The Friendly Confines

Last week, the Cubs got swept by the Rays on the road (still want to type Devil Rays) in a frustrating series, the last game of which saw the Rays score 7 runs in the 7th to win 8-3. Carlos Marmol failed to retire a batter while walking 2 and hitting another 2 guys. He appeared again in the White Sox series over the weekend, and while it was a less disastrous outing, he still didn't look quite right. Hopefully its not a result of him being overworked (and he has been worked A LOT in the first half of this season-- on pace for about 94 IP). The aforementioned White Sox series was at home and ended up in a sweep, running the Cubs' home winning streak to 14 games. They're an almost unfathomable 32-8 at Wrigley thus far, compared to 16-20 on the road.

Aramis Ramirez had a fantastic series, going 6-for-14 with 4 HRs. He's now one away from trying Derrek Lee and Alphonso Soriano for the team lead at 15. Ryan Dempster almost got his second complete game of the year, running his record to 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA. Dempster now leads the team in ERA, wins, winning percentage, WHIP, and hits per 9 IP. Right now Edinson Volquez is playing out of his mind, but its not inconceivable that Dempster could be in the discussion for Cy Young at the end of the year. With 16 starts under his belt, I think its certainly safe to say that his success isn't a flake and that the work he put in during the off-season made a huge difference in his pitching. He's certainly exceeded my expectations--and I suspect most everyone else's expectations--for how he would perform as a starter.

Carlos Zambrano left his start in Tampa Bay after feeling something in his shoulder. An MRI did not reveal any structural damage, which is great news. He has, however, been placed on the 15-day DL and will miss some time. Sean Marshall is expected to start Tuesday against the Orioles. Right now the Cubs are carrying 14 hitters so someone is going to be sent down. It seemed obvious that it would be Eric Patterson, but Patterson decided to have a huge series against the White Sox going 5-for-8 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Matt Murton, who was called up before the Tampa Bay series might get sent down, though he's had a few key hits as well. Another dilemma is going to present itself when Darryl Ward gets healthy, which Jim Hendry claimed over the weekend might happen as early as this week (I believe he's already on a rehab assignment). In his absense Micah Hoffpauir has been hitting .400 in 35 ABs, and I'm not convinced that Ward is necessarily better than him.

FYI, lest you think I pull these out of my ass, as always all the stats in this post are from Baseball Reference. I can't stress enough how amazing a resource the site is.