The bottom of the 8th inning of tonight's game was a lot of fun. Down 3-2 following a disappointing end to the bottom of the 7th, when home plate umpire Terry Craft said Juan Pierre didn't check his swing, even though he did, with a 3-2 count and runners on 1st and 3rd. Craft should have deferred that call to the 3rd base umpire. In any event, that's all forgotten (in part because of a good call Craft made in the 8th). In the 8th inning, Ricardo Rincon couldn't find the zone against Todd Walker, who was obviously taking a strike leading off before Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Then, Tony LaRussa did what needed to be done from the Cardinals' perspective: he brought in his best reliever, Jason Isringhausen, to face the heart of the Cubs' order. But Isringhausen couldn't find the zone either, walking Lee and Ramirez on 8 straight pitches, most of which were not close to the plate.

Up stepped Michael Barrett with the bases loaded, and here is where we praise Terry Craft. With a 1-2 count, Isringhausen threw a low inside fastball that was thisclose to being strike 3. But it did miss and Craft got the call right. Barrett then got around on a fastball right in the hitter's zone with his arms extended -- remember that the Cubs' earlier patience had produced a bases loaded situation, meaning Isringhausen did not want to go to ball three against Barrett -- and hit it on to Waveland.

Barrett won the battle and Dempster closed the 9th, giving the Cubs' the series sweep.

On Sean Marshall's night -- I think Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker, given the resources and information before them, made the right decision in inserting Marshall as the 4th starter in place of Jerome Williams for tonight's game. The decision did not work out well tonight, as Marshall allowed 4 runs on 4.1 innings. The first 2 runs occurred on a walk to Albert Pujols followed by a home run to Scott Rolen. Marshall is not the first pitcher to have that happen to him. Marshall then retired 7 straight before entering the top of the 4th with Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds due up. The 4th looked to be an important inning for Marshall's success tonight. And he escaped unscathed, retiring the Cardinals after only allowing a single to Edmonds.

The 5th inning looked like it would be a much easier inning. But So Taguchi doubled and Hector Luna singled. Sidney Ponson then sacrificed and Marshall hit David Eckstein with a pitch to load the bases. Baker then evidenced a quicker hook than he would have with any of his other starters. Marshall had only thrown 65 pitches to that point (42 for strikes). Baker chose to bring in Michael Wuertz, for his first outing of the season after a terrible spring, to face the Cardinals' 2 and 3 hitters. Wuertz was throwing hittable fastballs and hanging sliders, but got Juan Encarnacion to strike out. (Wuertz reminds me of Joe Borowski, but without the location Borowski had before his arm problems.) But then Pujols drove in 2 runners with a hard hit grounder between third and short. Rolen also singled before Wuertz got the third out of the inning.

I understand what Baker was doing. The pitcher's spot was coming up 2nd in the bottom of the 5th, so Baker wanted to use a pitcher who he didn't want to have to use more than a partial inning. But bringing in your worst reliever with a 3-2 lead in the 5th, with the bases loaded, one out, and the opposing team's best hitters coming up, is less than ideal. Either let Marshall get himself out of the jam, as he had pitched well up until that point, or bring in Bobby Howry or Scott Williamson (Howry had pitched each of the previous two days, though).

One final note on tonight's game: Jacque Jones's 4th inning at-bat was a lot of fun, too. He got the count to 3-2 with 2 runners on and could expect a fastball from Sidney Ponson, who no longer throws an intimidating fastball. Jones knew it was gone when he hit it.

The Cubs are now 4-1 for the first time since 1998.