rawaction

Wow more hits given up in this inning than the last 2 games combined.

Fun stuff going on in the other races tonight. Boston and Tampa tied in the standings, and tied 1-1 thru 7 1/2, as Andy Sonnanstine has matched Josh Beckett pitch for pitch. With the WSox up 5-2, Minnesota has come back from an 8-1 deficit in Cleveland to make it a 1-run game. The choking Mets are being 2-hit by Odalis Perez, but only down 1-0 in the 8th. Phillies just blew a 1-run lead to the Braves and are now down 2.

Interesting week. -A couple no-brainers. Giants over Cincy and NE over Miami, are both likely to be 3-0, not surprisingly. Dallas or Green Bay will be 3-0. Not surprising if you didn't expect much drop-off from Favre to Rodgers. But how big of a week is this for Arizona? Win this week, and they are as close to punching a playoff ticket as a team can be in week 3. Would make them 3-0, with one of St. Louis or Seattle being 0-3, and the other not being much of a threat. SF could be 2-1 with a win, but would be essentially 2 games back having lost to AZ already. Trendy Super Bowl pick Jacksonville is an underdog and can go to 0-3. SD and Minnesota, also trendy picks will be favored, but a loss puts them way behind the 8-ball. And how bad would it be if Philly, who has looked like one of the top 3-4 teams in the league so far, to lose against another tough team and be last in their division and out of 1st by 2 full games.

I wonder how many Astros players actually make their homes in Houston. The whole, leave their families behind bullhowry is stupid, and probably 75% inaccurate.

The only one I'd worry about is Zambrano. They aren't scheduled to face Dempster. So, that's not a problem. Zambrano is on tap to pitch the last game of that series on Wednesday. Which means the Mets would see him that day and if they end up with the wildcard, again on Tues/Wed the next week in Game 1. The problem is you either throw Z against the Mets Wed or possibly not at all after this weekend. I'm not sure how the Tue/Wed thing works, but if you push Z on Friday, he can't go on Tuesday because that will be on short rest. I wouldn't worry about Harden, because he most likely won't pitch til game 3 or 4, if what we read is accurate.

I play everyone tonight and tomorrow night. Win or lose, I'd rest at least 1/2 the starters for the day game on Thursday (Soto, Ramirez, Lee, Edmonds). If haven't clinched by then, I'd probably go all out on Friday, with the possible exception of getting Derosa and/or Soriano a day off. After that, I'd play everyone until they clinch. Monday vs. the Mets with Niese on the mound, and if the Cubs have clinched, I would rest everyone. Cubs won't see Niese in the playoffs, so batters don't need to face him. Marquis scheduled for the Cubs that day, and the Mets won't see him in most playoff circumstances. After that, it looks like Santana, Perez and Pedro. I'd probably get the starters 2 ABs each of those 3 games, but I don't want the Mets to see Zambrano, who they would see in Game 1 if they meet in the NLDS.

Seconded that's one of the big things Grossman has on Orton, Orton' not merely bad on the deep ball he's flat out terrible. As a side note Chris Harris has a really big mouth, it would great if the Bears got another opportunity vs Panthers this season. As much as I'd like to rail on CH for his comments, the fact is he should still be playing for the Bears. He knows it, half the Bears roster knows it, and I'll bet Lovie in his heart of hearts knows it. I still don't mind the Chris Harris cut. He had proven to be a mediocre safety. Bears had Manning (though he was moving to CB), Mike Brown, Archuleta, McGowan and Payne. Whether you thought it was highly like that Brown would get hurt (as did Payne) and Archuleta would suck is really beside the point. I'm not sure how the Archuleta trade made any sense whatsoever. He had proven himself to be poor in Washington. There was no reason to bring him in here and cut Harris. A mediocre safety beside Brown would have been a great improvement. Payne might be better now, but that shouldn't have prevented the Bears from keeping Harris at the time. The Archuleta move was simply nonsensical. I agree, but he had some success under Lovie, and they gambled that he could do so again. As for the rest of the group, Brown was better. Manning, McGowan, and Payne each had more upside than Harris. After the Archuleta move, though, it was inevitable that Harris was going. One option would have been to keep him and put Payne on the practice squad, but they obviously thought he could play right away and got something for Harris.

