Kuzul

The Chicago Cubs are having fun on the road. They scored a total of eight runs in the first four innings on Saturday night as they beat the Houston Astros 8-3 in the second game of the final series of the 2010 season. They improve the record of their current season-ending road trip to 5-1 and they will get a chance to sweep their division arch-rivals Sunday afternoon. Aramis Ramirez produced four runs with a grand slam in the fourth inning.  Marlon Byrd also had a three-RBI night. The Cubs offense gave their starter Carlos Zambrano a two-run cushion in the first even before he (11-6) went onto the mound for his 20th start of the season. The lead-off Jeff Baker received a walk from the Astros starting pitcher, J.A. Happ.  Starlin Castro followed with a double that advanced Baker to third.  Byrd drove in Baker on a groundout to shortstop.  ...

Since the September call-up, the Cubs rookie outfielder Brad Snyder has had the privilege of enjoying two double-RBI games in his first eight major league games.  On Thursday afternoon, he reached another level of enjoyment by hitting out first game-winning RBI.  His single in the ninth inning generated the winning run for the Chicago Cubs who took the four-game series finale with a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in PETCO Park.  With the win, the visitors snapped their two-series losing streak and dimmed the Padres’ chance to make the playoffs. Both teams’ pitching staffs performed creditably, especially for both starting pitchers, Tom Gorzelanny and Jon Garland who formed an outstanding pitching dual witnessed by a crowd of 28,576 in the last getaway day of the 2010 season. Gorzelanny returned to his top form after a few disappointing recent outings.  The southpaw tossed six scoreless innings scattering three hits ...

Even though the 2010 season is an absolute chaos for the Chicago Cubs, they get a lot of attention at the end of the calendar year.  They are put in a new mission—spoiling their opponents’ hopes to access to the playoffs. In the span of the ongoing 10 days, they had faced teams in contention, the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals last week.  They opened another series Monday night in the last road trip of the season in San Diego, playing against the NL West second place team, the San Diego Padres who were only half-game behind the Giants. Alfonso Soriano scored the only run of the game in the seventh inning and it was enough for the Cubs to beat the home team 1-0 in the opener of this four-game set.  The victory obstructed the Padres to regain the potential shared lead with the Giants in the NL West ...

Randy Wells should be happy tonight.  By beating the San Francisco Giants Wednesday night, following his win last week in St. Louis, it is the first time since April that he won two consecutive games.  He has been trying hard to turn his unfortunate season around but it took him until the end of the year to do so. The right-hander (8-13) outdueled the hot Giants starter, Jonathan Sanchez in the Cubs’ 2-0 victory to tie the series at one game apiece in the three-game set. The Cubs’ first run came in the third inning and it was the game-winning run.  Lead-off Kosuke Fukudome connected as his 13th home run of the year went over the right-field wall near the foul pole to make it 1-0. They threatened to add more runs in the same frame.  With two outs, Darwin Barney had walked before Starlin Castro singled to center field which advanced him to ...

The Cubs just did something Wednesday night they haven’t done in the last 12 years—sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis.  Homers by Tyler Colvin and Aramis Ramirez and another Carlos Zambrano’s strong outing helped the team to win 7-3 in the three-game series finale.  It has been two nights in a row that the Cubs knocked the top two Cardinals aces out of the game.  Last night, it was Adam Wainwright.  Tonight, it was Chris Carpenter’s turn. The first run of the game belonged to the Cubs.  Carpenter (15-7) gave up a single to Koyie Hill who stole second and was brought home later by Blake DeWitt’s sacrifice fly. Zambrano (9-6) stepped in the mound for the Cubs in quest of his sixth win in a row.  He encountered the Cardinals’ first run of the game in the third inning; Colby Rasmus hit a sacrifice fly to score lead-off Skip Schumaker from third.  It ...

