Wednesday, May 18, 2005

the worm is turning?

or is that just cap anson spinning in his grave i hear? anyway, dusty may have finally come to his senses and done the one of the few things he can for this hapless lot -- hit hairston in front of lee. it paid off in the fifth and the critical ninth, with our two heroes being the sum of the cub offense on the night, with lee driving in hairston twice and himself twice more. ryan dempster then defied all expectation by tossing a smooth ninth to slam the door. even a blind squirrel, after all.

lee is now the cub leader in average (.372), homers (12), RBI (37), runs (28) and stolen bases (8). he's also in the top three in the NL in the triple crown categories, looking like an early leader in the NL MVP race if the cubs' record doesn't drag him down. still a long way to go, but... well, goddammit, isn't he just dreamy? i'm a married man, but i definitely get a rick astley vibe when he steps into the box. "together forever", d-lee, "i'm never gonna give you up"! (in a perfectly platonic manner, of course. and only until you go wear the collar in five trips with two gamewrecking errors to boot.)

perhaps its just d-lee's radiance i'm feeling, but something in me says the worm has turned. things got pretty near rock bottom a little while ago -- desperately bad, really, even unbelievably. but the cubs have quietly -- almost secretly -- won four of their last six. zambrano is hurt but it isn't scott-rolen hurt. and as irrefutable evidence that the luck has changed, folks: will ohman has picked up two wins in the last week.

i'm not saying it's all wine and roses from here on out. this is a .500 ballclub, after all, if we're lucky. but, by golly, this is a .500 ballclub -- and that means we got some winnin' to do!

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