May 31, 2005Aramis Ramirez had another great game to help the Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 Monday evening, and they are now on a season-high four-game winning streak. They also started the big seven-game west coast trip with a win, and they really need to win this series now, especially with a four-game series upcoming against a red hot San Diego Padres team. Ramirez is heating up at just the right time after a couple of nagging injuries early in the season. It seemed last year like the Cubs offense overall played its best when he was on the top of his game. Greg Maddux pitched a solid game and the young bullpen pitched just well enough to hold the lead.
John Koronka will come up from the Iowa Cubs to be the starter on Wednesday night. He came over from Cincinnati for Phil Norton a couple of years back. I really don't know much about him but he and Sergio Mitre will fill out the starting rotation for the time being, as Mark Prior will be out for a while and Kerry Wood still isn't close to returning.
Amazingly, if Carlos Zambrano can lead the Cubs to a win tonight, the team will finish the month of May with a winning record after losing the first six games of the month. Hopefully the Cubs can at the very least split these next six games before returning home for another long homestand. From now until the All-Star break, Milwaukee is their only opponent that currently does not have a winning record.
