In a season filled with superlatives, Rich Harden almost gave the Cubs a memory to savor forever. On the 39th anniversary of Kenny Holtzman's no-hitter vs. the Braves at Wrigley Field, Harden had good enough stuff to throw one -- mowing the Reds down easily, retiring the first ten batters he faced before Jeff Keppinger lined a single to center to break up any mid-game thoughts of perfection.

Harden finished with two hits allowed and ten strikeouts in seven outstanding innings, and the Cubs dispatched the Reds efficiently 5-0, increasing their division lead to its largest of the season, six games, when the Brewers lost to the Astros in Milwaukee last night.

Harden, who told Lou he'd rather throw at night in cooler conditions -- presumably he's used to that from growing up in British Columbia and pitching in Oakland -- was pushed back to this series from the humidity in Florida, and got his wish. It was Septembrish-cool at Wrigley last night, with the wind blowing in and the ball not carrying at all. And Harden's 94 pitches averaged just over four pitches per batter (comparison point: he threw 92 pitches in five innings in Atlanta, 94 in seven last night). It was the second time in his seven Cub starts that he walked no one, and the fourth time he struck out ten. The only other hit off Harden was a sixth-inning single by Reds rookie Chris Dickerson (it's weird seeing the Reds without Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. -- those two had been Reds teammates for nearly seven years), and Kerry Wood allowed one more single in a non-save situation in the 9th.

Meanwhile, the Reds' Johnny Cueto was also throwing a nice game, thanks in part to some really questionable baserunning by Cubs. In the third, Mark DeRosa led off with a double. Harden failed to advance him via bunt, and then, inexplicably, DeRosa got caught off second base on a routine ground ball to short. Alfonso Soriano was safe on that grounder, but he promptly got picked off, his second pick in as many games. Two innings later, Harden made up for his poor third-inning bunt by laying down an excellent safety squeeze following a Geovany Soto triple and walk to Kosuke Fukudome. Soto waited till Reds 3B Edwin Encarnacion committed to throwing to first, then broke for the plate and scored when Joey Votto's throw home was off line, giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

With Harden, Wood and Carlos Marmol, who threw the 8th (and probably could have thrown the 9th, too, getting out of the 8th with only 11 pitches), throwing as well as they were, one run would have been enough; but the Cubs tacked on four more in the 8th after Cueto was pulled for a pinch-hitter. Dusty Baker did something so familiar to all of us, yanking reliever after reliever, playing "the book" in switching off pitchers for supposed platoon advantage, yet none of it worked. The two biggest blows in the inning were a rocket double down the line by Aramis Ramirez, and then after an intentional pass to Soto, Fukudome singled in the final two runs.

When Marmol was facing Corey Patterson, I said to Mike, "This is one of the biggest pitcher-batter mismatches you'll see all year." Mike, who waited years before he caught a HR in the bleachers, got his first in 2004, a Patterson shot in the 12th inning of this game on September 7, said that Patterson would probably prove me wrong by hitting one. Wrong, at least in this miserable year for Patterson -- Marmol struck him out on a nasty slider.

For Harden's part, I'm happy to say that those who wanted him here were right -- he appears to be keeping healthy, and some of the reasons can be found in Gordon Wittenmyer's article in today's Sun-Times. The Cub staff is doing everything right, I think, in managing Harden's workload and preparation so he stays that way.

The Cubs are 29 games over .500. The next milestone is 32 games over .500, last reached on September 2, 1969 -- that's the most games over .500 since 1945. Yes, it has been a long litany of failure. But this year is erasing many numbers from the past. May it continue deep into October.

Geovany Soto triples in the fifth inning

Rich Harden lays down a bunt in the fifth inning...

... scoring Soto from third

Kosuke Fukudome nearly screwing himself into the ground swinging and missing in the 8th. He later singled in two runs in this at-bat

New on the scoreboard last night...

... the words to "Go Cubs Go"!

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima. More photos of last night's game by BCB reader Damen Jackson can be found here.

(Running out of one-liners for this space. Help!)

Keep the winning going!

Go Cubs!

Nice to be home again!

Today is the 39th anniversary of Kenny Holtzman's no-hitter vs. the Braves, an unusual no-hitter because there were no strikeouts. The wind was blowing in on a cool August day and that helped Holtzman, as a ball hit by Hank Aaron that normally would have been on Waveland was blown back and caught in the well by Billy Williams in the 7th inning. Paul Sullivan has a nice recap article in today's Tribune which also contains the text of the game stories written at the time.

