Here’s the lineup for Wednesday:

Castro SS

LeMahieu 3B

Johnson RF

Baker 2B

Soto C

Byrd CF

Soriano LF

LaHair 1B

Garza P

– Carrie Muskat

Castro SS

Campana RF

LaHair LF

Pena 1B

Byrd CF

DeWitt 2B

LeMahieu 3B

Hill C

Dempster P

– Carrie Muskat

And there was other good-natured fun, too.

Don't make Tony Campana angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. He's like a spider monkey.

 -Tony Campana losing his cool on the umpire. It was a bad call and he had every right to be angry, but it was pretty fantastic to see little Ricochet Rabbit giving the ump serious hell.

-Len naming the Reds bullpen after the call-ups. There was like 45 guys. They ran out of chairs.

-Speaking of call-ups, hello again, DJ LeMahieu and Lou Montanez. Welcome to the show, John Gaub.

-Reed missing home plate, but getting back to it before the Reds realized he’d missed it. That was a slick move and also pretty heads-up.

-Lopez with a nice double play. He didn’t even hesitate. Slick.

-The babies tying things up. LaHair with a two-run shot in the ninth. DJ with an RBI double.

-A fan lost his hat on a foul ball catch. Not as good as the guy who lost his hair, but it was still good to know that he was headed to the lower deck to retrieve it.

-Pena crushing a 3 run homer onto Sheffield on a night when the ball wasn’t leaving the park.

-Byrd face-planting on the warning track followed by Garza falling over trying to field a come-backer leading Bob to speculate that there might be a sniper on the field.

-Hugs! Castro and Ramirez hugging to avoid a collision. Brandon Phillips and Soto hugging for an out. Hugs everywhere!

Aramis Ramirez had a two-run double for Chicago, which took two of three against Cincinnati to earn a split of its six-game homestand. Starlin Castro and DJ LeMahieu each had two hits for the Cubs.

Castro sparked the winning rally with a leadoff single against Logan Ondrusek (4-5). Reed Johnson moved Castro to second with a sacrifice before the Reds decided to intentionally walk Ramirez and bring in left-hander Bill Bray to face the lefty-batting Pena.

Big mistake, at least Wednesday night.

Pena pulled Bray’s first pitch onto Sheffield Avenue for his 26th homer and third in his last eight games.

The big first baseman began the day with a .135 average against lefties, and Bray was holding lefty batters to a .188 average. But this time it didn’t work out for the Reds.

Yonder Alonso had three hits for Cincinnati, which has lost seven of 10. Joey Votto went 2 for 4 and drove in a run.

Kerry Wood (2-5) pitched a scoreless eighth for the victory and Carlos Marmol worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 33rd save in 42 chances.

The Reds chased starter Ryan Dempster with three consecutive hits to begin the seventh inning, including pitcher Johnny Cueto’s leadoff infield single. Votto hit a sacrifice fly off James Russell to trim Chicago’s lead to 3-2 and Jay Bruce followed with a bouncer down the third-base line for an RBI double.

The Cubs brought their infield in for Alonso, who hit a fly ball to medium center field. Johnson got in good position, brought it in, then fired a strong throw to catcher Koyie Hill that cut down Edgar Renteria at the plate.

Chicago got a big inning-ending double play in the sixth when Ramon Hernandez lined to shortstop Castro, who threw to LeMahieu before Alonso could get back to second base.

Dempster allowed 10 hits — matching a season high — and is winless in his last five starts.

Cueto retired 11 of his first 12 batters before running into a bit of trouble in the fifth. Pena led off with a double to right-center for Chicago’s second hit. He moved up on a wild pitch and scored on LeMahieu’s tying two-out single, but Cueto got Hill to fly out to end the inning.

The Cubs added two runs in the sixth on Ramirez’s clutch double. Castro sparked the rally with an infield hit on a dribbler up the third-base line. Johnson singled to center before Ramirez hit a drive into the corner in left to make it 3-1.

Cueto allowed seven hits in seven innings and his ERA increased from 2.29 to 2.36.

Cincinnati pushed across a run after Dempster quickly retired the first two batters of the game. Votto hit a well-placed fly ball to left that landed in front of Alfonso Soriano, then rolled past him for a triple. Bruce walked before Alonso hit a liner up the middle for an RBI single.

NOTES: 2B Darwin Barney left the Cubs to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. Manager Mike Quade said he expects Barney will rejoin the team Friday in New York. … Reds RHP Mike Leake will make one more start this season. Manager Dusty Baker said the team will use a six-man rotation for one turn, inserting RHP Edinson Volquez, then Leake will drop out. Leake had 138 1-3 innings last year as a rookie and is up to 159 2-3 already this season. … The Cubs and Old Style-maker Pabst Brewing Co. announced the brew that has been available to fans since 1950 will be peddled at the Wrigley Field through 2013. Pabst threatened earlier this year to pull the beer from the ballpark. … The Cubs are off Thursday before opening a weekend series at the New York Mets. RHP Casey Coleman (2-7, 6.61 ERA) is scheduled to face Mets RHP Mike Pelfrey (7-11, 4.68) on Friday night. … The Reds are off Thursday, then begin a three-game series at Colorado on Friday night. Reds RHP Homer Bailey (7-7, 4.57 ERA) and Rockies RHP Jhoulys Chacin (11-10, 3.60 ERA) will meet in the opener. … A fan in the second deck made a solid catch on a foul ball in the fifth inning, but one of his friends lost his hat over the railing in the resulting celebration, drawing guffaws from the crowd of 36,797. He went down to the lower section to retrieve his cap, and got a small ovation from his section when he returned.

