...But it's the Cubs who spew venom

The Arizona Diamondbacks made their annual trip to Wrigley field this past weekend and what a weekend it was. The D’backs came to Wrigley field with the best record in baseball and the Cubs returned home after a lackluster road trip. Thankfully, the Chicago Cubs caught a few breaks, got great pitching, timely hitting and swept the Diamondbacks and now find themselves back in first place.

The opener of the series was a great pitchers’ duel with Dan Haren going for the visitors and Ted Lilly going for the Chicago Cubs. Each starting pitcher went seven innings with Lilly turning in his best game of the year. After last year’s playoff disaster Lilly definitely had something to prove and he did - allowing one run while striking out a season high 10. The Cubs also got some timely hitting as they scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth with two outs and Lilly even got into the action with a run scoring single of his own. The bullpen held the lead and the Chicago Cubs took game 1.

The last two games of the series were pretty similar, with both starting out as pitchers’ duels. That story changed once Arizona’s bullpen got involved. Saturday’s game saw the Cubs break open a close game in the home half of the seventh inning. It was that man again Kosuke Fukudome capping off a six run inning with a two run homer that had the Wrigley faithful chanting FU-KU-DOME!!!

The last game of the series was supposed to be the best of the three, with future hall of famer Randy Johnson going head to head with Big Z Carlos Zambrano. Apparently Mother Nature wasn’t impressed with the match up as heavy rain hit the Chicagoland area all night and all morning with temperatures dropping into the mid 40’s. When the rain finally did stop, the game was delayed a little more than an hour. Both managers decided to scratch the top guns and replace them with lesser known pitchers. Very good game nonetheless and once again the D’backs bullpen was to blame for the loss. It was that lucky 7th inning again as Reed Johnson hit a two run game tying home run and little used pinch hitter Daryl Ward came up with his second clutch hit in as many days in the 8th to give the blue shirts the lead. The Cubs ran Kerry Wood out in the ninth to nail it down the three game sweep was complete.