Today's Starting Pitchers

R. Harden Cubs vs. J. Cueto Reds 7-2 W-L 8-11 2.17 ERA 4.90 141 SO 136 45 BB 53 10 HR 26 vs. Hou -- vs. Cubs

Reminder, the above stat line is Harden's numbers with the Cubs only. See the pitcher box for his full-season stats.

Johnny Cueto beat the Cubs in Cincinnati on May 5, and they beat him at Wrigley Field on July 9. Cueto is 1-3, 5.63 in his last 7 starts and is second in the NL in HR allowed. Aramis Ramirez homered off him in the July game and Geovany Soto took him deep in the May game.

Rich Harden let Lou know that he likes pitching at night and in cooler weather, so that's the main reason he was pushed back from the Marlins series to start tonight. He did start once vs. the Reds in interleague play with Oakland, but that was in 2004 -- there's only one player who was in that game who's still on the Reds (Javier Valentin). Valentin is 1-for-3 lifetime vs. Harden, who threw five shutout innings in Atlanta last Wednesday, although he walked five.

Today's game is on cable in Chicago and Cincinnati. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 7 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Photo by Miriam Romain

Many thanks to the Cubs and Troy Tepley of Exponent PR for arranging this interview with Cubs infielder Mike Fontenot.

BCB: You were a number one draft out of LSU with the Orioles. Did being a number one draft put any more pressure on you when you came up out of school to pro ball? How did you feel about that? Did you expect to be a number one pick?

Mike: I don’t know if I expected it. I’m just glad that it happened. I try not to put any undue pressure on myself coming up or whatever… people would always try to be like he should be doing this or that because number one pick… I just try to go out there and play baseball every day and try not to worry myself too much about that.

BCB: What did it feel like when you got traded because a lot of guys say there is an adjustment there. You were traded in the deal for Sammy Sosa. Did you think that was a big deal coming to the Cubs and what kinds of adjustments did you have to make coming to a different organization?

Mike: I was shocked a little bit. A lot of people, the team you get drafted by you think you’re going to play with them for a while, or stay a few years. I was in Florida at the time. I was training, getting ready for Spring Training, actually and like I said, I was shocked a little bit at first but then you know, it’s a good organization to come over to and make a fresh start. Give me a chance to go out, especially in the National League… that was one of the adjustments I had to make. I played third base a lot my first year when I came over and starting to move around, learning the National League game, those types of things. Those are the main adjustments.

BCB: So you got called up for a few games in ’05 and then in ’06 you didn’t play in the major leagues at all. Did that start you wondering when am I going to get back here, how am I going to make it back, what do I have to do to make it back?

Mike: A little bit. Coming up in ’05 got a little taste, a cup of coffee, I guess you can say. And then the next year I got called up at the trading deadline and that’s when they traded for Izturis. They actually called me in and said you’re getting called up and then it didn’t work because they made the trade. Then I pulled my hamstring two weeks later, so who knows what might have happened that year. I might have been called up in September, but I ended up having a decent season. I also always wondered. I wanted to get back, trying to do every little thing I could to get people to notice and try to get back up to the big leagues.

BCB: What’s it like playing for Lou?

Mike: It’s been fun. He’s a good manager. He’s a character, too. He’s got his little quirks. He’ll get on umpires. Everyone knows from all the clips of him over the years. He’s a good dude. He’s intense. He wants to win, as we all do and he’s doing everything he can to do that.

BCB: Does he always let you know what’s expected of you, not just from a day to day basis, but also in general for the whole season, what your role is on the team and do you know what to expect all the time?

Mike: Yeah, most guys do. That’s one of the nice things about this team, everybody kinds of knows where they stand. They know what positions we’re playing, not necessarily positions but the role you’re having on the team. Like going into Spring Training I was just trying to make a utility spot and play a little shortstop in Spring Training and show them I could move around if they had to, even though we have other guys who, we have a very versatile team. I definitely think he lets everyone know, he starts at the beginning at Spring Training what’s expected of you to play for the Cubs, to play for Lou.

BCB: In terms of being a fan I like watching you play and I like the game you bring on the field. What did you know about Cubs fans and about Wrigley Field before you came and is that meeting your expectations or is it different from what you expected? What’s it like for you personally to come play here every day?

Mike: You always hear when you’re other places of how the fans are really passionate about the Cubs and Chicago is and I never really knew until I got here. It’s unbelievable the volume we get. I’ll tell anyone, we’ve been away on trips, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, everywhere. A lot of times there’s more Cubs fans than the home stadium. I was just telling these guys [there were three other people with Mike], we were playing the Marlins on Sunday in the 9th inning and they’re singing "Go Cubs Go" the whole stadium.

BCB: I can tell you from watching the game on TV it sounded like a home game. It must have been incredible.

