Here is the video of Felix Pie doing to Ken Griffey, Jr. what Griffey himself has done to others a few times over his career -- robbing him of a home run -- in the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last night.

I tried to record the 2am showing of the Chi Cubs 19, Milwaukee 5 game, but it was carried by ESPN and they for some odd reason blacked it out. ESPN did air it live (we're way outside of WCIU's broadcast area) but for some reason they didn't air it again at 2am, even though it was in the tv listings as such.

Perhaps they just couldn't squeeze 24 runs into 2 hours. I don't know.

We just started getting in ESPN in HD. Wow!
I can see the player's faces now. They have emotions! Imagine that.
The players look a lot thinner in HD too.

Here's a link to a review of the game and boxscore.

Last year, the defensive play of the year came in late September when Sam Fuld made a catch against the ivy in right field and doubled-up a runner at first. This year, the play came early, and we can safely declare the competition over.

Reed Johnson, April 25, 2008, against the Washington Nationals, courtesy of Nationals TV:

Poor Tom Hume. Facing Andre Dawson having a great day in his most powerful year. The date: August 1, 1987. The video:

The second-guessers -- Phil Rogers, Jay Mariotti, Gordon Wittenmyer, Melissa Isaacson, Rick Morrissey, Mike Downey, Mike Imrem, and Barry Rozner (talk about group think) -- were out in full force this morning after the Cubs' 3-1 loss in Game 1 of the NLDS. All of them consider Lou Piniella's removal of Carlos Zambrano to start the seventh inning in favor of Carlos Marmol to have been the cause of the Cubs' loss.

The real cause, of course, was Brandon Webb's mastery of the Cubs' hitters, the particular angle of some line drives off Cubs' bats, and Marmol's inability to locate his pitches in the 7th inning. But not to the aforementioned writers, who have created a new Zambrano in their mind, some unstoppable force who would of course not allowed any runs going forward. Either that, or they just could not come up with another angle on this game.

In making their judgments, they ignore the information Piniella had to go on when he made the decision, namely, that Marmol is a better pitcher than Zambrano over a 1-2 inning stretch.

After Trevor Hoffman struck out the side in the 9th inning of the San Diego Padres' 6-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, radio play-by-play man Bob Uecker went to break with, "This one is over."

When the Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs on June 30, they moved to 7.5 games ahead of the Cubs, the second place team. With the Cubs' 6-0 win tonight over the Cincinnati Reds and the Brewers' loss, the Cubs have clinched the NL Central divisional crown with two games to spare. It is not exactly a 1969 Cubs-style collapse for the Brewers, or even a 2007 Mets-style collapse, but it is a collapse. The Cubs needed help after their slow start and they got it when Milwaukee went 20-34 in July and August.

Carlos Zambrano came up huge tonight, throwing 7 shutout innings. He moved his season record to 18-13 and he is lined up to start Game 1 of the NLDS. Zambrano had decisions in 31 of his 34 starts this season. Zambrano's 31 decisions are the most by a Cubs' pitcher since Greg Maddux went 20-11 in 1992.

Alfonso Soriano also had a big game, leading it off with a home run, doubling, and throwing (another) runner out at the plate. The Cubs have not had a strong-armed outfielder with as an accurate an arm as Soriano since Andre Dawson.

Either Chip Caray or Steve Stone may be broadcasting the Cubs' playoff series.

That's what the Florida Marlins are saying right now about the Chicago Cubs. With tonight's 7-4 victory over the Cubs (video highlights), the Marlins moved to 5-0 on the season against the Cubs. Dating back to last season, the Marlins have won nine straight. The Marlins even got Carlos Marmol to do something he hadn't done in over 23 innings: give up a run. Marmol gave up a two-run home run to Miguel Cabrera to put the Marlins up by the final margin. (Side note: Marmol has now allowed just three home runs in 68.1 innings this season after allowing fourteen in 77 innings last year, mostly as a starter.)

Jason Marquis had his second straight bad outing, allowing five runs, four earned in five innings on nine hits and two walks. It wasn't all his fault: a likely double play in the Marlins' 3-run 3rd inning was thrown away by Mark DeRosa. Had the double-play been turned, none of those runs would have scored.

Thankfully, the St. Louis Cardinals came through in a big way tonight, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4. The Cubs stay two games up with four to play. The Brewers begin their series with the San Diego Padres tomorrow. The Padres remain in the thick of tight NL West and Wild Card races. Unfortunately, Jake Peavy is pitching tonight, so the Brewers will miss him. Unless they really need to win on Sunday, in which case it's hard to imaginez them throwing Brett Tomko over Peavy on short rest.

Cubs lose, Brewers win, leaving us with this with 5 games to go:

Team       W      L       Pct.      GB
Cubs      83      74      .529      --
Brewers   81      76      .516      2

The Cubs fell victim to their one-time farm-hand, Dontrelle Willis. The Cubs managed to get just 2 hits off of Willis in his 8 innings. Willis came into tonight's game having allowed 236 hits in 194.2 innings. He's had a better year at the plate (109 OPS+) than on the mound. Nevertheless, two of his ten wins have come in his two starts against the Cubs.

