Cubs Blow It in the Ninth, Lose 4-3

The Cubs Kerry Wood blew a 3-1 lead in the ninth when he allowed a single to Jason Kendall that scored Craig Counsell and a 2-run double to Ryan Braun that drove in both Jason Kendall and Gabe Kapler to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead and an eventual win.

The Cubs Carlos Zambrano pitched 6 1/3 innings where he allowed one earned run on seven hits while striking out three and walking two. He helped his own cause when he hit a solo home run to put the Cubs on the board first in the bottom of the third. But, in the ninth when Kerry Wood was called upon he was unable to close the door as he allowed three earned runs on three hits in his inning of work.

The Cubs scored one in the third off the Zambrano home run and then scored two in the sixth, the first run coming from a sac fly by Mark Derosa in which Derrek Lee scored. The second run crossed the plate when Geovany Soto doubled to score Aramis Ramirez. The Cubs did have 11 hits on the day but only managed to score three runs.

As for the Brewers they scored their only early run when Ryan Braun homered in the sixth. The rest of the runs came in the ninth off of Wood. The Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo pitched 6 innings allowing the three earned runs on nine hits while striking out four. Brian Shouse picked the up the win to move to 2-0 on the season the save went to Eric Gagne his ninth of the season.

Tomorrow, the Cubs will travel to St. Louis to play the Cardinals. The pitching match ups for the series will be Rich Hill vs. Adam Wainwright then on Saturday Ted Lilly vs. Kyle Lohse and on Sunday which is a 7:05 pm ct. start which will air on ESPN will have Jason Marquis vs. Todd Wellmeyer.

With the lost the Cubs record is now 17-11 and they are now a 1/2 game out of first behind the Cardinals in the NL Central.