Well, Dempster pitched well on Wednesday - well enough to win, in my opinion, but they lost it anyway. Soriano hit an absolute bomb off of LaTroy Hawkins to tie it and get Dempster off the hook. And that's about the best that 'Stros starter Wandy Rodriguez has looked when I've seen him.

Last night, Lilly pitched bad enough to lose, but was saved by facing Russ Ortiz and getting 8 runs of support in the first two innings. Most encouraging in this game was that Kosuke Fukudome came out of his slump and went 4-5 with a home run. I qualify this by saying that at least the first three hits were off of the aforementioned Ortiz, who I'm surprised is the best the 'Stros can put out there in the third slot of their rotation. And I didn't see the entire game, but what I saw of reliever David Patton was positive. Yeah, he gave up a HR to his first batter faced, but then I saw like six straight retired. And his pitches looked good. Final: 11-6 Cubs.

On to Milwaukee.