Meanwhile, 1500 miles to the north, Milwaukee blew out St. Louis. In the first two games of their four game series, the Brewers have outscored the Cardinals 22-6. And they did it against the Cardinals' two winningest pitchers, Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper.

Tomorrow, the Cubs have Jason Marquis going against rookie Daniel Barone. Barone has not pitched more than 5.2 innings in his 5 starts this season. His last start came on September 19, when he allowed 4 runs in 4.1 innings against Atlanta.

In Milwaukee, the Cardinals will throw Joel Pineiro against Carlos Villenueva. Villenueva has allowed just 4 runs in 24 innings since being inserted into the starting rotation on September 4.

UPDATE (9/26/07 4:40pm): It appears the Cardinals will throw Brad Thompson instead of Pineiro tonight.

With the Cubs up by a 1.5 games over Milwaukee with just over a week to play, here is Sam Fuld helping preserve a four-run lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 22.

Big innings win games, and the Cubs had a big inning in a big game last night.

Rich Hill was, for the most part, excellent, striking out nine and walking none in seven innings. Two of the three runs he allowed came on Corey Hart's bloop single to center. Hill has been the Cubs' best starting pitcher since the All-Star Break.

Alfonso Soriano returned and did nothing at the plate and looked hesitant in the field. Still, I feel better with him in the lineup.

Less than two months ago, Jacque Jones was on his way to Miami. In the unlikliest of turnarounds, he is on pace to being one of the heroes of the season. Going into last night, Jones had hit .326/.372/.479 since Lou Piniella reinserted him into the starting lineup on July 13. He has also played good defense all year, which is especially important given that he has been next to Cliff Floyd many times. See Cub Town for more on Jones.

The fielding error by Scott Linebrink on Ryan Theriot's high chopper to the mound during the fateful 7th inning last night was interesting for one particular reason: it was actually scored an error rather than a hit. That was the correct call; Linebrink should have fielded the ball (though Ron Santo disagreed with me). But Linebrink did have to make a small jump for it and, in today's baseball world, most scorekeepers call anything a hit where the fielder has to make more than a minimal amount of movement. It is one reason why fielding percentage statistics need to be taken for no more than they are worth, which is not much.

With the Cubs' win over the Brewers, and the Cardinals' win over the Astros, the Cardinals now sit in second place. I told you I was worried about them. 1060west is worried, too. ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski tries to sort out the NL Central. He also notes something cool that the fans did last night:

Since our Governor is an active Cubs fan, some may be wondering if he had a chance to vote for his favorite team's players in the All Star Game.

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From the Chicago Tribune...

Derrek Lee provided a teaching moment today for all parents watching this game with their children. To the left is a picture of what is supposed to be two grown men.

Chris Young threw a fastball up-and-in to Lee in the 4th inning, hitting Lee in the arm. Lee got up, shook it off, and began to walk to first. He appeared calm. But he decided to walk a little too far inside the first base line. And he started speaking with Young. And then Young said . . . something. No one, including Lee and Young, is saying what that something was. Whatever it was, Lee decided that it was worth throwing -- and missing -- a punch over.

I do not pretend to know that I would have kept my cool in that situation. But it would have been my duty to do so. Lee was neither defending himself nor defending others from physical harm. His failure to keep his cool resulted in the Cubs losing him for this game, and certainly for several others. He thus hurt his team because of a few words from an opposing pitcher.

The Cubs simply do not operate with a big enough margin to lose their star first baseman to a suspension, especially with their star third baseman already on the disabled list.

The fight, and Lee's pending suspension, overshadows Carlos Zambrano's complete game gem, in which he took a no-hitter into the 8th inning. It was his third very good game in a row. Unfortunately, the Cubs' offense was completely unable to breakthrough against the Padres' bullpen after Young was ejected, resulting in another one-run loss. The final batter in the game? Jacque Jones (611 OPS), hitting for Cesar Izturis (620 OPS). In Lee's spot in the lineup.

2-12 is the Cubs' record in 1-run games, after today's loss to the Dodgers in 11 innings. Today's culprit was a poor offense -- 7 hits and 1 run in those 11 innings, though it would not have looked so bad if Aramis Ramirez's 8th inning, bases loaded, pinch hit flyout had traveled just 10 more feet -- and a hanging 0-2 breaking ball from Scott Eyre. Fittingly, the final play was a bounced Carlos Marmol pitch that struck Juan Pierre in the leg with the bases loaded.

You can't blame Lou Piniella for bringing in the struggling Eyre for Michael Wuertz when the Dodgers used Andre Ethier to pinch-hit to lead off the bottom of the 8th inning.

That's the Carlos Zambrano we know and love. His 62 Game Score today wasn't his best of the season -- his best was his 66 two starts ago against the Mets -- but this performance seemed even better. That's because his control was excellent. He struck out 8 for the first time this year while walking just one (the last batter he faced, on his 125th pitch of the day). The Dodgers rarely hit the ball hard off him all day, demonstrating the good movement on his pitches. Zambrano won this game with his pitching, not any particularly great defense.

Meanwhile, Ryan Theriot has received two days off in a row, after hitting just .229/.316/.286 in 80 plate appearances over his last 18 games.