The Chicago Cubs proved on Tuesday night that Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright is beatable. They managed to get five runs off him to set up their second victory in as many nights in Busch Stadium. They beat the St. Louis Cardinals by a final score of 7-2. At the same time, they prevented Wainwright from becoming the National League pitcher with the most wins this season. Randy Wells pitched a gem to snap his personal two-game winless streak. He gave up only one run and five hits in eight innings, fanning five Cardinals without issuing a walk. The right-hander (7-13) also contributed offensively with two singles and two RBI in four at-bats. The Cubs scored their first two runs in the second inning. With one out, Xavier Nady singled off Wainwright. After Geovany Soto’s strikeout, Tyler Colvin walked on four pitches. The Cardinals starter then gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Darwin Barney and ...

Carlos Zambrano continues his hot streak. Before tonight’s contest, he had a 4-0, 1.98 ERA record since his return to the rotation after going through an anger management program in June.  He had another stellar performance tonight, pitching deep into the ninth to blank the Brewers and limit them to three hits and three walks to give the Cubs a 4-0 victory in a three-game series opener in Miller Park. He contributed offensively; hitting three singles and producing a Cubs’ run in the sixth inning. The right-hander (8-6) got into trouble in the second inning allowing back-to-back walks to lead-off Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee. But the Cubs got out of the inning without any damage; Chris Dickerson lined out back to the pitcher and Alcides Escobar grounded into an inning-ending double play. The Cubs scored their first two runs of the game in the third inning. Blake DeWitt led off with a strikeout. ...

Cubs catcher Geovany Soto’s home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was the game winning run.  The Chicago Cubs took game one of the three-game set by beating their NL Central archrivals Houston Astros 5-4 in front of an attendance of 31,647. When the game was deadlocked at 4-4 in the eighth, Soto sent reliever Wilton Lopez’s two-out 1-0 fastball out of Wrigley Field.  The long solo shot is his 17th round-tripper of the season, and his second in two days. The Astros opened the scoring in the second.  Cubs starter Casey Coleman struggled in the inning and gave up four runs to the opponents.  Chris Johnson hit a lead-off homer for his seventh dinger of the season.  Coleman struck out Brian Bogusevic looking but issued a walk to Matt Downs.  Jason Castro followed with a single.  Downs moved to third on a fielding error by left fielder Alfonso Soriano and Castro ...

2:20 pm ET, Friday, Aug. 20 TV: CSN, SPSO Probable pitchers: Ryan Dempster (11-8, 3.62) vs. Jair Jurrjens (5-4, 3.92) 4:10 pm ET, Saturday, Aug. 21 TV: FOX Probable pitchers: Tom Gorzelanny (6-7, 3.85) vs. Tommy Hanson (8-8, 3.41) 2:20 pm ET, Sunday, Aug. 22 TV: WGN, FSS Probable pitchers: Randy Wells (5-11, 4.44) vs. Mike Minor (1-0, 3.75)   2010 season matchups This is the second series between the two clubs this season.  They played against each other in the season-opening series in Atlanta.  The Braves took two games out of three with victories of 16-5 and 3-2.  The Cubs avoided the sweep by winning the last game, 2-0. This weekend series is the last between Chicago and Atlanta in the 2010 season.  It also means that this will be the last time both managers, Lou Piniella of the Cubs and Bobby Cox of the Braves, will face against each other as managers.  They both earlier this year ...

The San Diego Padres are simply too strong for the Cubs. The Chicago Cubs could not avoid the sweep by the NL West leaders Thursday afternoon.  Once again, their bullpen sank and a careless defensive play in the seventh inning put them down 5-3 in the series finale. Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs’ starter, did not have a stellar performance.  However, he managed to limit the Padres to one run and four hits in six innings.  Even though he walked far too many batters—giving six Padres free passes to first base—he got out of his jams, stranding runners one inning after another. Well...except in the second, when the Padres took a 1-0 lead.  He issued back-to-back walks to Yorvit Torrealba and Will Venable.  Chris Denorfia followed and loaded the bases with a single to shortstop.  One out later, Jerry Hairston, Jr. hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Torrealba from third. The Cubs scored ...