But today wasn’t the Ryan Theriot show that resulted yesterday with his dramatic grand slam.  Today belonged to Ted Lilly.  Ted went eight innings, no walks, ten strikeouts, and doubled with two rbi.  For Lilly it was a nice bounce back from his loss Monday against the Diamondbacks.  It takes him to 3-2 on the season and he is the first Cub pitcher to get to three wins.  Not bad for what most fans would consider an afterthought in this rotation.

Besides Theriot and Ted, the rest of the team did well too.  Derrek Lee notched his second home run of the season, Soriano and Hoffpauir both had two hits, and every Cubs starter reached base safely today.  Like I said yesterday, Theriot’s grand slam could have been the emotional spark to get the whole team hitting. 

The Cubs have a chance to win their first series in over a week when they face the Marlins tomorrow.  At the very least they can’t lose the four game set, the first time in four series they will be able to claim that.  I wouldn’t put any money on Theriot hitting another home run.

Seriously, Theriot hadn’t had a home run in over a year.   Granted, this year he has been turning on the ball more often than in the past.  I can’t remember a lot of balls he hit on the left side of second base last year, but I can remember specifically four this year, not counting yesterday.  So when he got his chance, he certainly made the most of it.  He hit a shot into the left field bleachers that put the Cubs ahead for good and saved Rich Harden from a loss in his less than stellar outing.

I am pretty sure he will be walking tall especially when he sees Ron Santo’s mini babe ruth, Mike Fontenot.  His former team mate at LSU has been more known for his power than Theriot.  The Riot will surely be giving Fontenot enough crap today to make him wish he was playing catcher instead of next to him on the infield.

For more on fellow Cub reaction to Theriot, check out the article on Cubs.com.  Suffice it to say, they are preparing for the worst.

In general, it was good to fly the W flag again.  For only the second time this week the Cubs came out victorious.  They even dropped below .500 for the first time this year.  I couldn’t even muster a post after the losses I was so disappointed, or at least that is my excuse looking in the rear view mirror.

Other than the emotional high that comes with a win like this, there are a couple other reasons to be excited.  Aramis Ramirez was healthy enough for a pinch hitting appearance.  Geovony Soto had two hits.  Derrek Lee is back in the lineup and had two hits as well.  If everyone can get healthy and hitting, this could turn into a nice win streak to start the month of May.

He was helped offensively by nearly everyone.  Koyie Hill, subbing for Soto, matched Z with three hits.  Alfonso Soriano and Mike Fontenot both homered for the second consecutive day.  Even Milton Bradley had two hits in the game, one more than he had all year so far.

Coming off a game where they managed only three hits all game, it was nice to see.  Or should I say, would have been nice to see.  9:40 ET starts are tough for me to stay up for.  The 3:40 start today will be much nicer.

I’d like to say it’s nice to see the bats come alive, but they did on Sunday and went away just as quick.  I will be paying close attention today to see if we can string together two good games of hitting.    The odds are against it since Dempster is pitching on the road.  He very rarely gets good run support on the road.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK - Rich Harden is far and away my pitcher of the week.  He was the only Cub starter to get any run support, and he got it in both his starts.  Of the 23 runs scored by the Cubs this week, 17 came in the two games Harden pitched.  But he doesn’t get it purely on recording the only two wins for the week.   He was dominant by any measure, including my fantasy team where he put up 38 points in his two starts.  He struck out 17 in his 12 innings pitching, while only walking four and allowing four runs.  This guy stays healthy and the Cubs are in great shape with him all season long.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK - Offensively this week was a struggle.  The two guys leading the team in rbi got most of them yesterday.  Kosuke got all five of his for the week on Sunday and Hoffpauir recorded two of his four.  Aramis was hot early in the week, but only played four of the games.  Hoffpauir had a good week, hitting .400, but had many less plate appearances than most.  That will probably change this week as he spells Derrek Lee for a few days.

Kosuke gets the nod as player of the week.  While all his rbi came on one day, he was consistently the best hitter this week, leading the team in hits and walks.  Alfonso Soriano was close, equalling the hit total of Kosuke.  However, he was the prototypical lead off man going the whole week without an rbi.

