I hate national broadcasts (but happy to get the Cubs in So Cal) ...


Oh yeah .... P to the M

15 more W's to 100....

I haven't wanted to mention the century mark that DOESN'T refer to the Cubs' championship drought, but it's crazy to think that it's actually a feasible goal.

I think a lot of people expected the Cubs to drop off a bit in the second half. They certainly had a couple snaps there where things didn't go so well, but overall, they've simply been a great team. I remember watching the 2004 Cardinals on a daily basis and wondered what it was like to be able to root for a dominating team. For this year at least, I've gotten to know.

Anyway, Myers has pitched very well since being called back up to the Show, but as we've seen the last two days, the Cubs should be in good shape if they get into the pen and it's a close one.

Fun with selective startpoints: the Cubs are 25-6 (!!!) since losing to Florida on July 26.

The Cubs and Brewers were both tied for first at 60-44 on that day, Milwaukee has gone 18-12 since...and lost 6 1/2 games in the standings. Of course, the 4-game sweep at the hands of the Cubs didn't help, but since the end of that series, the Brewers are 18-8, and have LOST 1 1/2 games.

I will only be dropping in and out because SEC football has begun. As Retro keeps repeating-petal to the metal. Lets win this series.

That's an incredible stat, SBJ. Quite a few people have pegged September as the month that would be the undoing of the Cubs' division run. But they've capitalized on a home-heavy August. It's starting to look like this may be the first time I get to see the Cubs' playoff hopes depend on whether they can keep Milwaukee at bay instead of having to play catch-up and hope other contending teams lose.

Shut em down, Lilly! (Mets fan)

I am so ####### sick of Dick Stockton.

They should invoke a Chase Utley rule. I mean, he doesn't even try to make it look like he's trying to get out of the way.

To be fair, Bob, he did take that one in the head.

I would never guess that Zambrano actually plays with these guys the way he read off those names.

Those two strikeouts were simply SICK.

ROY! ROY!

That seemed like an odd time to call off the bunt. Didn't matter in the end, but still weird to have Lily swinging away against a guy as hot as Myers.

Cubs up, and Michigan losing to Utah. Life is pretty good right now.

I love how the cameraman shows images to give Stockton cues, and he's utterly ####### oblivious to them.

Why the hell did Theriot not score there? Bad jump on that?

Have you ever seen Victorino throw?

It was a weak dunker into CF, if Theriot read it well off the bat, he's scoring on Victorino.

That's a situation where they usually would score. I still have no problem holding Theriot. I think he would've had a shot to score, but I've seen far too many runners take Victorino's arm for granted and get gunned down by plenty. That taken into consideration along with the fact that one of your hottest hitters is coming up with nobody out and there's no reason to force the issue.

I definitely thought he wasn't going to hold up, but given the circumstances, there's no reason to get thrown out at home with your RBI guy coming up next. Like I said, more times than not, Ramirez or Edmonds comes through there.

Cubs are nickle and diming Myers. That's what, they're sixth or seventh hit and not one of them has been hit all that well. Lots of dunkers and dribblers off the end of the bat.

Ryan Howard is gonna murder Chris Guccione's dog at the end of this series.

Fatass missed the tag.

Annnnnd he didn't tag him.

Come on, the analysis of whether he tagged him is based on the reactions of the players rather than the actual moving pictures right in front of them??

Ryan asking for deep analysis from Fox is like expecting honesty from politicians.

I find it humorous there have been so many questionable calls made in this series and none of them are the type that can make use of replay. Tough to see if he really tagged him, but it looked like he missed him. Howard's reaction seems to suggest he was at least not positive he made the tag. Eight hits through four already, but they need to start cashing in on them. It's not helping that the bottom of the lineup is 4-for-4, leaving Lily and Soriano to pick them up.

Actually after watching the replay about 15 times -- the reaction of the player is all we can really go on --- I can't tell at all

Stating the obvious, the Cubs need to get some more runs. The Phillies are just missing these.

I guess I don't understand how the 1st base ump overrules Guccione when the only way he got Lilly was to tag the back of his shoe, which only Guccione could see.

I have always been surprised that FOX doesn't have any college football and continues to show baseball into September. I bring this up because I love Dick Stockton on football coverage, but despise him doing baseball.

the reaction of the player is all we can really go on

Well, go with Lilly's reaction. He kept running like he missed the tag.

Wow - pitching to Werth.

What a slide by Howard!

That was brutal.

Just got home from auditions. So, from the ranting I heard from Ronnie on the radio on the way home, and from the comments in here, another clean, well-umpired game, huh?

Santo is convinced that at least three of the called strikes Romero got in the 8th were out of the zone. What say those who were watching?

Oh, and WHiP vs. Howard- I fully expect to see a city truck out on Monday morning filling in the new massive crater on Sheffield.

Blah. Hopefully Good Z shows up tomorrow.