Seconded that's one of the big things Grossman has on Orton, Orton' not merely bad on the deep ball he's flat out terrible. As a side note Chris Harris has a really big mouth, it would great if the Bears got another opportunity vs Panthers this season. As much as I'd like to rail on CH for his comments, the fact is he should still be playing for the Bears. He knows it, half the Bears roster knows it, and I'll bet Lovie in his heart of hearts knows it. I still don't mind the Chris Harris cut. He had proven to be a mediocre safety. Bears had Manning (though he was moving to CB), Mike Brown, Archuleta, McGowan and Payne. Whether you thought it was highly like that Brown would get hurt (as did Payne) and Archuleta would suck is really beside the point.

Woo! My team is back! Was down 30 with McNabb, Me (Desean Jackson), and Jason Witten. Yahoo had projected those 3 to get a total of 29. I almost shot the TV when Jackson screwed up 10 points for me by dropping the ball before he got to the endzone.

The only thing about that is the Cubs/Cards and Brewers/Reds play at the same time on Saturday. Unless the other game ends first, the Cubs won't know that they clinched (in that scenario) when the game ends. I'd prefer to clinch when the game is on TV, so I can DVR it. I'd also prefer to clinch by a Cubs win not a Brewers/Astros loss. In a perfect world, it would happen on Sunday. Either the magic # is 1 by then or it's 2 and the Brewers lose in during the 7th inning stretch and it is announced over the speakers. Then Wood closes the game and a big celebration ensues followed by WGN coverage of the lockerroom champagne coverage!

Even if it did go well, does he have enough time to work himself back into shape before the playoffs? At this point, I think he's out until at least the NLCS unless he comes in and dominates 2 or 3 times in the last week of the season.

I'm going to lose my fantasy game because Philly WRs have been stopped twice inside the 1. That's 2 TD passes taken away from McNabb. One was literally taken away after being ruled a TD. I could really use those 12 points. I'm down 7, but he has Romo still, with his 3 TD passes.

One took points off the board, as the Bears were near FG range. One put points on the board the other way. Both were costly.

Yeah, I agree with the sentiment that this is a must-win game if the Bears want to do anything this year. This is a team that is very similar to the Bears with the same type of talent level. Being at home should propel the Bears to win. I don't expect them to beat Philly, so this Sunday's game could be the difference between 2-2 and 1-3, which is huge. At 2-2 with road games against Detroit and Atlanta, the Bears have a legit shot to be 4-2 and right in the NFC race after week 6.

If Dallas wins tonight, I'll have picked 14 of the 15 games correctly this week! The only loss was picking KC over the Raiders. I thought that was the 3rd biggest given of the week (NYG over StL, ARI over MIA), as bad as Oakland looked and as tough as KC was vs. NE last week.

3 negative starts did me in. My bats went off this week, to no avail. 14 total points from 7 starts. I should have started Ted Lilly over Matt Cain, who had been struggling.

I love that! ZAMBRA-NO-NO!

I knew it was gonna happen eventually, but this was maybe the least likely time for a Zambrano no-hitter. 12-days rest. Having pitched poorly for the last month. Having spent time on the DL recently. Not sure where the game was going to be played because of a natural disaster. Carlos Zambrano is amazing!

Wood's 20K game was more special, IMO. It shoulda been a no-hitter. Zambrano should have also thrown one about 5 years ago in Arizona, but got screwed out of a call. Still, I don't want to take anything away from Zambrano tonight. He was amazing! I remember that Arizona game. I was so pissed. And the Wood 20k game is still my favorite ever Cubs game. ESPN Classic will probably show this later this week, right? I'll have to DVR it and use it to keep me warm over the long winter. Hopefully, it won't be too long this year!

Wood's 20K game was more special, IMO. It shoulda been a no-hitter. Zambrano should have also thrown one about 5 years ago in Arizona, but got screwed out of a call. Still, I don't want to take anything away from Zambrano tonight. He was amazing!

Ike Who?

Strangely, only the 2nd best game anyone on the Cubs roster has ever pitched.

He did it! He Did it!

why the hell is nobody showing this? What's your purpose ESPN?

Ron Turner is an A