My goodness gracious, Alfonso Soriano is hot as a firecracker! He sure has ignited the Cubs' offense. Since his return the ball club is 9-2 with a encouraging resurgence in the lineup. As a leadoff hitter the star outfielder has tallied 55 RBIs. In Wednesday afternoon's series finale at Wrigley Alfonso Soriano delivered big again with a 3-run homer in the 3rd inning. The sizzling pop was apart of a 8-run inning. This included a grand slam by Mark DeRosa and an RBI double by Jason Marquis. Boy, did the Cubs cream Brandon Backe in this contest! He never made it out of the 4th inning. The 11-4 victory to finish the series with Houston showed the Cubs have almost all the cylinders clicking.Two good decisions right off the bat Lou Piniella made yesterday: Letting Mark DeRosa play on the infield and giving Sean Marshall an opportunity out of the pen. The young right-hander pitched over a scoreless frame with 1 hit allowed and no walks. Being effective like that in a limited role will be another contributing factor to the Cubs' success late in the season. Plus, I have to hand it to Jason Marquis in his outing yesterday. The following is his stat line:
6.1 IP, 6 H 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR
The main thing is he got the job done behind ample run support. As a result he boosts his record to 7-7. Another thing I liked is Lou using Cedeno off the bench. It's a given to me: the more at-bats the young shortstop receives the better hitter he'll become. Down the stretch the Cubs can benefit from his bat in key roles whether as a pinch-hitter or starter. It's too bad the Cubs didn't invoke sweeps in the last two series because they may have jumped a few extra games ahead of their division rivals. Oh, that doesn't really matter though since the team's been playing such high energy baseball. I look forward to see the Cubs' bats pound the ball in this weekend's showdown series against the Cardinals. Don't let up and keep on hitting! Go Cubs!
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