Cubs 6-1 Pirates: Okay, Okay, We’ll Take It

The Cubs ended their 8-game slide in defeating the Pirates in a game called on account of rain in the top of the 6th inning. Sometimes, this kind of thing is just what a team needs to get back on the right track, and tonight’s game had several promising signs. 1.) Return of patience at the plate: The Cubs drew 4 walks in 5 innings and had Snell at 98 pitches through 5 innings. 2.) Fontenot driving the ball: he had a ringing double in his first AB and a sharply hit RBI single in his third. 3.) Fukudome staying hot. He hit a 2-out dinger in the first and took and important walk in the bottom of the 5th. 4.) Sean Marshall pitches very well: Marshall tossed 5 innings of 4 hit, 1 run ball, walking 2 and K’ing 6. He was really only in trouble once, and pitched himself out of the jam. 5.) Cubs behaving like a mature, veteran team: Even given Lilly’s tête-à-tête with Bob Davidson, Dempster’s farnsworthing of the Gatorade machine, and Bradley’s brief spat with notorious douchebag Paul Sullivan, there haven’t been any major dust-ups or needless outbursts from this club. They’ve just kept going out there, night after night, doing their jobs, not pointing fingers and I think that steadiness is paying off. And a lot of the credit for that goes to Lou. This is still a flawed club, but there are whispers that changes are coming this week. So let’s hope tonight is the beginning of some better baseball. Tomorrow, Carlos Zambrano takes on Zach Duke. Duke has been really sharp in his last two starts, and has always pitched well against the Cubs. Here’s hoping that doesn’t continue.