..:Official 2008 NL Central Thread:..Congratulations Chicago Cubs...:

[joe billionaire]

page 4?

 

[mrprince757]

 

[am 1 fiend]

Lets go Reds, we need to gain some ground

 

[arog27]

Dusty's back in Chitown.....lets whoop his team's ##%.

 

[jch3]

Will Harden implode? I hope he goes 8 IP and then let's the bullpen blow it.

 

[arog27]

Harden is nasty tonight !!!! ^^^ ain't gon happen JCH.....not tonight

 

[jch3]

^ 2 innings left!

 

[arog27]

^^ 1 inning left.

P.S. Marmol was nasty.

 

[arog27]

Cubs are the masters of the big scoring late inning that breaks a game wide open.

 

[jch3]

Ha, yeah, that is that.

 

[arog27]

Cubs Win ! Cubs Win !!

 

[sickickz23]

I cannot honestly believe we are 29 games over .500

If this is a dream, don't wake me up.

 

[Retroballer]

nice win over sheets tonight, lets take another one tomorrow

 

[arog27]

Harden Shuts Down Reds, Offense Awakes Late
Cubs Beat Reds 5-0
While C.C. Sabathia has proved to be the best midseason pick-up in baseball since Milwaukee acquired him in July, Rich Harden isn't far behind.

The Cubs right-hander pitched another gem Tuesday night in a 5-0 victory over Cincinnati, allowing only two hits while striking out 10 with no walks in seveninnings.

Harden has four double-digit strikeout games in seven starts for the Cubs after having only six in his career before his arrival.

What's the difference?

"I don't know," Harden said. "Maybe a new league, seeing some new guys and they really haven't seen me that much. And you have to give alot of credit to [ Geovany] Soto, too. He really has a good idea of what he's doing back there, and every game we've worked we've been on the samepage."

Since throwing 51/3 shutout innings in his debut July 12, Harden has given up one or fewer runs in six of his seven starts. He lowered his earned-run averageas a Cub to 1.50 Tuesday as the Cubs posted their sixth shutout of the season.

"We just have to watch him, keep him fresh and keep him strong," manager Lou Piniella said. "This kid is a competitor. He has good stuff and hepitches with confidence."

Carlos Marmol pitched a perfect eighth inning after Harden's exit and Kerry Wood closed it out to give the Cubs a 48-17 record at Wrigley Field and a 12-4record in August.

Harden and Johnny Cueto engaged in an interesting pitching duel for most of the night before the Cubs offense finally broke through in the fifth after shootingitself in the foot early on, stranding runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings.

Soto's base-running proved to be as valuable as his pitch-calling. He began the fifth with a line shot to right-center field that deflected off the wristof a diving Corey Patterson. Soto scooted to third with his second triple of the year.

After Kosuke Fukudome walked and Mark DeRosa struck out, Harden laid down a sacrifice that third baseman Edwin Encarnacion fielded. Cueto pointed to third,where no one was covering the bag, so Soto had ample room to maneuver.

As soon as Encarnacion rifled the throw to first, Soto took over and scored on a wide throw from first baseman Joey Votto, with Fukudome taking third on theerror.

"I just followed the third baseman down the line," Soto said. "I was pretty far down, and whenever he let go of the ball … I thought it wasgoing to be close. I'm not that fast. I went headfirst into home plate and luckily I scored."

Piniella lauded Soto for his heads-up base-running.

"That's exactly the way you do that play, and you don't expect it with a catcher," he said. "Just good base-running, good heads-upbaseball."

Harden retired the first 10 batters he faced before Jeff Keppinger's one-out single in the fourth. After walking five men last week against Atlanta, Hardencommand was impeccable. Since joining the Cubs, he has struck out 59 against 14 walks.

The Cubs added four runs in the eighth off the Reds bullpen. Alfonso Soriano blew off a stop sign to score from second on Derrek Lee's single off MikeLincoln, and Aramis Ramirez followed with an RBI double to make it 3-0. Fukudome's two-run single after an intentional walk to Soto made it 5-0, and theReds were down for the count.

The Cubs are 19-6 since Alfonso Soriano's return, but the left-fielder said it's just a coincidence.

"This game is not like basketball, where one player can make a difference," Soriano said. "I add a lot of motivation, and as a team we playbetter, but we have a lot of great hitters. One day it's Aramis [Ramirez], one day it's Derrek Lee, one day it's Soto, and one day [Mark] DeRosa.It's not just one guy."

Now we're up 6 full games on the Booers

 

[arog27]

Whoops, double post.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Cubs Win ! Cubs Win !!

 

[arog27]

SLP back from the dead ?!?!??!?!??!?

 

[sickickz23]

I'm sorry I have to

at that. That would be a nice fail pic. No disrespect to Reds fans. It'sjust that Corey.....is a bum.

 

[am 1 fiend]

It's a damn shame we can't beat the Pirates, 8.5 back now

The window is slowly closing.

 

[mks33]

co-sign sickickz. corey brings back pretty awful memories for me from the summer of 2004.. watching him swing on bad pitch after bad pitch after bad pitch..horrible.

 

[joe billionaire]

corey had a nice 20+ home run season...then he thought he was sammy and decided he wanted to swing for the fences at every at bat.

 

[arog27]

Corey Patterson was having a great first half one year until he got hurt....ever since then he didn't play the same.

 

[am 1 fiend]

Great day yesterday, Cubs lose, Cards win and Jason Isringhausen is done for the season

 

[mks33]

^^ haha, izzy. yeah he sucks. i bust him bad on mlb08 the show too.

 

[arog27]

Thursday afternoon game at Wrigley...lets go get em.