PLAY OF THE WEEK, COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE WEEK, MANAGERIAL DECISION OF THE WEEK - Open to your votes and comments.  Lets hear what you have to say.

Kosuke Fukudome led the way, on his birthday no less, with five rbi and his fourth home run of the season.  Piniella’s experiment with Soriano hitting third ended today.  Back in the lead off spot, Soriano had two hits and scored twice.  He also had a scary moment in the second inning when he took a Todd Wellemeyer fastball off the helmet.  He stayed in the game and was fine. 

That wasn’t the case with Derrek Lee, who doubled in the first inning but then left the game with neck spasms.  With Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez already out, the Cubs are down to one position bench player left.  The Cubs could stand to have Lee’s spasms be a one day issue.   Luckily Micah Hoffpauir was a solid replacement today.  Micah filled in for Lee after he left with the spasms.   Micah went two for three including his second home run of the season.

Aaron Miles got a start too, as Fontenot moved to third base in place of Ramirez.  Miles was a more than capable replacement, putting together a three hit day against his old team.  The offseason moves made by Jim Hendry seem to be playing out well as the right guys are available and performing when called upon.

Now let’s see if we can turn one win into the longest win streak fo the seasno as Chicago heads west to Arizona for three games.  The odds will be in Chicago’s favor as the Diamondbacks have yet to win back to back games this season.

His lineup card for this game:

What do I like about this lineup.  Most I like that Aramis moved ahead of Derrek Lee.  Aramis doubled to extend his hitting streak to seven games.  The guy is locked on and Lou finally put him where he belonged.  Lou also moved Theriot to the lead off spot and dropped Soriano to third.  Interestingly enough, Soriano doubled to lead off the eighth inning.  His only hit in his only at bat with no on and no out. 

Second interesting fact about the Soriano move.  I have made the argument with Head in the Ivy that it doesn’t matter where Soriano hits because at the end of the game he is always in the position to win it for us.  Tonight, in a one run game with one runner on, the last hitter ended up being Theriot.  Had the lineup not been changed, it would have been Soriano.  Now I know baseball is situational, meaning any one play or change affects everything else that happens.  So it may not be fair to say that if Soriano stayed at lead off, he would have been at the plate in the same situation.  It’s fun to think about though.

Lou admitted the shakeup didn’t exactly work out as planned.  Only Fontenot had a rbi as the other two runs were scored on an error and a double play ball by Theriot.  That just made me realize, Soriano would have been at bat with the bases loaded in that spot.  Let’s see what he does today as the Cubs work to get back on track and start climbing the standings ladder.

As a role model, Theriot is much better than Rodriguez who recently admitted to steroid use.  As a player, well he is playing and hitting .400 while Rodriquez isn’t in the lineup.  I am sure when Alex returns, his power numbers will exceed Theriot.  But taken in perspective, Theriot produces so much more when considering the salary he leaves available to sign guys like Soriano.

When Fontenot started getting time in the big leagues I dreamed of a day when the former LSU middle infielders, College World Series Champs in 2000, could make it to the World Series stage for the Cubs.  Now this year, we are set for that to happen with both of them starting on a regular basis.  <a href=”http://nationalsportsreview.com/sports/us/kevinhill/2009/03/02/former-lsu-tigers-hot-even-in-cubs-loss/”>Isaw hints of it early this year in spring training</a>.   Now the mainstream press is catching on.  CBS Sportsline did a <a href=”http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/11663477″>nice article on the two of them</a>, tracing their connection back to LSU and highlighting what good guys these are.

I had no idea Fontenot was a first round draft pick out of LSU until I read this article.  These two guys will keep getting their hits and playing solid defense up the middle.  While the power guys will go hot and cold, the Cubs get some stability from this duo.  That could go a long way towards making Chicago the ‘09 World Series Champs.

Zambrano battled and kept Chicago in the game going seven innings and leaving with only a two run deficit.  The bullpen was beat around though, and the game got out of reach.  But let’s not dwell on the details of a poor game, let’s look at highlights from today…the off field moves.

