Heat Favors Cubs in Win Over Phillies

FIRST PERSON | It's 95 degrees here in my hometown of Peoria, Ill., which is a couple hours south of Chicago. It's easy to understand how miserable it must have been Monday when the Chicago Cubs hosted the Philadelphia Phillies and the temperature was in the mid-to-upper 90s. However, something happened that has not been happening -- the Cubs won.

Alex Ruppenthal has posted an article at the MLB.com website titled "Lopez puts heat on Phillies as Cubs roll."

For Cubs fans it was great to see a Chicago pitcher do a good job. Rodrigo Lopez gave up only one run in 6 2/3 innings. As Ruppenthal reports, this was the "third straight quality start" for Lopez (2-2, ERA 3.55).

The Cubs also showed their offense. Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena both hit homers and Ramirez nearly got a grand slam. They were hard on Philadelphia starter Roy Halladay.

Halladay was affected by the heat more than Lopez, who stayed "well-oiled" with Gatorade.

The win moved the Cubs 19 games under the .500 mark and put them 12 ½ games behind the first-place Pirates. Any wins against the Phillies are great since Philadelphia is in first place in the National League East.

One of the reasons the Cubs are struggling this year is they have a home record of 22-29. This is only five games better than their road record of 17-29.

Another reason the Cubs are having problems is they are losing to teams they should defeat. While they occasionally beat teams they should lose to, it is a losing formula.

The Cubs will be facing the Phillies again Tuesday evening in Chicago. Matt Garza (4-7, ERA 3.97) will be going for the Cubs and Cliff Lee (9-6, ERA 2.82) will be pitching for Philadelphia.

Based on records, we would have to say Philly is favored. It would be nice to see the Cubs get a winning streak going but I don't think it will happen. While the Cubs are 19 games under .500 with a 39-58 record, the Philadelphia Phillies are 23 games over .500 with a 59-36 record.

I think the point has been made.

References:

MLB.com Website, Alex Ruppenthal, "Lopez puts heat on Phillies as Cubs roll"

MLB.com Website, "Rodrigo Lopez Statistics"

MLB.com Website, "Cliff Lee Statistics"

MLB.com Website, "Matt Garza Statistics"