Before the Chicago Cubs won their third game in a row this afternoon -- and fourth out of five -- the Sun-Times' Mike Kiley backpedaled from his proclamation four days ago that Baker could be fired at the All-Star break. From today's paper: "While it seems likely Baker won't be fired by general manager Jim Hendry within the next week -- management is miffed by all the speculation -- nothing is guaranteed about how much longer Baker has left in Chicago."

In other words, right now we don't know anything. But here's my thought: Right now, the chance that Dusty Baker will receive a contract extension over the All-Star break is as great as the chance that he'll be fired.

If the Cubs had entered the break having lost 17 of 21 games, as they had before their 1-0 win over the Astros on July 5, it would have been easier for Hendry to fire Baker. Now, it's much harder. You don't fire a manager after his team just won four of five games, outscoring their opponents 22-9. Especially when three of the wins came with two rookies and Glendon Rusch on the mound to open the game.