Lou had a talk with Milton Bradley.  The sterilized version is “hey, you can play again when your 100%.”  Now I know he isn’t 100%, but I bet from Lou it sounded a little more like “if the best you can muster is three strikeouts and dogging it to first base when you finally do make contact, your ass is on the pine!”  According to Len Casper, Bradley will be dropped to sixth when he returns.

Another surprise was that Lou juggled the lineup, going away from the strict righty lefty rule.  While it didn’t work today, it makes me think we can see Ramirez moving up in the order soon.  Today he still hit fifth, with Theriot taking the second spot and bumping Fukudome to third.  I still contend he needs to be hitting fourth on this team.

The final move was the return of Jeff Samardzija from Iowa.  While his performance doesn’t look good on paper, he throws a fastball with way more life than anyone except maybe Carlos Marmol.  As Bob Brenly told stated, he can just aim for the chest protector and let the ball move where it may.

I see a lot of griping on Twitter about the Cubs play.  It isn’t near as bad as they would make it out to be.  We are only a game behind last year’s pace at this point.  The Cubs head to St. Louis and if they take two of three in this “what have you done for me lately” world, the tweets will be about the imminent World Series in Chicago.

Milton Bradley seemed like his groin was still hurting him as he failed to get to a Johnny Cueto blooper and the preceding foul ball he hit.  Then he struck out twice looking and once swinging.  His OBP early was good, but he is wearing thin already.  Should have sat out the suspension and given him more time, I just don’t think he is ready.

Kevin Gregg pitched again, and got scored on again.  Granted it was a home run by Jay Bruce who is absolutely killing in the first two games against the Cubs.  He has gone 2 for 4 both games, with a home run in each.  I probably should have accepted the fantasy trade of Jay Bruce for Geovony Soto before this week started.

There were highlights though.  In the pitching category, no one gave up a walk.  Yes, no one;  not Ted Lilly, not Johnny Cueto, not the Reds bullpen, and most surprising, not the Cubs bullpen!  Ted Lilly didn’t give up a home run either.  Based on his fielding last night, I kn0w why he tries to get fly ball outs.

At the plate, Derrek Lee continued his hot streak.  When it goes well for him it really goes well.  Both his hits were bloop liners into the outfield, but they still show up as 2 for 4 in the box score.  Alfonso Soriano had a couple seeing eye grounders through the hole at shortstop, and didn’t strike out all night.  We’ll take it.

Today will be the rubber game as the Cubs try to stay unbeaten in their fifth series.  Carlos Zambrano will toe the rubber to start the game and the Shark will be available in the bullpen if needed.  Jim Hendry spent some time in Iowa and decided it was time for Samardzija to rejoin the big ball club.  I am happy to see that as I think he adds a spark to the club.  Notre Dame fans will tune in more now too.

The other runs came on a sac fly to center by Hoffpauir, and two singles to right by Ramirez.  Bob Brenly accurately called the first one based on the count and the weather conditions.  Ramirez was the leader again tonight with three hits, three rbi, and a run scored.

Rich Harden picked up his firt win of the year with a much more solid effort than last time.  Six innings, eight strikeouts and only Jay Bruce did any damage against him.  And get this, the bullpen only allowed on walk in three innings!

Back to Hoffpauir for a second, the rookie had a great night.  A solo home run, a walk, and a sac fly in three plate appearances.  After an early season let down from spring training, I think he is getting comfortable.  And what about the guy he is pushing at first base?  Derrek Lee, who would have sat on Sunday night had the Cubs played, continued to hit the ball well.  His stat line didn’t show it as he went hitless, but he was driving the ball and was a victim of the wind.  Matt Snyder, writer for FanHouse, is a fellow Cub fan and fantasy league participant.  He commented in our chat room that it may be time to get off Derrek’s back.  I hope so.

Another guy who has been struggling is Geo.  He hit the ball well last night too.  He had a couple well hit balls to right field that were hauled in for long outs, but the stroke is there.  He will pull out of this before week’s end. 

A win tonight assures the Cubs of a series win and moves them to five straight series without losing one.  The last time they did this good was 1980 when they won or tied their first six series of the season.