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The Cubs will, potentially, be part of baseball history tonight as the Cubs/Phillies game will be the first to be eligible to use replay technology for disputed HR calls. There are two other first-games-of-series tonight, Twins/A's and Rangers/Angels, that will be eligible, but both of those start after the Cubs game. The rest of baseball will start with this tomorrow.

Of course, we may not see any such disputed calls for weeks or months. I'm all for doing this, as long as it is limited to HR calls only. Presuming they can do it as they claim:

[MLB VP of Baseball Operations Jimmie Lee] Solomon expects the whole process, from initiation to official ruling, to take approximately two and a half minutes. And he doesn't anticipate it to slow the pace of the game.

... it should run smoothly.

Today's Starting Pitchers

R. Dempster Cubs vs. C. Hamels Phillies 15-5 W-L 11-8 2.85 ERA 3.20 153 SO 162 65 BB 43 11 HR 24 vs. Phi -- vs. Cubs

Cole Hamels shut the Cubs out for seven innings and gave up only one hit in a 7-1 Phillies win on April 12. He's one of the best lefties in the majors and also won two starts vs. the Cubs last year. Only Ryan Theriot (5-for-11, a HR) and Aramis Ramirez (4-for-11, a triple, a HR) have had any success vs. Hamels among current Cubs. The one part of Hamels' game that shows a bit of weakness is homers -- he's allowed 24, tied for sixth-most in the NL.

Ryan Dempster is 3-3, 4.98 in 12 career starts vs. Philly. To which I say: "So what?" The last of those starts was more than five years ago on July 28, 2003. Only Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell remain from that Phillies team. Both of those players have hit Dempster well, so if he can keep them down, he should have pretty good luck against the rest of the Phils.

Today's game is on WGN and CSN Philly, so EI viewers get Harry Kalas & Co. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 7 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Stop what you're doing right now and look around you, remember where you are, what you are doing, because this is an historic day in Cubs history.

You'd have to be over 70 years old (and there may be a few here, but not many) to really remember the last time a Cubs team was 33 games over .500. It was on September 30, 1945, the last day of that pennant-winning season, when they finished 98-56, 42 games over .500, the highest-water mark of that year. It's not likely the 2008 Cubs will get that far -- but who knows, this team has surpassed any hopes even optimistic me had at the beginning of the season. This team is by far the best Cubs team in my lifetime.

So you are experiencing things that you never have, and that no Cubs fan has for decades.

Today, in a snappy two hour and seventeen minute 2-0 shutout of the Pirates, the Cubs turned to "small ball", as likely they, and the Pirates as well, were tired from last night's marathon and the short turnaround to a midday start today, under threatening skies that never did rain on Pittsburgh -- the game was short enough that the Cubs players might even be home for dinner tonight. It completed the Cubs' eleventh series sweep of the season (ten sweeps of three games or more and one two-gamer, the abbreviated series vs. the Mets in April).

The Cubs left RISP in the 1st, 4th and 5th innings and ran themselves out of another when Alfonso Soriano got picked off in the third. Let me not complain about Alfonso today, because he did have two of the Cubs' seven hits. By the time the seventh came along in the scoreless game, though, it was the bottom of the Cubs' order with many reserves and platoon partners playing that produced the winning rally, and it was bunts that were most important. Reed Johnson bunted his way on base and Mark DeRosa doubled him to third -- and then on a contact play, Johnson raced across the plate on a slow roller to third by Ronny Cedeno, and then Henry Blanco laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to score DeRo, Blanco's tenth RBI of the year. Henry has 97 at-bats and is having the finest offensive year of his career, in addition to providing valuable backup behind the plate to Geovany Soto, who got a well-deserved day off.

And that was enough for Marquis, who was outstanding today. Throwing only 95 pitches and walking nobody, he probably could have finished, but Carlos Marmol (16 pitches) and Kerry Wood (11 pitches, 7 strikes) finished up efficiently, Wood posting his 27th save, which is now tied for fifth in the NL despite the fact that Wood missed almost a month.

So that puts the pressure on both the Cardinals and Brewers as they see the score posted before they take the field tonight in St. Louis. Hard as it is to root for either of those teams, tonight I'm squarely in the Cardinals' corner, hoping they will help put Milwaukee six games behind the Cubs as the Cubs begin a seven-game homestand against the Phillies tomorrow at Wrigley Field. There are a couple of real interesting pitching matchups ahead of us this weekend, including the match between former A's teammates Rich Harden and Joe Blanton on Friday, and on Sunday junkballer Jamie Moyer will face Carlos Zambrano. Moyer made his major league debut on June 16, 1986, when a young Z had just celebrated his fifth birthday a couple of weeks before. (Do you think he smashed his face into a piece of birthday cake back then?)

