6th

Rockies 6th:

2-3-4 hitters here. Silva hasn't thrown many pitches and has looked good against a potent Rockies lineup. May get another inning after the sixth, depending on who the Cubs want to work out of the 'pen. Hak-Ju Lee in at SS for The Riot. Cubs are really stacked at SS with Theriot, Lee, and wunderkind Castro. Lee may end up as trade bait later on down the line if Castro is everything scouts have said he is.

Len announces he's gone to erasable ink this year for his scorecards. I restrain my desire to yell at the television and to question WGN's hiring practices. This moron has one of the best jobs in sports - WGN, just letting you know that I'm available. Silva is done and Marmol is coming in with a runner on first and nobody out.

Marmol has walked 6 in 10 innings in spring. He needs to improve that.

Spillbourghs tries to steal second and Hill makes a perfect throw. Spillbourghs out at second, with Helton up. Helton doesn't look pleased.

Len informs us that if the catcher drops a foul on the third strike, it's not a strikeout. Thanks again, Kasper.

Marmol freezes Helton - 2 down.

Tulo up, nobody on, two down. This guy is a beast when he's healthy. Fastball gets away from Marmol and goes right where Tulo's head was. Not Marmol's best fastball - only 91 mph - but this may have been a bit of retribution for Francis drilling Ramirez earlier. Safe to say Tulo won't be digging in. Marmol then drops a slider right on the outside corner. That's just not fair after a FB up around the shoulders. Tulo nowhere near another slider and he strikes out.

Good outing by Marmol. When he throws strikes, he's just filthy. I think this is the year where he puts it all together. He has the nastiest stuff the baseball, in my opinion.

Cubs 6th:

Tulo out and Daley in for Francis.

Lee, Tracy, Byrd due up. Lee crushes one to center and Fowler gets turned around - leadoff double for Lee. Those are the toughest balls to field, the ones that are right at you. It's so hard to see how hard the ball is coming and how to judge it. Jackson in to run for Lee.

Tracy needs to pull the ball and get Jackson over to third here. Tracy decides he'd rather take two strikes first, both of which were inside and eminently pull-able pitches. Tracy strikes out on a pitch way out of the zone. Horrible, horrible at-bat. At the very least you have to move the runner over there. That's inexcusable for a major leaguer.

Byrd up, 1 out. He strikes out as well. This is the kind of situation where the Cubs failed so much last year - runner in scoring position and the Cubs can't move him over and get him in. If Tracy moves Jackson over to 3rd that makes Byrd's at-bat much easier - all he has to do is really make good contact to get the run in.

Soriano up, 2 down. Soriano comes through for us by blasting a 2-run HR over the left field wall. He's 3-3. Good sign. If you put a pitch middle-in to Soriano, he doesn't miss those very much. The HR was on a breaking pitch as well - great job by 'Fonzi. 2-0 Cubs.

Baker grounds out, inning over. Cubs lead, 2-0.