Cubs Win 3rd Straight in Walk Off Fashion

After dropping 12 straight games, the Cubs are coming back hard.

Or maybe it’s because they’re playing the lowly San Diego Padres, but I digress…

The Cubs took their 3 game home stand to send a message by sweeping the Padres at Wrigley. Darwin Barney was the hero today sending a slider that hung in the sweet part of the strike zone over the wall in the bottom on the 9th for a two run blast and the victory.

Ryan Dempster, who has been very good all season, seemed to struggle today allowing 3 jacks, 6 runs (all earned) on 6 hits in 4.1 innings pitched. Not great, and he deserved to take an L if it wasnt for the Cubs offense.

Luckily, the bullpen has his back, including Carlos Marmol who is fresh off a stint in AAA. He was in for an inning and looked shaky but got the job done. He walked two striking out one in his MLB comeback. Not fantastic, but certainly OK. He has some work to do still before he can resume the Cubs closing duties.

James Russell was brought in for the 9th and was credited with the W – just take mental note of that. He got the job done despite giving up 2 hits.

No one had an outstanding day at the plate except for Darwin Barney who won the game with a 2 run blast in the bottom of the 9th. That’s some seriously clutch hitting from an unlikely candidate and its quite nice to see the lesser hitters stepping up. Dempster owes him a beer.

All in all, another game that could have been won by either squad despite the Cubs early struggles. They’ll have a day off tomorrow before taking on the San Francisco Giants on Friday.