Celebrate, everyone. Enjoy this, every moment. We're entering the last two months of the season flying higher than any Cubs team has in decades. And the best is yet to come.

I have some errands to run -- will have a recap up later this afternoon. Until then you can use this to discuss the big series sweep!!

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You'll note the 90% chance of rain mentioned in the box above. Based on this NWS radar loop, it doesn't look too good. This is the last meeting of the year between the Pirates and Cubs and they have no common off days the rest of the season. Thus, if they can't play today, they'd hold this game till the end of the season and only play it if it had postseason implications.

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs. Z. Duke Pirates 8-7 W-L 4-12 4.76 ERA 5.29 71 SO 72 52 BB 42 14 HR 19 vs. Pit -- vs. Cubs

Zach Duke is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA vs. the Cubs this year in four starts and that includes this April 9 game in which he gave up only 1 run in 7 innings and the Cubs eventually won in 15. In the other three games he's pitched vs. the Cubs this year, his ERA is 8.16. D-Lee (.313), A-Ram (.344), Alfonso Soriano (.571) and Reed Johnson (.500) all have monstrously good BA's vs. Duke. Hit him early, hard and often.

Jason Marquis has also started four times vs. Pittsburgh this year and is 2-1, 3.47, and that includes a decent outing in the August 1 loss at Wrigley Field when he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings and Jeff Karstens shut the Cubs down. The only Pirate he really has to watch out for is Jason Michaels, who in a small-sample-size six AB has four hits including a HR that produced all three runs on August 1.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago -- no Pittsburgh TV, so EI viewers will see Len & Bob. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 11:30 am CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:15 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Well, that was about the most whacked-out game I've seen in quite some time. Consider:

• Carlos Zambrano started the game by throwing a wild pitch on strike three, walked four, allowed eight hits, made a throwing error, smashed a couple of Gatorade coolers, and didn't last long enough to win.
• Alfonso Soriano dropped a fly ball -- this time after dark -- just as he did in the sunshine May 25 in this same ballpark. What are they putting on that LF grass, anyway? (Later, when he caught a routine fly ball, he exhibited what can only be called, pardon the mild profanity, a shit-eating grin.) Soriano, for his part, did have three hits and a stolen base for positive contributions last night.
• Kerry Wood had a brain fart and failed to cover first base on a grounder to Derrek Lee, allowing Nyjer Morgan to reach base. (Morgan had earlier been caught stealing when his foot came off second and he was tagged out by Ryan Theriot after reaching on a bunt single off Sean Marshall in the 7th.)
• Jeff Samardzija and Neal Cotts weren't very good, allowing the Pirates to re-take the lead after the Cubs had overcome a 3-0 first-inning deficit.

And none of that mattered in the end, as the Cubs annihilated the Bucs 14-9 on the strength of Geovany Soto's best game of his career -- Soto smacked his 20th HR, breaking Randy Hundley's team record for HR by a rookie catcher, and also hit two bases-clearing doubles for a career-high, and Cub season high, seven RBI. The Cubs now have four players with at least 77 RBI (D-Lee drove in his 77th last night) and have a real shot at having four with over 90.

That makes the Cubs' record vs. Pittsburgh this year 13-4, and in six of the 13 wins, they have scored ten or more runs. (Can we arrange to play these guys a few more times in September?) The 82nd win of the year clinched a winning season for the Cubs, the earliest calendar date on which they have done that since 1929, when in a 154-game schedule they won their 78th game on August 23 (in 1969 they won #82 on August 30, the earliest they did so in the 162-game era before last night). I wrote yesterday that a win last night would give the Cubs ten straight series wins -- that isn't correct; the win gives them nine consecutive series wins, but the rest of what I posted is right. No Cub team has done this since 1907.

They're 21-6 in those nine series. They're 24-8 since Alfonso Soriano came off the DL on July 23. Since losing to the Cardinals on August 9 they're 12-3 (and two of the three losses were by 2-1 scores).

It's all good, though I worry a little bit about Z, who, as last August, has been shaky this month. Even Z himself is aware of this:

"I have to eliminate August. Once I get past August, everything will be back to normal," Zambrano said. "I was thinking about that after the game. Last August wasn't that good, but I was able to come back, and September and October were good for me. So it's nothing to worry about."

Zambrano said he's just having problems with his delivery. He was fighting himself on the mound, emotionally if not physically.

Maybe he's a little too aware. Z will have one more start in August, on Sunday the 31st. Let's hope he can turn the calendar page one day early.

In the meantime, let's sweep this series -- weather permitting. I'll have the pregame thread up at 10:30 CDT.

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