ST. LOUIS(AP) Albert Pujols lined an RBI single over the head of center fielder Matt Kemp with two outs in the 15th inning, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and saddling the NL West leaders with their first four-game losing streak of the season.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.(AP) George Steinbrenner’s presence placed a lot more heat on Joba Chamberlain than the Tampa Bay Rays .

SEATTLE(AP) Remaining in Toronto, perhaps through 2010. Watching Cliff Lee become the ace traded to Philadelphia. Then, allowing a season-high 11 hits in record-setting Seattle heat.

One of the best things about baseball is that with so many at-bats in a season … whatever you can think of is probably going to happen (like when that bat stood up on its end after an at bat a couple years ago).  So it kinda surprises me that very few baseballs ever hit the TV cameras around MLB ballparks.

But that’s not the case in the other fields around America, where cameras are taking a beating from baseballs …  whether it be batted or thrown.

Here’s a clip from the Little League World Series a couple years ago.  Take it away, Brent Musburger.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s not the only time a pitch has hit a camera behind the plate.  Here’s another pitcher who’s throwing …. juuust a bit outside

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a Foul ball taking out the cameraman …

Click here to view the embedded video.

This next guy must have been trying to hit the camera. 

Seriously … Why else would you set up a camera in a batting cage?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m not sure why these guys are playing baseball during French Class …

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sometimes the cameraman takes a beating … here’s a setup where FOX Sports cameraman Darrin Pierce gets nailed in the head by pitch thrown by Arizona State softball pitcher Erica Beach. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

She shattered a piece of plexiglass supposedly protecting Pierce.  I think Pierce was wearing his bad idea jeans that day.

But this is my favorite of them all – and it doesn’t even involve a camera getting destroyed … watch as some guy’s camera bag makes the catch of the century on a pop foul behind home plate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s simply awesome.

On Opening Day, if I had told you that sometime in midsummer, I would see Randy Wells and Mitch Atkins combine on a shutout at Wrigley Field, you probably would have assumed I was talking about the “Road to Wrigley” game that’s going to take place on August 9 between Iowa and Las Vegas (note on that page it still says Jake Fox is a “rising star” playing for Iowa — maybe that needs to be updated).

Instead, Wells, who is making a strong case for NL Rookie of the Year, threw eight shutout innings, allowing just six singles and not permitting a runner past first base until the eighth inning, and Atkins, in his major league debut, threw a scoreless ninth to finish off a 12-0 shutout of the Astros, the Cubs‘ biggest shutout victory in more than four years, since they blanked the Marlins 14-0 on June 14, 2005, behind a five-hit shutout by Sergio Mitre. 19 outs today were recorded on ground balls and the Cubs turned four double plays behind Wells and Atkins.

I was kind of hoping Wells could keep his pitch count down in the 7th and 8th innings so he could have a shot at a CG shutout — you don’t see many of those any more, and the Cubs’ only CG this year is by Sean Marshall in a five-inning, rain-shortened win over the Pirates on May 26. But with Wells at 110 pitches through eight innings and a fresh arm in Atkins in the pen, it was probably wise to get Wells out of there and rest him up for his next start. Wells’ ERA, now 2.85, would rank eighth in the league if he had enough innings to qualify. His eight innings today give him 95; the Cubs have played 99 games, so he’d need to throw a CG to qualify after his next start. More likely, it’ll take two starts to get him there, but Wells, who with his seventh win now has more than any Cub rookie pitcher in a season since Kerry Wood‘s 13 in 1998, has been just about the most consistent pitcher the Cubs have had since his recall. He has gone at least six innings in 12 of his 15 starts and has, arguably, had only one really bad start among the 15.

In addition to Wells, the offense came out smoking in the first inning and never stopped.

