be nice to watch a baseball game that wasn’t over after the starters were announced (I’m looking at you, Josh Fogg).