All's well that ends well. Looked like th Cubs might blow that one, but the Pirates just ran outr of relievers, and had to send Dumatrait out for the 15th even after he failed in the 14th.

The Cubs ran through pretty much the entire bullpen in getting this one done, as well as all the bench players. In the 15th, Sean marshall got the win. Did you know he was on the roster? Oh, you did? Well then, how IS your fantasy team doing!

The Cubs now have a 4 game winning streak, not having lost since falling to 1-3 after the opening loss to Houston. The hitters are hitting, and the pitchers are pitching. The offense has been led by Fukudome (.419/.526/1.139), and Lee (.415/.694/1.109), with the top pitchers being Dempster (13 Ip, 4 H, 0.69 ERA) and Zambrano (1 BB, 12 K, 1.32 ERA). The bullpen has been solid too, with Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber sporting 0.00 ERAs. After seeing Lieber out of the pen, I have to say that myself and many of my friends were wrong. Dempster will not be losing his starting job to Lieber; at this point, Lieber makes a much better reliever than starter. He has complete command and rhythm out of the bullpen. It is a pleasure to watch him work.

I didn't dare hope that Fukudome would be this similar to Ichiro; I just thought that he would come here, show a good batting eye, hit for some power, and play defense well. But I've seen him work over the pitchers, wasting good pitchers' pitches until they give him one to destroy. I've seen running catches in the right-center gap. It is not just for something to do that some fans have taken to wearing Japanese samurai-style headbands. They're on to something.

MLB

We've had a few games now, and there have been some surprises in MLB. For example, the Tigers. I think they will turn it around; it was just a really high-profile time for everyone on the roster in Detroit. And after all, as the Tigers won pennants in 1908, 1945, and even 1984, a good Cubs winning because it is 100 years so its our turn scenario all but requires the Tigers as WS opponents. Other acceptable teams would include any of the AL's original 8, especially those 5 still in their original cities. Those would be: Tigers, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, or Cleveland Indians. Funny, but any one of those would have special meaning; the Indians are long suffering, the Red Sox used to be, as were the White Sox who still are our true arch rivals, the Tigers have that connection with our best years, and the Yankees are more responsible than any of them for the Cubs not winning any WS between 1908 and 1945 despite all the pennants they did win.