The Cubs pounded Mike Hampton for five hits and two walks in the first inning; along with a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly, the big blow was Alfonso Soriano‘s three-run homer (I guess Soriano’s back on track now, wouldn’t you say?) and though Hampton probably would have been yanked early in most circumstances, the Astros‘ beleaguered bullpen status meant that Hampton had to slog through three more innings, taking one for the team, before he was removed for a pinch-hitter. All told he took 79 pitches to get 12 outs, allowed four walks, eight hits, and nine earned runs, including a second homer by Aramis Ramirez. You know by now if you follow me or ballhawk on Twitter that Ballhawk Ken caught A-Ram’s HR on the fly, right near the corner of Waveland & Kenmore. He said “the ball caught me, rather than me catching it”, but he is being too modest. I watched the ball all the way into Ken’s glove and it was a solid catch, very impressive. He said after the game that he caught one from Khalil Greene last year, but can’t remember the last Cub HR he caught on the fly. Just got another tweet from Ken thanking Ballhawk Jeff for tracking down A-Ram’s car and getting Aramis to sign the ball for him.

By the middle innings Lou had started to empty his bench; the first to sit was Reed Johnson, who left after fouling a ball off his foot in the first inning. Late radio reports indicate that Johnson has a fractured bone in his foot and may be out a month — calling Sam Fuld, I suppose, yet another Iowa recall.

After the seventh inning, the bench totally emptied out and more players who spent much time at Iowa wound up in the game, including Jake Fox, who drove in a pair of runs with a sac fly and a single, and Andres Blanco, who hit his first major league home run off the RF foul pole in the 8th. Congratulations to him, and props to the Cubs, who can win this series tomorrow and, if the Dodgers can cooperate by beating the Cardinals tonight, take over first place again later this evening.

Final shout-out to a young couple originally from England, now living in Chicago, who are “just getting into baseball”, attending the game with one of their dads (sorry, I never did find out which!) — welcome to Chicago and the Cubs, you sure saw a special game today.

The Astros will face the Cubs this afternoon with a depleted pitching staff. Ex-Cub LaTroy Hawkins, who is already in trouble with MLB for his comments made about the umpiring crew after Monday night’s game, will go on the disabled list today with shingles. Much as I don’t like Hawkins, I wouldn’t wish shingles on him — it can be extremely painful.

Doug Brocail, who is 42 years old and who had, among others, as teammates his rookie year in San Diego in 1992 Mike Maddux, Tony Gwynn Sr. and Larry Andersen (who is 56 years old), will be recalled to take Hawkins’ roster spot. The Astros will also be without Wesley Wright (who likely wouldn’t have pitched anyway today after throwing 51 pitches last night), because he was “rushed to the hospital following Tuesday’s win because he was experiencing discomfort in the area around his appendix.”

Bruce Miles blogs about the Cubs’ continued interest in Pittsburgh’s John Grabow and Washington’s Joe Beimel as Lou continues to overwork his bullpen for no particular reason:

Worse yet, Lou had to use lefty Sean Marshall for a third straight game, making Marshall doubtful for Wednesday.

A number of us (yes, I hear you, Jessica) have been shouting real loud at Lou about this, but let’s try it again: Hey, Lou! Sean Marshall is a starting pitcher. If you have to use him early in a game, why not use him the way Cecil Cooper used Wright last night — for multiple innings? Marshall can get both LHB and RHB out.

The Cubs have more motivation to keep Houston from scoring today: shut them out and it costs Astros fans money. How? The Astros are discounting tickets for their next home series based on how many runs they score in Chicago:

For every run that the team scores during its July 27 to 30 series on the road against the Chicago Cubs, the team will drop the price on its field box tickets by $1 for the next home stand against the San Francisco Giants. The Giants play at Minute Maid Park Aug. 3 to 5.

So far Astros fans can save $12 per field box ticket. Let’s keep it that way. Onward to this afternoon’s matchup. (Hat tip to Big League Stew for the link.)

Today’s Starting Pitchers

Randy Wells Cubs vs. Mike Hampton Astros 6-4 W-L 6-7 3.10 ERA 4.74 59 SO 64 19 BB 38 8 HR 9 vs. Hou – vs. Cubs

Randy Wells threw the first six innings vs. the Astros on May 16 at Wrigley Field, giving up no runs but winding up with a no-decision after Kevin Gregg blew the lead — Sean Marshall got the win when the Cubs came back in the last of the ninth. Wells gave up only four hits in that game, his only career appearance vs. Houston, all singles.

Mike Hampton might have been a Cub had Andy MacPhail been willing to spend as much as the Rockies did when they signed him in 2001. Good thing he didn’t — Hampton’s been pretty mediocre since signing that eight-year deal (save one decent year with Atlanta in 2003), which finally expired at the end of last year. The Cubs jumped all over him in the first inning on April 6 in Houston and he’s gotten pounded in his last three starts (7.80 ERA). Derrek Lee is only 7-for-31 (.229) vs. Hampton, but three of those hits are homers.