Mike: Oh, it’s good. The fans are so good. They’re what makes it so good. Anywhere we go they love the Cubs so much that they’re always pulling for us it’s almost like a little boost of energy there for us.

BCB: What’s it like playing with Ryan Theriot who you played with in school?

Mike: It’s fun. We didn’t grow up together, but we knew of each other in high school, Little League. I imagine I played against him coming up through all that too, living in close areas. It’s been good. We got a chance to win a national championship in college together and last year, actually in AAA we got to play a little bit there but then last year we started playing in the big leagues together and it’s been a great experience so far. Just from the standpoint of our families, it’s been so fun just to get together.

BCB: I read an article last year that said you watch his kids sometimes. Is that true?

Mike: I think that was the "Sports Illustrated" where it said I’m more of a kid than his kids. That he came in there and I was jumping on the bed.

BCB: That’s the one. So, is it true?

Mike: Not necessarily. I wouldn’t say that I was jumping on the bed. I mean, I might have done it once or twice but Houston, his son, was the main one jumping on the bed and I’m like hey watch out and he started getting a little crazy. But I’ll go over there, spend time, hang out. And he just had another one, so they have three now. I’ll go over there and hang out every once in a while.

BCB: What’s it like for you preparing for a game every day depending on whether you’re starting, not starting? How do you prepare differently for those two because you have so many different roles and you’re not starting every day.

Mike: Every day I come to the field with the frame of mind that that I’m playing. Some days you know, like I know I don’t play against lefties really ever. So I know if there’s a lefty I probably won’t be playing but I’ll still try to keep the mind frame that at some point during the game I’m going to be going in. I just try to stay mentally prepared that way. Before the game I still take BP, do my stretching, warm up and all that kind of stuff we do before. That’s pretty much my regular routine if I find out I’m starting. But if I ever look at the lineup and I know I’m not playing as the game’s going along, I’m usually, say around the third inning I’ll go in, move around a little bit, stay loose. Go ride on the bike or do the elliptical machine or get stretched out by one of our trainers, hit off the tee in the cage. Or if we’re on the road get in the cage and one of our coaches will throw if we want that. That’s just one way we try to stay loose throughout the game if we’re not playing other than just sitting there watching the game and staying in it as much as you can.

BCB: I noticed on Sunday when Aramis Ramirez hit the double that broke the tie, they took a shot of all you guys in the dugout and everybody was right off the bench cheering for everybody. That really shows how tight you are as a team.

Mike: It’s a really close-knit team I think. Last year with the new manager and new faces and everybody didn’t know what to expect but as the season went along everybody started to gel a little bit, really get to know each other. And we had a good run last year. And coming into spring this year we had pretty much the same team, we had a couple new faces but not as many and we all kind of knew what to expect of our manager and knew how he did things, how to stay prepared because you know what kind of moves he might make. And that’s just one of the things that I think shows what a good team we are. We’ve got a lot of versatility. We have guys who can come off the bench and step right in and get big hits like Daryle did the other night, the big home run he hit. It speaks volumes of how the team goes.

BCB: You know one of the broadcasters calls you Little Babe Ruth.

Mike: Santo.

BCB: You’ve hit more home runs, honestly, than maybe a guy your size may be expected to hit. What do you do that allows you to hit for that kind of power?

Mike: I don’t know. All I’ll say is I stay in the weight room. I’ve always been good at that through the season. That helps. I think I’ve just been blessed with, I have pretty good bat speed over the years, I have the ability to hit the ball out. Growing up I’ve always hit a fair number of home runs in Little League and high school, college, though the ranks I’ve always hit at least a number of home runs so I’ve always had that. So for me personally, it wasn’t a big deal to hit however many number of home runs I’ll hit. I just accredit it to those types of things.

BCB: Are you surprised at how well the Cubs have done this year? You guys knew you had a good team, or felt you had a good team but as a fan, it’s way beyond my expectations. Are you surprised at how well it’s been going so far?

Mike: I’m not going to say I’m surprised. Like I said, I knew we were going to have a good team going into this season. Jim Hendry and Lou and everyone got together and they put a good team together. There are a lot of guys who really care about winning and want to got o the playoffs and want to go deep in the playoffs. That’s our mind frame to go as far as we can. We’re going to try to do it for Chicago this year. So I won’t say that I’m surprised. I’m very happy where we stand going into the last month of the season.

BCB: Let’s turn this to the reason that Troy got in touch with me, yes, it's a commercial deal. You deal with AcuVue. Tell us a little bit of what that’s about.

