Chicago Cubs Baseball

One down, one in progress and two left to play. So it begins, the Chicago Cubs meet Milwaukee in the latest, most important series of the season.

To think it’s only July. Is there enough heart medicine or Old Style to get Cubdom through the dog days of August and the race to the post-season in September? Let’s not even think about October and the World Serious.

One important series at a time, please.

Post-season baseball is better than two months away, both the Cubs and Milwaukee got a preview of what may await Monday night. In the Chicago Cubs 6-4 thriller at the Miller, it was a heavyweight classic of punch-counterpunch.

”The fans were into it,” Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. ”The players were into it. It was well played with a lot of clutch hitting, a lot of clutch pitching and good defensive plays. And from the fans’ standpoint, it was a playoff atmosphere, the way they responded to things that were happening on the field. Pretty good way to start a July series.”

Amen.

While Milwaukee showered the seats with home run shots, collecting three on the night, Chicago Cubs baseball re-discovered an old friend - the timely base hit. The Cubs banged out 11 hits against Milwaukee pitching, including nine off of Brewer super ace C.C. Sabathia.

It was the first time since April a team had registered nine hits against the hefty lefty.

Chicago Cubs’ bats weren’t the only show in town, however. Starter Ted Lilly went pitch-for-pitch with Sabathia, while the bullpen - with the exception of struggling Bob Howry - turned in admirable efforts. Carlos Marmol looks to be coming closer to regaining his old form and setup man Chad Gaudin may be the steal of the trade with Oakland.

Bigger than the Cubs win, may have been the boost in confidence. After struggling at the plate since the All-Star break Chicago bats found their sizzle - at least for one game.

And as we know, every great journey begins with a single step.