Boxscore

The Cubs blanked the Padres and former Cub pitcher (twice!) Greg Maddux behind eight-plus innings from Ryan Dempster, who picked up his fifth win and lowered his ERA to 2.35. Now I’m confident that last stat won’t hold for the entire season, but what the hell? Dempster has only been an effective starter for one year in his mediocre career.

Looking at staty stats, his ERA when removing fielding from the equation is a bit higher, at 3.50, but that’s still more than a full run lower than his career mark. All I can figure is that he got quite a bit of rest working as a reliever the last few years. Of course, that lighter workload will undoubtedly come back to bite him and the Cubs by the end of the year.

As for the game, Dempster also drove in a run, which was all he needed. Derek Lee added a couple more, and Ryan Theriot chimed in one more.

The Cubs next host the Pirates and Tom Gorzelanny today at 2:20pm EDT, sending out Sean Gallagher to keep the winning going.

Boxscore

The Astros kept pace with the Cubs and proved that they, along with all the other NL Central teams, are better than the San Francisco Giants. (With the possible exception of the Reds. I think they lost the series to San Fran, but I’m too lazy to look it up and will simply assume that the lost. With the Reds, it’s the safe assumption to make.)

Houston got on the board early, thanks to Lance Berkman hitting another homer. There was a runner on, but it wasn’t Michael Bourn. Like many other teams, the Astros don’t seem to realize that leadoff hitters with speed have to get on the bases to have that speed be an asset. Instead, Bourn, like Corey Patterson and Alfonso Soriano, loves to make outs. He makes an out 73% of the time. Ouch.

But the Astros won anyway, thanks to the rest of the offense and decent pitching. They sit in third place, 1.5 games behind Chicago.

This afternoon Chris Sampson battles with Tim Lincecum at 3:45pm EDT.

Boxscore

As Pat pointed out, Cesar Izturis went 3 for 5 against the Pirates last night, and that never portends good things.

It didn’t for the Pirates, who lost to the Cardinals. Paul Maholm was not sharp, allowing 11 of St. Louis’ 15 hits and getting the loss. Todd Wellemeyer continued to do what he’s done all year, which is pitch surprisingly competent baseball to pick up the win. It’s like Todd is the 2008 St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals needed the win after struggling of late. We get to see the two teams fight again today at 1:15pm EDT when Ian Snell starts against Joel Pineiro.

Boxscore

Bronson Arroyo had his best start of the season last night, pitching seven shutout innings. The bullpen, upon witnessing this, furrowed its brow with dark malevolent thoughts. This could not stand.

So it didn’t. Shiny new closer Francisco Cordero, with very few miles on him after only a handful of drives out to the mound, allowed a home run in the ninth to tie the game and send it into extras. It was oh so reminiscent of last year, only with a “proper” closer this time.

When Cordero started warming up, I had a bad feeling. He’d been used two straight nights, one of those for two innings. Yeah, this would not end well. If only there were someone, anyone, on the team who had closing experience. Alas, that was not the case, and now Cordero will be completely unavailable should he be needed today. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn it was Narron managing again.

Dusty Baker was the puppet-master looking at the strings he was supposed to pull, though, and miraculously had his team get the win thanks to a game-winning hit by Paul Janish. What a way to get your first hit.

The Reds go for the sweep of the four-game set with the Marlins tonight when Andrew Miller faces Matt Belisle at 7:10pm EDT.

Boxscore

The Cubs lost to the Padres, and seem to think the reason was the lack of Jim Edmonds hobbling around the outfield. Hopefully for the NLC–and all of baseball–that will be rectified as soon as possible. Chicago needs to further screw up Felix Pie’s development and they need to do it quick!

Jason Marquis started for the Cubs and did well until the 4th, when his standard suckiness reared its familiar head. Hmm, the 4th inning, huh? Sounds like Marquis has a problem making it through the lineup a second time. If only there were a pitching spot on the team that could take advantage of that.

Alfonso Soriano lead off the game for the Cubs with a solo shot. I take back whatever I wrote before. That hit totally makes it worth having him lead off. Chicago scored again in the second, but shut it down after that, apparently thinking 3 runs would be more than enough for Marquis.

Jake Peavy is the pitcher tonight for the Padres when he fights against Ted Lilly at 8:05pm EDT.