The Cubs are on WGN again today, and also on FSN Houston. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Astros site The Crawfish Boxes.

Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Last night’s 11-6 Cubs loss to the Astros, which dropped them back into second place by 1/2 game after the Cardinals beat up on the Dodgers, turned on two plays.

The first was Kosuke Fukudome‘s inexplicable decision to try to stretch a routine single to center field into a double. The play was right in front of both him and Astros CF Michael Bourn; it was the leadoff play in the bottom of the first inning; why would you risk taking a runner off base when your team is already trailing 1-0? It wasn’t a good idea at the time and it seemed to take a lot out of the Cubs; the next nine hitters went down in a row until there was one out in the fourth inning.

The second bad play was Ryan Dempster‘s decision to try for a double play with the score 2-0 and runners on first and third with nobody out in the top of the third. Miguel Tejada hit a comebacker that Dempster snagged in front of the mound. It was clearly a contact play — Bourn, who was on third base, broke for the plate. He would have been out easily had Dempster thrown to Koyie Hill, who, according to Paul Sullivan, was yelling for the ball:

Catcher Koyie Hill was yelling at Dempster, who paid him no heed.

“I did hear him, and I think that’s why I threw it in center field. When I went to throw to second, I heard ‘home.’ I should have known to go home. … Bad baseball.”

Don’t know whether that was the rust of not pitching for four weeks or what — even if Dempster doesn’t throw the ball into CF and gets the double play, there was nobody out. A run would have scored anyway. If he throws home and gets Bourn, there might have still been time to turn a DP by getting Tejada at 1B, and even if that didn’t happen, the next two hitters were routine outs. That would have left the score 2-0 instead of 4-0, because one of those outs became a sacrifice fly.

And the Cubs would have had a better shot at the game that way. Roy Oswalt left the game in the second inning with a lower back strain. Reliever Wesley Wright retired the first five batters he faced but then completely lost his control. This isn’t totally surprising — Wright is generally used as a LOOGY and the 13 batters he faced last night was the most in his major league career. Five walks, a sacrifice fly and a single later, the Cubs were back in the game trailing only 4-3. The single was by Reed Johnson — a very early use of a PH in the fourth inning if you’re not going to leave him in the game. This, and a double-switch made in the sixth after Lou again failed to understand that Sean Marshall could actually throw to more than four batters, left the Cubs short of bench players quite early in the game.

Dempster gave it back in the fifth, allowing a two-run HR to Tejada, but the Cubs tied it in the last of the fifth on Aramis Ramirez‘s three-run shot.

And then the bullpen failed. They got out of the sixth with no damage, but Angel Guzman gave up a HR to Geoff Blum and then in the eighth, Kosuke Fukudome just missed a diving catch on a Jeff Keppinger ball that wound up as a two-run triple. It wouldn’t have been an easy play, but if Fukudome can grab that ball, the score remains 7-6 going into the last of the 8th — an entirely different game.

The Cubs’ five-game winning streak is over; it happens. The Cubs had enough baserunners, despite having only five hits; Astros pitchers issued ten walks — all unintentional — but the Cubs really took advantage of them only in the fourth inning, when the five walks given led to three runs. Dempster’s pitching and defense showed the rust from his layoff; maybe a rehab start wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. Speaking of rehab, B.J. Ryan made his first appearance for Iowa (OK, technically, it’s not a rehab assignment, but the Cubs are trying to “rehabilitate” him), throwing 11 pitches (five strikes) in a scoreless inning with one walk. It’s a start, anyway. He’ll make up to six appearances there before the Cubs decide what to do with him; he has to be recalled within 15 days of last night or be released.

With Ted Lilly on the DL, they may need him before the 15 days are up. Today’s pregame thread will post at 11:30 am CDT.

Today the Cubs totally annihilated the Astros and took the lead with a decisive 12-0 win over the Astros.  It’s hard to say what was more dominant, the Cubs hitting or the pitching of Randy Wells; Mitch Atkins came in for mop-up action in the 9th and every single Cubs bench player saw…



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