What Went Right: Jeff Samardzija continues to cement his status as a legitimate starting pitcher. Despite only going five innings, he did rack up six strikeouts while only allowing one run on three hits.

The top of the line up duo of David DeJesus and Tony Campana went a combined 5 for 10 while accounting for three of the eight Cubs runs. Having proper table setters is always a key to sparking consistent offense, and hopefully the pair of outfielders will turn their production into a trend.

Ian Stewart’s power numbers are starting to take off, as he hit a solo shot in the fifth, his fourth homer of the season. Reed Johnson had a pinch hit jack in the sixth to give the Cubs a short lived 2-1 lead, and the offense proceeded to score in every inning for the rest of the game. When the dust settled the Cubs had scored eight runs and pounded out 13 hits. It was pretty much an eye for eye performance after the Cubs lost to the Brewers by the same score the day before.

What Went Wrong: Shawn Camp was not able to tally a hold to preserve the W for Samardzija’s stat line. But to be fair, he was able to limit the damage and overall this season, he has been a fairly reliable option in a bullpen that has seen Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood struggle with control issues. The Cubs defense also committed a pair of errors, an issue the team has not quite been able to resolve from last year.

What Was Interesting: Despite Aramis Ramirez changing teams and the Cubs having already played one series with the Brewers, Cubs television analyst Bob Brenly found it hard to break the habit of ripping on Ramirez. Many of you may recall that the former Cub third baseman registered a rare stolen base on his old team during the series at Wrigley Field. On Sunday, the slugger with a bit of a reputation for not running hard on ground ball outs was seen advancing to third on a heads up base running move on a wild pitch that did not get too far from Cubs catcher Geovany Soto.

Brenly believed that Ramirez was motivated from playing his former team, and noted that Cubs starting third baseman since 2003 would probably still be in blue pinstripes if the now Brewer had provided that same level of effort in all facets of his game. Ramirez was rubbed the wrong way by Brenly’s comments on the corner infielder in 2012, and with 10 more games left against the division and geographical rivals, it will be interesting to see if the Brewer third sacker will have a rebuttal for Brenly through the media.

The Cubs continue their road trip with a pit stop two game series in St Louis starting tonight.

April 5, 2012; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Kerry Wood (34) walks back to the mound during the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals on opening day at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

The Chicago Cubs off-season was filled with change. The change that occurred was a transition from the previous regime to a regime that is controlled by President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, General Manager Tim Tebow, and Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Jason McLeod. Along with that turnover, came a turnover among the Cubs’ roster. Epstein and company essentially closed the book on the Cubs’ teams of the past decade. No longer on the team are Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano, and Alfonso Soriano may not be too far behind them. But the departures of Zambrano and Ramirez were supposed to symbolize a change of culture. But that change of culture still has to take full affect.  Reason being there is still one player that is the biggest indicator of all that was wrong with the Cubs in the past decade. That player is not Soriano. The player that I am talking about is Kerry Wood.

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Ryan Dempster had a productive day on the mound and had the in the lead for 6 innings against the Brewers in their afternoon game at Wrigley. However the Cubs’ bats were not enough to beat the surging Brewers who drew strength off a 2 run shot in the top of the 7th innings and strong pitching from Yovani Gallardo to keep the Cubs at bay.

This was a game that could have gone either way, as a late rally could have put the Cubs on top. Lets take a deeper look:

The Good:

• Dempster was effective and pitched more than well enough to earn a W. He went 6.2 innings strong, gave up 2 runs, struck out 5 and only walked 3. He’s still pretty consistent (his 1.88 ERA reflects that) and kept the ball on the ground for most of the game. Dempster got solid defense from his fielders having retired 9 straight batters at one point.  Being the efficient pitcher that he is, he only needed 68 pitches to work through 6, which is a nice touch. As long as he continues to pitch well, the Cubs can trust in him to bring wins in the future.
• Kerry Wood struck out all 3 batter he faced in the bottom of the 7th showing great command and throwing a nice vairety of pitches. The batters he faced weren’t slouches eather… Rickie Weeks, Nyjer Morgan and Aramis Ramirez were all sat down by Wood’s mixed bag. Looks like he’s on the right path… lets hope he stays there.
• Starlin Castro stole another base late in the game. That’s his 5th of the year and he’s showing no stopping largely due to the aggressive baserunning strategy of Dale Sveum.
• Carlos Marmol‘s slider is still vicious. He seems to also be back on track.
• The Cubs (all except Bryan LaHair who’s prone to take the first pitch with poor results) look a little more choosy at the dish with their pitches. They struggled with this in earlier games.

The Bad

• The Brewers continued to play their exaggerated infield shift defense against the Cubs. Ian Stewart had an attempted bunt down the third base line trying to exploit this shift but it failed. Even with the spring training bunt tournament, the Cubs short game continues to struggle.
•  Dempster exceeded 100 pitches by the time the 7th inning came around and needed a visit from pitching coach Chris Bosio to calm him down. He was soon relieved by James Russell.
• David DeJesus was the only Cub with an extra base hit and scored the only run of the game in the first inning.
• Darwin Barney misplayed a pickoff attempt at 2nd base from a so-so throw from Geovany Soto. The runner moved the 3rd with 2 out. Not the end of the world, but still notable. Soto was credited with an error on the play.
• There was a strong rally in the bottom of the 7th, however the Cubs were stuck in the 7-8-9 rotation of the batting order and weren’t about to cash any of the two runners left of base. Chalk that up to bad luck.

The Ugly

• The Cubs offense needs to fire up in clutch situations as they left 4 separate runners on base in scoring position. There was ample opportunity to win that game while Wood and Marmol held the Brewers’ offense back. A serious opportunity missed….
• Marlon Byrd is batting .048 AVG. Ouchie. Good thing he’s slotted number 8  in the batting order.
• Starlin Castro committed 2 fielding errors in the game. He’s still young (only 22), but that’s back to back games he’s made fielding errors. Expect Sveum to go back to basics with Catro in order to improve his glove-to-ball transfer and most importantly, his confidence.

Another unfortunate loss for the Cubs, but this game was in reach of a victory. Lets hope they realize their potential and come out with a stronger effort in the next one.