Mike: In 2003 I knew my vision wasn’t too good; I knew I needed to get contacts. I finally went in, got some contacts. Actually had the AcuVue 2 contacts, that’s one of the first ones they got to me and there was an immediate turnaround. I’d put the contacts in and go out on the field and I could actually see the spin of the ball, all kinds of things like that, I could see it. It made a world of difference when I was hitting. Toward the end of the year, I ended up hitting .325 that year so I turned that around. Actually a couple of years ago I started getting a little fuzziness again so I went to the eye doctor and I tried on a few different contacts and I tried on the AcuVue Advanced for Astigmatism and that’s the one I wear now and that one was a world of difference. I got all my clarity – it was clear, real crisp and from then on it was even that much more…

BCB: It sounds like such a simple thing –- see the ball, hit the ball.

Mike: That’s the main thing. That’s our livelihood. Baseball players, if you can’t see, especially at this level, every level it makes a world of difference but especially when you get up here and guys are throwing 98 with a slider at 90 and things like that, the better you can see is really going to make a difference. It has really made a difference for me over the years. I make sure every year I have to go get an eye check up. I’ve got to make sure my eyes are where I want them to be so I’ll be able to play at my top level that I want to.

BCB: So this isn’t just an endorsement. It’s something you use and it has helped you.

Mike: Oh definitely. It has definitely helped me. For a lot of people, they don’t ever go get checked or they don’t know until they put the contacts in and they can see and it’s like wow. I do a lot of hunting in the off season. If I can’t see the duck going by…

BCB: Do you have any predictions for the rest of the season?

Mike: Yeah, we’re probably going to play real hard the rest of the season. That’s going to be my prediction.

BCB: You’ve seen the enthusiasm of the fans and people on road games and there’s only going to be more as time goes on.

Mike: It’s exciting It’s very exciting. Everywhere we go, anything that has anything to do with Cubs baseball right now is very exciting. The old cliché, we’re taking it a day at a time. But we’re really looking forward to as the season goes on.

BCB: You guys were lucky to get out of Miami Sunday night. There’s a tropical storm coming in.

Mike: I was looking at the sky when we were at the airport…

BCB: Was it weird when they had that rain delay when it wasn’t raining? That was kind of strange.

Mike: It was. Down in Florida it will pour for 20 minutes and then it’ll be fine. I guess they thought it was going to rain. They actually told us around 12:40 that it may rain so they pushed the game back to 1:30 just in case. And nothing came and we had a good day there.

BCB: I imagine it’s much more fun coming to the ballpark when you’re winning like this.

Mike: It’s a lot easier. It’s a lot of fun.

When I make mistakes here -- and I do, every now and then -- I'm usually fairly quickly corrected by a sharp-eyed BCB reader or three, and I'll acknowledge the mistake, fix it and move on.

I'm kind of bored this morning with no Cubs game till tomorrow night, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to point out an error made by AP writer Dave Skretta in this recap of the Yankees' 3-2 win over the Royals on Saturday. In the notes paragraph at the bottom of the recap, he writes:

Yankees INF Cody Ransom made his big league debut in the seventh, pinch-running for [Jason] Giambi.

Cody Ransom is 32 years old and has bounced around the minor leagues since 1998, mostly in the Giants' organization. He played in the majors for Dusty Baker with the Giants in September callups in 2001 and 2002 and Dusty remembered him well enough to have the Cubs sign him to a minor league deal and invite him to spring training in 2005, where he hit .160 in 17 games (4-for-25, 2 doubles, a HR) and spent about half that year at Iowa.

Before he made his first appearance for the Yankees on Saturday he had played in 133 major league games.

Now, I remembered seeing Ransom in spring training in '05 and knew he had played for the Giants. But even if I hadn't, looking up the above information took about five minutes. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but then again, I'm not being paid by the Associated Press to write game recaps. Dave Skretta should have done just a bit of research -- and especially when you consider that in the AP recaps posted at Yahoo, player names are linked to their profiles, meaning anyone could click on Ransom's name in the Yahoo recap and see that Saturday wasn't his ML debut.

Incidentally, Ransom celebrated his recall to the Yankees yesterday; he was sent up to bat for Giambi in the 7th inning with the Yankees leading 12-3 and hit a two-run homer off Jeff Fulchino.

The Cubs beat the Marlins 9-2 this afternoon, winning the series (their sixth straight series win), the season series from the Marlins 4-3, and said goodbye to south Florida for 2008 (Note to Mets and Phillies: please keep the Marlins in third place!) -- and good riddance.

