10 games left (virtually tied with the Brewers)

Fact: Ted Lilly has been a stud for the Cubs this year.

He has made an argument of being the true Ace of this Chicago Cubs ball club and continues to pick up the pieces after the Chicago Cubs lose.

Stat: The Chicago Cubs are 9-1 with Ted Lilly on the mound after the Cubs lose the last game they've played.

I don't know about other Cub fans but I literally hold my breath when the opposition is on base and we're pitching to get out of the inning. Lilly, our saving grace this year, continued to dominate with his 20th quality start of the year. The man pitched seven solid innings and before he came out of the game with two runs a piece, he struck out the last two batters (with runners in scoring position) to keep the game locked down to give our Cubs a fighting chance.

The 8th inning was a wack-job. Let me preface this next comment by saying Soriano hit his 9th lead off homerun of the year. That broke a Cubs record (Rick Monday) that has been held for 30+ years. The guy doesn't see a pitch he doesn't like and it's almost like Dave Kingman of yesteryear...either he's going to bomb one, or he's going to whiff. Soriano comes up big again and has an outfield assist (16th of the year) at the plate (seems like almost every game the other team tries to test his arm) to keep the game tied. Then we get to the bottom of the inning and Murton hits a line drive to left where Dunn traps the ball, Theriot scores from third, and then Derreck Lee gets forced out at second because he was staying back while Dunn was trying to sell the ump in calling a catch on a trapped ball. Not only that but the previous play old man Griffey pulls his groin trying to throw Theriot out at home (RT held up at third) and has to underhand the ball back to the infield cutoff man.

The Cubs go on to win a game by a meaty effort by a two inning relief appearance by Bob Howry because Dempster was getting IV's from dehydration with the stomach flu. What else can happen to this team?

Meanwhile...in Houston where Cecil Cooper is out of rookies to pitch to his ex-team, goes into the 9th with a 4-2 lead only to have Brewer Ricky Weeks tie the game up with a two run shot over the right center wall. Hunter Pence doesn't even look at where the field ends and literally crashes into the wall at full speed knocking himself silly. Hunter Pence is the same guy who ends the suspense in the 10th driving in the winning run to have the Astros salvage one game in the series winning 5-4 in ten innings.

The Cubs have now set their rotation for the rest of the regular season and Lilly will pitch two more times (thank God) and with Milwaukee not having any more days off and facing the Braves in Atlanta, and then returning home against the Padres, my gut feeling is that we will be in the playoffs. The only problem with that is we'll be facing the Diamondbacks. (Good news?...Carlos Zambrano, who would start Game 1 usually does pretty well against our desert foes).

I'm Clay Koenig and the Cubs have 9 games left (up by one on the Brewers).