12-6 .5 up in division.
The week that was: And what a week it was. Cubs go 5-1 at home against the Reds and Pirates. (BTW we own the Pirates). Cubs beat Aaron Harang, Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, all good pitchers. Cubs scored 9 or more runs in four of the wins. All five wins were granted to starting pitchers, and the lone loss was too. Dempster took in two of the those wins.
My prediction from last week: I said they'd go 4-2, they went 5-1. I did predict the one loss though.
The Hitting: In the last 7 days the Cubs have 5 hitters hitting .400 or better (Lee, DeRosa, Theriot, Johnson and Soto) Lee and DeRosa had multiple HRs, and Lee collected 10 RBIs. Overall the hitting was as good as ever.
The Pitching: Aside from Ted Lilly, the starting pitchers all gave the team the chance to win, and that's all you can ask for from them. Wuertz and Lieber struggled out of the pen, but I have faith that they will each bounce back. I couldn't ask much more out of my pitching staff.
Now you may counter with, "Hey the Cubs beat bad teams". And yes the Pirates are painfully awful, and the Reds aren't that much better. But hey at least we didn't lose 2 out of 3 to the Giants.
What to expect this week: 7 games, 5 on the road. A pair of two games sets to boot. The only two halfway decent pitchers the Cubs will face are John Maine and Aaron Cook. The Cubs will counter them with Zambrano and Marquis respectively.
My prediction: Cubs will take both games from the Mets, including a win for Ted Lilly. Then take 1 out of 2 from the Rockies, losing the Marquis vs. Cook matchup. Then in the Nationals series, the Cubs take 2 out of three, losing the first game. Kerry Wood gets 3 SVs on the week.