I mean, seriously: a rain delay when it's not raining? And yes, I well remember the non-rain delay on August 23, 1999 at Wrigley Field, when at game time, 7:05, it wasn't raining but the field stayed covered until it DID start raining at 9:15, at which time they called the game. That game, which had a sellout crowd, had to be made up as a conventional single-admission doubleheader two days later, costing the Cubs about $1 million in ticket sales (based on 1999 prices) and likely costing Ed Lynch his job. Today, they delayed the start about 20 minutes, keeping the field covered, because they thought a storm might drift over the park. It never did.

This game didn't start out propitiously for the Cubs -- they kept leaving runners on base, shades of last night, five left on in the first three innings. And let me say right now: I like Ryan Theriot's attitude and hustle. But seriously, he has to stop stealing bases, or trying to, because his 58% success rate (18 SB, 13 CS) is horrid. And what was he thinking, trying to steal third with nobody out in a scoreless game in the third inning? Even Bob Brenly, who nearly always praises Theriot, ripped him for doing that. While Theriot is having a nice year via BA and OBA, what little power he showed last year (30 doubles) is gone (only 16 so far this year). A few days off wouldn't hurt.

Meanwhile, Ryan Dempster was throwing a nice game; his first mistake wasn't really his, it was Alfonso Soriano's, for not playing Cody Ross' high drive off the wall correctly. Thinking he could catch the ball, instead it took a Fenway-like bounce away from him for a triple. If Ross is held at second, maybe he doesn't score, because the next two hitters made outs (a shoestring catch by Kosuke Fukudome helped), and maybe the Cubs then give Hanley Ramirez an intentional walk and get out of the inning. In any case, it was just one run, and Dempster gave up another one on a walk and a double in the sixth, but then got out of the inning with only one more run scoring. In the interim, Soriano had played the next ball hit off the goofy scoreboard in Miami well, and it looked like he had thrown Ramirez out at second base, but it appeared the umpire was out of position to see Mike Fontenot tag him on the leg before it reached the base. No harm, because no runs scored in that inning.

And then the Cubs exploded in the seventh, and once again, everyone contributed; the Marlins' Renyel Pinto, so good early in the year, had an 18.00 ERA in five August appearances coming into this game with six walks in three innings, and after Mike Fontenot and Reed Johnson had started the inning with hits, for some reason, Fredi Gonzalez left Pinto in to throw to four straight right-handed hitters, with predictable results: he walked Mark DeRosa, then Soriano doubled in the tying runs (past a sliding Luis Gonzalez, who might have been able to make that play five years ago, but not at two weeks shy of age 41), one out later -- for some inexplicable reason -- Gonzalez ordered Derrek Lee walked intentionally to pitch to Aramis Ramirez with the bases loaded.

Now, we all love D-Lee, but seriously, who would YOU rather face with the bases loaded? In his career, prior to today, Lee is .214/.254/.491 with 8 HR with the bases loaded; A-Ram is .337/.336/.625 with 7 HR (that's not a misprint of the OBA there -- he's got 14 bases-loaded sac flies, and 7 bases-loaded walks). Anyway, we're all glad the Marlins chose to face Ramirez, who smacked a double down the line just out of reach of third baseman Jorge Cantu, breaking the tie to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead. Ramirez, incidentally, now seems fine after that minor shakeup Thursday night in Atlanta.

The best part of watching that was seeing the close-up replay of the dugout with all the Cubs watching intently, then exploding into cheers, led by Johnson and Henry Blanco (who eventually got into the game, and singled and scored, raising his career-best BA to .292), when the ball skipped into left field. It's cool to know that they're rooting that hard for their teammates.

And then, after a sac fly by Dome, two more walks (one intentional, one drawn by ONEDEC!), Johnson (who finished 4-for-5 today and is now batting .314), batting for the second time in the inning, drove a ball to the wall in left-center, clearing the bases and finishing the 8-run inning, the 22nd time the Cubs have scored five or more runs in an inning, far and away the most in the NL (the Phillies with 17 are 2nd).

Dempster got a deserved win, his 14th (one short of his career best), with the offensive outburst and Neal Cotts, Jeff Samardzija and Carlos Marmol finished up without incident, throwing three innings of one-hit relief.

So the Cubs are back to .500 on the road at 31-31, and finish up a 5-1 road trip, their best multicity trip of the year (I say "multicity" because the four-game sweep at Milwaukee, a single-city trip, was also outstanding). Goodbye to Miami and that silly mosquito mascot. We await the result of today's Brewers-Dodgers game, at this writing led by the Dodgers 3-0 in the second after two first-inning homers, to see if the Cubs will go into the off-day up by 4.5 or 5.5 games.

Great series, great trip. Enjoy the off-day tomorrow.

Let's come home with a series win.