Good evening from Wrigley Field …

– When coming to Wrigley,  I’m used to seeing a large percentage of seats occupied by fans wearing red. I was surprised that there was such little red (relatively speaking) in the stands Friday. Sure, lots of Cardinals fans were here. It was a great setting for baseball on a perfect day. But it was just a little different to see the “blue” fans outflank the red by such large numbers. This isn’t a knock on Cardinals fans. You know what I think it is? With the Cubs doing so well, more Cubs fans are opting to hold onto their tickets instead of selling them.

– Please allow me be blunt: if the Cardinals had a realistic hope of eventually overtaking the Cubs in the NL Central, I thought the visitors had to come to Chicago and sweep the three-game series. The Cardinals were six games behind the first-place Cubs before Friday. Now the deficit is seven games, following a tough 3-2 loss. If the Cardinals find a way to win Saturday and Sunday, they’ll leave here five games out. That’s not a huge number, and there would be no reason to entirely count the Cardinals out. But the Cubs have been playing much better baseball than the Cardinals. Since the Cardinals took two of three from the Cubs in early May, the Cubs are 52-33 and the Cardinals are 44-42. And the Cardinals simply have to do something dramatic to slow the Cubs. Winning two out of three is OK, but it doesn’t move the needle in a substantial way. I suppose leaving Chicago at five games off the lead would keep hope alive, but let’s be realistic. The Cubs are the better team. And have been for a while.

– This just in: CC Sabathia and Milwaukee win again. The Cardinals are minus 2 in the wild card stakes. Tough day, all the way around.  

– After losing the opener, the Cardinals now have to wrestle with Carlos Zambrano on Saturday and Ryan Dempster on Sunday night. Zambrano and Dempster are a combined 16-2 with a 2.52 ERA at home this season.

– I thought Friday presented a good opportunity for the Cardinals to open the series with a win. I thought that before the game because Cubs starter Ted Lilly had a pretty big ERA at home, and he’s prone to inconsistency. And the Cardinals had all kinds of chances against Lilly, who went 7.1 IP.  Offensively the Cardinals blew the game, period. They were 0 for 8  with runners in scoring position. They lost two runners at the plate. Albert Pujols got picked off (or caught stealing if you want to call it that). They let Lilly slither away from trouble, nicking him for only two runs. Should have had five or six. The 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup – Pujols, Ryan Ludwick and Troy Glaus — went a combined 0 for 4 with RISP. Glaus in particular came up empty at crucial times.

– That Glaus is 0 for 29 against the Cubs this season is simply nusto. It makes no sense. It’s a fluke. Except now the fluke has turned into something that Glaus is stressing over. “You could see that as the game went on, he got a little frustrated,” manager Tony La Russa said.

– I wondered about Skip Schumaker’s decision to try a drag bunt with two outs and a runner on third in the ninth. The Cubs were using rookie reliever Jeff Samardzija, a RH. Schumaker is hitting .348 against RHP this season.  But the right side of the Cubs infield was playing awfully deep. Samardzija’s follow through takes him to the third base side. If Schumaker gets the bunt down at the proper speed, he could have jogged to first for a hit. But he pushed it way too hard, and Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa was able to rush in and make a good play. I think Schumaker had a good idea.  The kid on the mound had nasty stuff. Skip’s idea was fine. He just didn’t execute. Feel free to disagree.

– Look, I don’t want to jump to anything. But Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt was at Friday’s game. But just one game. Then he’s leaving. DeWitt had a long conversation with GM John Mozeliak. And manager La Russa was on the phone — a lot — before the game. Despite the loss, La Russa was in an upbeat mood Friday. I don’t know. Is something going on? Are the Cardinals going to make a move on a player? I’m probably imagining things, but what the heck. If nothing happens, please don’t get mad at me. I’m not trying to get anyone’s hopes up. I just think all of this was a little peculiar.

– Jim Edmonds sure likes hitting at Wrigley Field. Since the Cubs signed him in May, Edmonds is batting .299 at Wrigley, with a .409 OBP. And of his 23 hits, 18 have been for extra bases. Nine doubles, nine homers. His Wrigley slugging percentage is a robust .792.

– There is little doubt in my mind that Adam Wainwright is being prepped to fill the closer’s role. He had a rough rehab stint at Memphis Friday night, so he won’t be on the fast track back to St. Louis.

– Not sure why Ryan Franklin had to work two innings Friday; Russ Springer and LHs Jaime Garcia and Ron Villone were available. The Cubs got to Franklin in his second inning of work, the 11th.

– For two rookies pitching at Wrigley against a vicious lineup for the first time, Kyle McClellan and Chris Perez were very impressive.

– Cesar Izturis is batting .362 (17 for 47) over his last 13 games… Joe Mather is batting .289 with four homers and a .600 SLG in the last 11 games.

– Will we see Rick Ankiel in center field on Saturday? The Cardinals are 28-11 when Ankiel has an RBI in a game.

Thanks for reading…

-B