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TODAY

Thursday, March 28

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Cubs Sat Jul 10 2010

Cubs Beat Dodgers 7-3

The dreaded West Coast road trip is currently upon the Cubs. This trip has been known to make or break any given Cubs team in years past. After sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks, something no Cubs team has ever done before, they moved onto Los Angeles to taken on a familiar foe in the Dodgers. The all-time series between these two clubs is pretty close L.A. leads it 1,020-1,018. After losing the first two of this four games series the Cubs rebounded Saturday afternoon to not only guarantee themselves a winning road trip, but a possible split with the Dodgers.

The offense has come to life on this trip scoring 39 runs in their last six games combined. The run scoring has been due in large part to Geovany Soto and Aramis Ramirez, both would have contributions in todays game. The scoring began in the second inning after rookie Starlin Castro got things going with an RBI single.

Geovany Soto would follow up that would a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw from Dodgers starter John Ely. They would score three more in the third inning as well including a bases loaded walk to Alfonso Soriano. It was 6-2 Cubs until the seventh inning when Aramis Ramirez belted a solo home run to center making it 7-2.

Ramirez is 12-for-25 with four home runs and nine RBIs on this trip. He is finally hitting above .200 something he hasn't done since the beginning of the season. Tom Gorzelanny has been victimized by a lack of run support this year. Something most if not all of the Cubs starters have experienced at one point or another during this season. Today Gorzelanny had plenty of run support in this one.

He would go six innings, only allowing one earned run, one walk and all while striking out seven hitters.

The Cubs seem to enjoy playing the National League West. They are currently 11-4 against the Western Division. Perhaps now that they've won four out of their last six they can ride that momentum into the second half . A split against the Dodgers would be a nice way to round out their road trip. This could be the turn around that everyone has been waiting for. Todays victory helped them gain ground on both St. Louis and Cincinnati both of whom lost today.

The Cubs close out the first half tomorrow night as Carlos Silva (9-2, 2.96 ERA) takes on the Dodgers Vicente Padilla (3-2, 4.72 ERA). Game time tomorrow is 7:05 p.m. CT and is the game of the week on ESPN. The game can also be heard on WGN Radio 720 AM.

A side note: Cubs manager Lou Piniella was ejected after the fifth inning for arguing with the first-base umpire Jerry Layne. Piniella's grip came after two runs scored after yet another blown call by an umpire this year. Layne called the Dodgers Xavier Paul safe at first even though replays clearly indicated he was out. This was Piniella's 65th ejection in his managerial career.

 
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