Whoever said lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place obviously hasn’t been to Wrigley Field recently.

Nor have they been following Chicago Cubs baseball 2009 style.  It’s only been 11 games into the new season and this year’s edition of the Cubs have already established themselves as a team with a flair for the dramatic.

Just ask the St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers or any one of the other two teams the Cubs have faced this season. If there’s been a trend established, it’s that winning isn’t going to come easy for the Cubs or their opponents.

Through Chicago’s first 11 games, nine have been decided by three runs or fewer.  Included in those nail-biters have been four one-run and two two-run outcomes.

Even in those “other” games either the Cubs or the opposition have had late-inning opportunities to either tie or win the game.  Or as was the case against Milwaukee last Sunday, it took a grand-slamming robbing defensive gem from Reed Johnson to preserve one of the Cubs’ few comfortable wins.

So has this 2009 Chicago team transformed itself from baseball’s lovable losers to the latest version of the Cardiac Cubs?

One would consider it a possibility after the first three games of this weekend’s series with St. Louis.  The Cardinals could easily be up 3-0 heading into tonight’s fourth and final game if not for the lightning bolt blasts off the bats of Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez.

Following Thursday’s 7-4 loss,  Chicago looked on path to dropping its second straight to the Cards and third game overall.  With the Cardinals up a run in the eighth inning, Soriano shrugged off three strikeouts in his previous at bats and launched a two-run shot into the left field bleachers to give the Cubs an 8-7 win.

Late-inning heroics once again was the theme on Saturday.  This time it was Ramirez’s turn to provide the lightning strike.

His two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th gave the Cubs another comeback win and put Chicago into a tie with St. Louis for the Central Division lead.  Ramirez’s shot also was the National League’s first walk-off home run of 2009.

“The fans have been treated to pretty good baseball here so far in this St. Louis series,”  Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, following Saturday’s win.  “You don’t have to do this too often to win it. It’s wonderful and it’s exciting. The home team fans [will] frequent a few of the establishments over here in Wrigleyville. But let’s win the conventional way.”

Somehow I think Piniella may be asking for too much.  If these first two weeks have proved anything to Cubdom, it’s that this Chicago Cub baseball  team is anything but conventional.