Say what you want about the Chicago Cubs and the moves Manager Lou Piniella made before this weekend’s sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee, but look at the results.

The Cubs went into Milwaukee and beat the Brewers 8-1 Friday night, 5-1 Saturday and finished the series off with a 12-2 win on Sunday with Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Randy Wells each picking up a win.

In the series, Lilly made his season debut with the Cubs in front of a raucous crowd of 43,410. While at times in the beginning he looked a bit wild, he pitched well. His first pitch was clocked at 76 mph. In all, Lilly threw 78 pitches over six shut-out innings before being pulled for Carlos Zambrano who made his first relief appearance for the Cubs.

Z was greeted by a standing ovation at Miller Park and after taking the mound, he only needed two pitches to get out of the inning. Later, Zambrano, known to be one of MLB’s best hitting pitchers, came to bat with the bases loaded, and hit a sacrifice fly to score another run. Later, Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol closed out the game.

If that wasn’t enough, the Cubs continued their assault on the Brewers today. While most Cubs fans were enjoying the home runs by Tyler Colvin, Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto and Derrek Lee, another little scenario was playing out that happens quite rarely in baseball.

Both Colvin and Fukudome were one triple away from hitting for the cycle. Neither one completed the cycle, but it seemed Colvin was close when he hit a liner to Prince Fielder in the 8th that would have gone to the corner for a possible triple had Fielder not made a nice leap for the ball.

This comes on the heels of another curious cycle that didn’t happen for two players in last night’s Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins game when a player from each time made a bid to hit for the cycle. Both Joe Mauer of the Twins and David DeJesus of the Royals were one home run away from accomplishing the feat. The game went to 12 innings with the Twins finally beating the Royals 9-7.

The last time there were two cycles hit in one day was on September 1, 2008, by Stephen Drew, with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Adrian Beltre, while he was with the Seattle Mariners.

Just days ago, the Brew Crew demolished the Pittsburgh Pirates in record-setting fashion, outscoring them 36-1 in a 3-game series. The Cubs repaid the favor for the Pirates by doing near the same to the Brewers, outscoring them 25-4 on their home turf in this series.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com, Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is also writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™ 

The Brew Crew handed the Pittsburgh Pirates a classic bitch-slapping, squashing them in a three-game series while sending 36 runners across the plate. Milwaukee outscored the listless Pirates 36-1 in the 3-game series with the final game a 25-hit, 20-0 mercy killing.

That loss was the most lopsided in the Pirates 124-year history and BTW, this all happened on Pittsburgh’s home field.

“It was fun and it was special . . . I enjoyed it.” said Brewers Ryan Braun after knocking two over the fence and driving in 5 runs in the 20-0 game.

Yeah, fun and special for the ones laying out the can of whoopass on a group of MLB impersonators. Now ask the Pirates what they thought of the 20-0 disaster.

Pirates’ pitcher Daniel McCutchen (0-2) 14.73 ERA said this:

“Lots of times, it felt like I was throwing batting practice to them.”

Maybe because you basically were . . .

Pirates manager John Russell chimed in with the obvious:

“They came in and kicked our butt.”

Yes they did and they threw in a couple of backhanded bitch-slaps in just for good measure.

This is becoming a part of a pattern for the Pirates who have lost eight times this season by six or more runs while being outscored in those games 85-13.

That 85-13 is not a typo, people . . . it’s just an all out swift kick in the nuts!

20-0 box score on MLB.com

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

After an evening filled with dramatic walk-off wins, MLB has playoff races that are tighter than a gnat’s ass as the teams make a final sprint to the finish.

In the most shocking race, the Tampa Bay Cinderellas and their $43 million payroll still hang onto a two game lead over the Boston Red Sox and their $133 million payroll. The boys from Beantown are creeping up on the Rays but Tampa is still in the driver’s seat. The Rays won the head-to-head series 10-8 this year, giving them the tiebreaker.

In the other American League race, the Minnesota Twins moved ahead of the Chicago White Sox by just ½ game. After scoring two in the bottom of the eighth to send the game into extra innings, a dramatic walk-off single by Alexi Cassilla off Bobby Jenks shocked the Sox 7-6, completing a three-game sweep earning the Twins the Central Division lead.

Not to be outdone by the American League, the National League had a few spectacular finishes last night as well.

The Randolph-free New York Mets won in dramatic fashion, defeating the Chicago Cubs 7-6 with a walk-off hit by Carlos Beltran in the bottom of the ninth, keeping them just one game behind the division leading Phillies.

In Packer country, Ryan Braun hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th to keep the Milwaukee Brewers tied for the wild-card spot. The Brewers who have won four straight playing under the direction of interim manager Dale Sveum, finish the regular season at home against the Cubs.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

MILWAUKEE – In one of the strangest managerial moves in MLB history, the Milwaukee Brewers fired their skipper, Ned Yost this past week.

The fact that a MLB manager was sent packing late in the year is not unusual. Coaches and managers many times get pink slips at the tail end of a season, or even in the middle of the night like in N.Y; but the timing of the move is utterly asinine.

The Brewers are TIED for the wild card lead with 12 games to go.

Yost’s Brewers were mired in their worst slump of the season, and most recently were swept by the Phillies. The Brew Crew has lost 11 of their last 14 games, and has blown a 5 ½ game wild card lead since the beginning of September but are still firmly in the middle of the playoff hunt.

Although I skipped my calculus classes as often as possible throughout my college drinking career, the math to this Brewer’s equation seems simple and calculates to this:

C.C. minus N.Y. = 0 playoffs.

Apparently, the Brewer brain trust feels third base coach, Dale Sveum, who has no major league managing experience, is the answer to their offensive woes. If Coach Sveum takes the next two weeks getting settled into his newly appointed position, like many MLB managers do, the season will be over.

When asked about the untimely move, Brew Crew GM Doug Melvin said, “I’m not sure if I have all the answers, and I’m not sure this is the right one, either.”

What makes this move even more baffling is this is the same front office, who in July, pulled off one of the greatest deadline trades of all time when they dealt coveted prospect, Matt LaPorta to the Indians for stud pitcher CC Sabathia.

In less than a half season worth of work, Sabathia has pitched well enough to be mentioned as a long-shot MVP candidate. Unfortunately, this masterful move may have been negated by today’s move that could trigger a new “Bonehead-of-the-Week” column.

It’s been 26 years since Milwaukee has sniffed the playoffs, and with Sabathia almost certainly lost to free agency upon season’s end, it may be a much longer wait.

After this Brewer’s “shake-up”, the best news today in Cheeseland is . . . the Favre-less Packers are 2-0.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax