6 Number of runs Cubs scored

37% Percentage of games this season (23 of 62) in which the Cubs have scored 6 or more runs

45% Percentage of games last season (73 of 161) in which the Cubs scored 6 or more runs

4 Number of runs Cubs scored in Thursday’s 8th inning

1 Number of other times this season the Cubs have scored that many runs in an 8th inning

3 Number of games in which the Cubs have trailed entering the 8th inning but gone on to win. (Team’s record in those games is 3-25, .107)

8 Number of games last year in which the Cubs trailed going into the 8th but still won. (Cubs’ record in those games last year was 8-49, .140)

.250 Cubs’ batting average (2-for-8) with runners in scoring position yesterday.

.227 Cubs’ batting average with RISP so far in 2009; ranks last in NL.

.278 Cubs’ batting average with RISP in 2008; ranked first in NL.

2 Number of hits Alfonso Soriano had in yesterday’s victory, including the game-winning hit in the last of the 9th.

35 Number of games last season (out of 109 played) in which Soriano had 2 or more hits in 2008.

14 Number of games this season (out of 60 played) in which Alfonso Soriano has collected 2 or more hits.

25 Number of games Alfonso Soriano went in between 2-hit performances—last one was on May 17th v. the Astros—but maybe yesterday was a start.

Shannon Shark of The Mets Police attended today’s Cubs/Sox game. It was Shannon’s first-ever visit to The Friendly Confines, and the impression left was overwhelmingly positive:

I’m having a blast. Wrigley is 10,000 times better than Citi (or Yankee). Amazing that a 95 year old park can be so much better than one that is three months old…

…No bombardment of audio nor advertising. Organ music…

Interesting that the stores sell tons of variant merch, but almost all just blue and red. Funny how teams can survive without black jerseys and a sponsored noisefest between every inning…

To the NY Yankees: you guys are on crack giving up what you had. If they can make this place work you could’ve made Yankee Stadium work without a Hard Rock Café.

Reading this late today made me feel good about the Cubs and Wrigley. Then I started looking back over today’s game stories.

The good feeling passed.

Writing at FirstInning.com, Matt Swain reports on lefthanded-hitting outfielder Kyler Burke, acquired back in ‘07 by the Cubs from San Diego in exchange for Carlos Zambrano punching bag, Michael Barrett.

Of the 6-3, 205-pound Burke, currently boasting an 857 OPS for Class-A Peoria, Swain says:

…this breakout has been a long time coming, as Burke hasn’t enjoyed this kind of sustained success since high school. The puzzling part is trying to figure out what has changed. The ’06 supplemental first rounder hasn’t improved his plate discipline, line drive rates, or anything really. But his 27 doubles easily lead the league and make it hard for me to believe he’s just been lucky. One possibility is that hitting in front of Josh Vitters is affording him more fastballs to hit, and he is taking advantage. Burke has a sweet swing from the left side of the plate and a body that was made to play baseball. Right now he lives in the outfield gaps, and probably needs to alter his swing a bit to project for more power, but he has the bat speed to be a home run threat down the road.

In honor of this weekend’s Twins/Cubs series at Wrigley, the Cubs’ first taste of interleague play this year, I enlisted the incomparable Baseball-Reference.com to pull up a list of all players who have worn both Cubs’ and Twins’ uniforms.

My observations:

Best Cub to also play for the Twins: One candidate would be righthanded pitcher Bill Hands, who won 92 games for the Cubs between 1966 and ‘72, but went just 11-15 in two seasons in Minnesota.

Overall, though,the nod has to go to longtime Cub catcher, Randy Hundley, a cornerstone of the tragic ‘69 team, who caught more than 900 games for the Cubs between ‘66 and ‘77. Along the way, Hundley set some records for durability—playing in 160 games in 1968—but he also destroyed his knees. That helps explain why he was so useless by the time he landed in Minneapolis in 1974, hitting just .193 in 32 games.

Best Twin to also play for the Cubs: Would have to be third baseman Gary Gaetti, who was a Twin between ‘81 and ‘90, hit 201 HRs as a Minnesotan, and played on two World Series-winning clubs for manager Tom Kelly.

As a Cub in ‘98 and ‘99, Gaetti hit 17 HRs, the most memorable of which helped the Cubs beat the Giants in a one-game playoff for the Wild Card berth.

Other players of recent vintage with Twins/Cubs pedigrees:

Rick Aguilera (pictured)
Henry Blanco
LaTroy Hawkins
Jacque Jones
Matt Lawton
Damian Miller
Craig Monroe
Phil Nevin
Augie Ojeda
Kevin Tapani
Rondell White

And if you’re asking, “Where the hell is George Mitterwald on that list?” remember, this is recent vintage. But rest assured, all weekend long, I will be saying to myself, “C’mon Cubs, let’s win this one for The Baron.”

The Boston Globe reports that the Cubs and Rays “have watched [Pedro] Martinez throw in the Dominican and both teams have begun to at least explore how much money it would take to lure Martinez back to the mound.”

The 36-year-old Martinez, who went 5-6, 5.61 for the Mets last season, has been unable to get teams to bite on his reported $5 million asking price.

At first blush, it’s hard to imagine why the Cubs are worried about starting pitching and not offensive help: Cub starters currently have the league’s best ERA (3.68), while the Cub offense has produced fewer runs than all but three other NL clubs.

But as Rob G. theorizes at The Cub Reporter, the addition of Martinez (pictured this spring pitching for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic) could then free up the team to trade a suddenly surplus starter like rookie Randy Wells for the much needed injection of offense.