The Gist: Game 54

Thank God for AAA Affiliates.

With a number of their stars riding the bench, that's pretty much the caliber of the team that the Rockies fielded for last night's game. That didn't stop the Cubs from making it interesting for a while, however.

We took an early lead thanks to some timely hitting including Derrek Lee's 13th homer which took about two seconds to reach the fans in the left field bleachers. Marquis looked good until the sixth inning where he loaded the bags and Lou brought in Neal Cotts. This wasn't the razor sharp reliever Neal Cotts that we traded David Aardsma to the White Sox for, this was the Neal Cotts who was fresh off the plane from Iowa. Appropriately, he gave up a single to Willy Taveras that ricocheted off of Lee's glove and took a sharp right allowing two runs to score and tying the game at three. In the seventh Ian Stewart, who tripled and scored the first Rockies run earlier in the game, padded his stats with an RBI double to give them the lead.

Luckily, the reeling Rockies made a few fielding mistakes in the bottom half of the inning and our boys were able to reclaim the lead 8-4. Thanks to some filthy stuff by Marmol and Wood we never lost it. Cue the music.

Pre-Game Note: Before the game started there was a little attraction near Harry's statue. Dempster and Lilly were signing autographs for $10 a pop at a table near the gate and all the money went towards fighting breast cancer. The player's wives were the ones running the show. I tried to get a picture with the lovely Mrs. Kerry Wood but that just wasn't in the cards. Great job guys, we can never have too much good karma.