Squeeze Bunts...

* Out on the farm in Iowa, Rich Hill had to leave his last start. Team says it was back stiffness. The way Hill has pitched down there (1-2, 3.38 ERA, eight walks in 13 1/3 innings), I don't see him back in the bigs any time soon.

I love Lou's quote about Hill though: "Let's not make it too serious. It might not be serious at all."

Sounds a little like wishful thinking to me. 'If I don't think it's bad, than it can't be bad!'

* Lou says Daryle Ward is likely heading to the disabled list with a bulging disk. And his replacement on the roster? Not Matt Murton, but Micah Hoffpauir. The spring training star is recovering from his early-season injury and will probably get his first chance in the majors.

* Nice to see Sean Gallagher's first win, after pitching six innings of one-run ball against the Pirates. Really fascinating story on the Cubs' website about Gallagher's weight. Apparently Kerry Wood is the next Jenny Craig.

Soriano = The Rubik's Cube

That's my nomination for Alfonso Soriano's new nickname: The Rubik's Cube. Because he's just so darn hard to figure out.

For the first 21 games of the season (through May 9), he was hitting .191. Not once during those first 21 games did Soriano's batting average sit atop the Mendoza Line. Not once.

BA: .191
AB: 89
H: 17
HR: 3
RBI: 11
K: 18

Yet, Soriano has been hotter than molten lava over the last week. As of this writing (halfway through Saturday's game against the Pirates, during which Soriano is 3-for-3 with another homer), he has raised his batting average 92 points.

Over the past eight days, Soriano is hitting a sizzling .548 (17-for-31) with 6 homers and 14 RBIs. So Soriano's season stats are now:

BA: .283
AB: 120
H: 34
HR: 9
RBI: 25
K: 22

How does it happen? What woke Soriano up? Was it simply that he needed to get his timing back after missing action with the leg problem?

Or could it be that he's just the most puzzling, streaky hitter in all of baseball and we should just ride the wave right now as much as possible?

I think it's the latter.

(UPDATE: Soriano has just homered AGAIN. He's now 4-for-4 in the game with two homers and four runs driven in. His average is up to .289. That's almost a 100-point increase in a week!)

One word:

NO!

Felix Pie deserves better.

Four surprises...

1) How bad the Padres are. San Diego has consistently been one of those teams for the last five years that, despite having inferior talent, seems to hang around in playoff contention.

Not this year. They're now 14-25 and looked awful in last night's 12-3 loss to the Cubs.

I wager Bud Black might be unemployed by the end of the year.

2) Shawn Estes is still in the league. Seriously, I follow baseball pretty well, but I was certain Estes had retired like four years ago. After his struggles with the Cubs in 2003, I figured the end was near. And now I find out he's starting tonight against the Cubs. Wow.

(Note: After checking out Baseball Reference, Estes barely pitched in the majors in 2006 and 2007, spending most of that time in the Padres' minor league system. Guess you got to give the guy a little credit for working to come back).

3) The Cubs are considering signing Jim Edmonds. Let me echo what was said here, here and here: Edmonds is washed-up. He proved it in San Diego. Let's not sign another player hoping he'll magically return to his prime in Chicago.

Not going to happen. I'd rather have Felix Pie swinging at high fastballs above his head and Reed Johnson tapping back to the mound every time up than have Jim Edmonds on the ballclub.

4) Ryne Sandberg was suspended for three games, after confronting the opposing manager during a Class A game. And, apparently, it's not the first time Ryno's been in trouble. He bumped an umpire last year and has been ejected three times this year.

It's really, really hard for me to imagine Sandberg getting worked up about... anything. Wish there was some YouTube video.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the day comes from Mrs. Ivy Leaguer...

We were watching the FOX broadcast of the Diamondbacks-Cubs on Saturday and Mark Grace was doing the color.

Mrs. Ivy Leaguer doesn't know who Gracie is, so I was giving her a little background. Decided to tell her the story about Gracie and the 'slumpbuster.'

For those who haven't heard it, Grace was on 'The Jim Rome Show' many years ago and said that whenever he was in a slump, he would just find the "fattest, grossest, gnarliest chick" and have sex with her. The affair was normally enough to 'bust' the slump.

So Saturday night, I was telling Mrs. Ivy Leaguer about the game (she had left for work before it was over). I said that Alfonso Soriano had gone 4-for-5 after what seemed like a month of bad games.

Her matter-of-face response: "Soriano must have banged a fat chick."

What A Series!

What a phenomenal series for the Cubs against the Diamondbacks!

* Beat a great baseball team three games in a row

* Showed some real mettle in all three games

* Got solid starting (and relief) pitching

* Came up with clutch hits from a number of different people

* Overcame deficits and bad weather

My favorite moment had to be Daryle Ward's game-winning two-run double in the 6-4 victory on Sunday.

I love the Cubs' stars. Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano are easily my favorite players because I love the way they carry themselves (Lee's class, Ramirez's workmanlike attitude and Z's exuberance). But my sentimental favorite is Ward.

Looks more like a softball stud than a major leaguer. And he can't run or play much defense.

But he sure looks like he's having a blast out there, and, boy, can he hit. I saw him play a few games this spring. Honest to God, he never got out once when I saw him. He was something like 10-for-10.

Very glad to have him on this team and loved seeing him get that ovation after his clutch hit on Sunday. Deserves it.

Confession...

I had already started formulating a bench-Reed-Johnson, give-Felix-Pie-a-chance post when Johnson smacked his game-tying two-run homer off Juan Cruz on Sunday.

Pretty impressive homer from Johnson for a couple different reasons:

1) The wind was blowing in pretty fierce. I agreed with Len & Bob; I figured only the big boppers would have a chance at a homer on Sunday. But Johnson really gave it a ride.

2) Reed's prior swings were really weak. Just a strikeout and a couple weak grounders so far that day.

(I should add that I still think Felix deserves a chance to start a full series, especially if it's against three right-handed hurlers)

Stat of the Day

The stat of the day... comes from 43 years ago.

During the rain delay Sunday afternoon, WGN showed the last inning of Cincinnati hurler Jim Maloney's 10-inning no-hitter against the Cubs in 1965. The stat line is amazing:

10 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 10 BB, 12 K, 1 HBP

Ten walks, 12 strikeouts and one hit batter.

For a total of: 187 pitches!!

Some starters now don't even rack up 187 pitches over the span of two starts!

(Note: I loved that the Reds' uniforms had the player's name below the number. Made them look very much like a company softball team)