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 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.

Boxscore

Apparently, the Cubs really did miss Aramis Ramirez in the lineup when he missed a few games. After stinking up the joint against crappy teams like the Reds, the Cubs have jumped back into first place thanks to a four-game winning streak that coincides with Ramirez’ return to the lineup. Not that he contributed all 12 runs by himself, but his presence seems to offer better pitches to those around him.

The Cubs scored 6 in the 5th and 5 in the 6th to rout the Padres and give Carlos Zambrano his 6th win. All of that scoring, and just one home run, from Alfonso Soriano.

Thanks to a Cardinals loss, Chicago sits alone in first. Jason Marquis will try to keep them there tonight when he starts against Shawn Estes at 8:05pm EDT.

After much delay and many false starts, we finally recorded our 100th Red Hot Broadcast this evening from the left field seats in Victory Field in Indianapolis. Due to the Mother’s Day game being rained out yesterday, the Indians scheduled a double-header, with each game intended to be only seven innings long. Of course, the game was tied at the end of seven, sending the game into the regular number of innings and beyond. At the end of ten (a game and a half), the Indians lost 2-1.

This week on the podcast, we talk about batting out of order, the order of the NLC teams, and our wacky fun weekend of partying.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Boxscore

The revival of the Whack-A-Cub game here at Red Hot Mama was perfectly timed, apparently…and the Reds must have really liked the idea, because they staged their own version this afternoon at GABP during a 9-0 win over the Chicago Cubs in the rubber match of a three-game series.

Whack A Cub, indeed. The Reds whacked seven home runs against Cubs pitching. They whacked Jon Lieber (2-2) four times – all in the second inning. Joey Votto (who won the Whack-A-Cub contest by whacking three of the Reds’ seven home runs on the day) got things started by pulling a 1-1 slider from Lieber into the seats in right field to lead off the second inning. Then it was Adam Dunn’s turn. Then, two batters later, it was Paul Bako. Three batters later, Jerry Hairston Jr. applied the coup de grace by parking a 3-1 Lieber offering for a two-run shot to stake Edinson Volquez (5-1) to a five-run lead.

That was considerably more run support than Volquez would need on this day, but the Reds weren’t through whacking the Cubs just yet. Brandon Phillips and Votto whacked Sean Marshall back-to-back in the fifth inning. Phillips clanged the first pitch off the foul pole in left, and Votto followed by depositing a 2-0 fastball over the wall in left-center. Votto also whacked Sean Gallagher in the sixth, parking a 1-0 fastball in left-center for a two-run shot.

Meanwhile, Volquez kept putting up goose eggs, throwing seven shutout innings, notching ten strikeouts, and lowering his ERA to a league-leading 1.06 before giving way to David Weathers in the eighth and Jeremy Affeldt in the ninth. The Cubs couldn’t score against them either, and suffered their 9th loss in their last 13 games.

The four-homer inning tied a team record last accomplished in old Riverfront Stadium on August 17, 1996 when Eddie Taubensee, Reggie Sanders, Jeff Branson, and Barry Larkin played Whack-A-Rockie.

Volquez has allowed one earned run or less in each of his starts so far this season. That’s something no Reds pitcher has done, at least not since the Elias Sports Bureau started keeping earned runs as a statistic in 1912. Meanwhile, the Reds have scored 44 runs in Volquez’ five wins, including eight or more runs five times (in the two starts he didn’t win, the Reds were shut out).

Votto became the 23rd Red to hit three homers in a game. The last before today was Aaron Boone, who played Whack-A-Cardinal on May 8, 2003. The seven homers set a new Reds’ team single-game record at GABP, and is the most homers the Reds have hit in a game since they set an NL record with nine while playing Whack-A-Phillie at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on September 4, 1999.

Next up for the Reds is a three-game series against the Mets in New York beginning on Friday.