Bleed Cubbie Blue

That's the title the Chicago Sun-Times puts on its latest edition, the one that you can buy in the newspaper boxes in the city. It is usually "put to bed" (that's newspaper lingo I learned from a friend of mine who was a copy editor there) around 1:30 am.

That happens to be a lot later than I can stay up when I have to get to work in the morning, so I only got to see five innings of Mark Prior's masterful return last night; he threw about as efficient a six innings as he's thrown all year, and the Cubs beat the Padres 3-0, with Aramis Ramirez accounting for the extra two runs (it was 1-0 when I fell asleep) with his first Cub HR.

I'll write some more on this game later this morning; with the Houston and St. Louis losses, the Cubs pick up a game on each and are only half a game behind the Cardinals and 2 1/2 out of first place.