Cubs lose, 6-11, back in second place

Cubs 6, Astros 11 Coming into this game we had no idea what the Cubs would get out of Dempster, and the answer was: not much. Luckily the Cubs were in this game due to an injury to Oswalt in the second inning. They tied it up in the fifth at 6-6 on a 3-run HR by Aramis Ramirez, who I think we can say at this point is officially back. Then the bullpen finished the pig’s breakfast that Dempster had started, giving up another 5 runs over the remaining 4 innings. Heilman once again let a bunch of inherited runners score - would be interesting to see how he has done starting an inning vs how he has done coming in with runners on (my guess: not well). The offense mustered only five hits, but tempered that by drawing twice that number of walks, with 5 alone coming from Wesley Wright, who had trouble finding the strike zone at times. I said coming into the series that if the Cubs won one of these two games against Oswalt and Rodriguez, there’s a good chance they win the series, and that is still true - they should be favored in both of the remaining games. With the Cardinals leading 10-0 in the 8th inning, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the Cubs are now in 2nd place (dying laughing). Another good matchup in that series tomorrow with Kershaw facing off against Piniero, two guys who have overachieved this year. Thursday’s game features Kuroda v Lohse