That was a nice win tonight...

Maddux pitched well (for the second time in a row - the old devil might make 15 wins yet!), the offense was productive (although the 1-2 slot went 1-10 for the night), and the Wood-Dempster combo was once again effective.

In fact, I was thinking at the time that Dusty should have put Wood in during the seventh and left him in for 2 innings - but as it turned out, Maddux pitched an uneventful seventh and with Wood warmed up in the pen and a three run lead, you just felt that the game was as good as in the bag (when was the last time you could feel that way when the bullpen took over?!). And indeed it was - Wood looked as good as ever, and after Dempster gave up a single to Berkman with one away, he induced Morgan Ensberg to hit into a game ending double play!

I just wish this ball club could have played this way earlier in the season! This is entertaining baseball to watch.

In any event, with Zambrano pitching tomorrow against an Astro offense that is about as pathetic as the Cubs - the Cubs have a good chance to take the series - even with Roy Oswalt pitching.

And even though the Cubs season is over, it's still nice to see your team play good baseball, and it's even better to see them play the role of spoiler to teams that are still in it. Besides - the only other thing we have to root for around here are for the teams with the best records in the American and National leagues to choke their seasons away in the playoffs (and both of them look primed to do just that).

And memo to Zambrano - near the end of your outing tomorrow - feel free to drill Oswalt in the back (like you did so splendidly with Jim Edmonds) as payback for him drilling Michael Barrett.