Time to salvage something at Wrigley

What is it with the Cubs? It never seems to matter if they have a great team (hah) or a horrible team. It seems like they always find a way to beat us in a crazy, ridiculous way. My mom always referred to them as "squirrely," and that definitely always seems to be the case.

The last few seasons that hasn't been a big deal because the Cardinals have been easily in first and the Cubs nowhere near contention. But now that they are playing for a playoff spot for the first time since '03, it becomes a problem.

It´s bad enough against the Cubs, but it seems to worsen when we´re playing in Chicago.  In fact, I looked up the stats to prove that it´s just not my imagination that we´ve played that bad there.

Since 1998 the Cardinals record while playing there is 30·49, for a winning percentage of .380.  Compare that to .522, the Cards road record against all other teams in that same time period.  In almost a decade of ball we´ve had one winning season there.  It was in 2004, which was the year that the Cardinals had that incredible season of 105 wins.

So that being said, I´m not incredibly optimistic about the rest of this series, especially considering who we´re facing in Zambrano and Lilly.  Nevertheless, I don´t think I´ve ever wanted a win for the Cardinals so badly.  Not only are we playing our biggest rival, but we are also playing the team that we are now chasing for 1st place.  The Brewers lost, so it would also get us a game up on them.  Not to mention, I cannot stand Carlos Zambrano.  He is cocky, has a temper and I really can´t stand the guy.  There have been sparks in the past between him and the Cardinals, especially with Jim Edmonds, so we´ll see if anything comes of that.  But I really, really hope the Cardinals beat him.

However, according to Cards reporter, Matt Leach, the sky and the forecast are both not indicating good weather, so we´ll see if anyting gets played tonight.  If it would get rained out, they could do a double header tomorrow or make it up later in the season.  And who knows.  Maybe it would be better for the Redbirds to play one or both of these games when we´re not in the middle of this skid in Chicago.

Either way, when we do play them we really need the wins.  Splitting this road trip is a must.

Let´s hit Zambrano hard,

Tiffany