(TM and © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

CHICAGO (WSCR) — With the Cubs season over pretty much after it began, I was hoping for two things to happen. One, for the players to not just go through the motions of a long meaningless season. This is a selfish reason since I was being to asked cover the games at Wrigley. Second, I wanted to see some unproven talent from the minor leagues get some regular playing time in September with the hope of providing some insight into the Cubs’ future.

The veterans came through and provided me with some decent baseball after the All-Star break … the dog days of Summer weren’t too bad. It was still meaningless, but at least somewhat enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I will not get to see players from the Cubs minor league system play on a daily basis this September.

Take for example, Bryan LaHair. He was the Pacific Coast League Most Valuable Player – .331 AVG 38 HR and 109 RBI. Tonight, he’s starting in right field for Mike Quade.

LaHair, 28 years-old, may not be a major league player. No one will know unless he gets a chance to play on a regular basis during the regular season. Say for example, like this month for the Cubs. So why isn’t the Iowa Cubs’ first baseman playing first base for the remaining 20 games of the 2011 season?

“I still want Pena’s power and I want him in the lineup”, said Quade when I asked him that very question.

Can’t turn your back on Carlos. After all, he is a free agent after this season ends.

LaHair was selected by Seattle in the 39th round of the 2002 draft. This marks LaHair’s second-career stint in the big leagues. He hit .250 with four doubles, three home runs, and 10 RBI in 45 games with Seattle in 2008.

Maybe the change in organizations is something that LaHair needed to be able to make the jump from Triple-A to the Majors. He credits Iowa hitting coach, Von Joshua, with changing his hand slot in his swing.

Maybe he’ll be a career minor leaguer … there’s one way to find out though – play him everyday at first base for the rest of this season.

When asked about playing LaHair in right field, Quade said, “gotta find somewhere, so we’ll put Bobby Dernier to work and see how he handles him in right field. He’ll catch what he gets to. He’ll give you as good of an effort as you want out there. It’ll be a little unusual for him, but yeah, I wanted to see him swing the bat. He’ll do what he can.”

I sat in the dugout with LaHair before BP and I asked him when was the last time that he played right field.

“It’s been a while”, he replied. “The thing to get used to is the depth and the size of the stadium.”

“Right field is a son of a gun … here especially”, said Quade. “It’ll be a good challenge for him, but he’ll do the best he can.”

Here’s a novel idea – why not put the player in the best possible situation to succeed?

Or, should we review James Russell, the starter versus the relief pitcher argument again?

Quade was asked about LaHair’s defense at first, “I’m not concerned at first base at all.”

Quade said that playing the outfield for LaHair will be “unusual” and “a good challenge”, and when asked about his defense in the outfield, he replied, “I’m not really concerned about him in the outfield other than he’s just not fast. He won’t cover a lot of ground.” Well that’s good to know because I hate those fast outfielders that cover a lot of ground.

It’s all right though because, “I’ve seen a lot of good power hitting dudes that are out there – same thing”, finished Quade.

“We’ll mix and match and he’ll give Carlos a day here and there and I’ll try and find a way to keep him involved.”, Quade told me. Here’s a way to keep him involved – play first base for the last 20 games.

Let’s take the next step, Tyler Colvin should be in right field and D.J. LeMahieu should be at third base for the final 20 games. When the team had a general manager, you know someone actually in charge of the day-to-day baseball operations, the thought was that LeMahieu could play second base at this level and possibly play third base with even greater ability. So why not find out?  That’s right, still debating on what to with Aramis Ramirez.

That decision is easy. Pay the 2 million dollars to buy out his contract and thank him for his service. Hell, you could even give him a statue if you want – I don’t care. I just don’t want him back next year.

Here’s another crazy question – why are Rodrigo Lopez and Ramon Ortiz still on this roster? Those two pitching spots could be valuable for this month to gain some insight into 2012 and beyond. Why not take a chance with two pitchers that the organization may not be certain on?

Maybe Tom Ricketts has a plan for this organization. If he does I hope his plans include the big league team as well.

Check out my blog tomorrow as I tell Tom Ricketts what I would do with this roster for 2012.

“We have to find somewhere,” Quade said. “He’ll catch what he gets to. He’ll give you as good a effort as you want out there. We want to see him swing the bat. He’ll do what he can and hopefully get us the lead and we can have somebody out there who is a little more accomplished later.”

One of the raps against LaHair, 28, is his defensive ability. It’s one of the reasons he’s spent nine years in the Minor Leagues.

“People are going to have opinions and it is a bit unusual to spend as much time as he has and not really gotten a shot or an opportunity,” Quade said of LaHair. “That’s what makes his first three days even more impressive. He knows what’s what, and here he is, given an opportunity, and he’s put together five or six really good at-bats and he knows, ‘If I’m going to have a shot or make an impression, I have to do this.’”

* Andrew Cashner was available in the bullpen Wednesday. When he does pitch, it will be his first big league game since April 5. He’s been on the DL with a strained right rotator cuff.

* Darwin Barney returned home to Oregon to be with his wife Lindsay for the birth of their second child. The Cubs second baseman was expected to join the team on Friday in New York for their three-game series against the Mets.

“It may be just what the doctor ordered — a break today and off day tomorrow,” Quade said of Barney, who was 1-for-14 on the homestand and 3-for-38 in his last 12 games.

DJ LeMahieu, called up from Triple-A Iowa, started at second base Wednesday in the Cubs’ series finale against the Reds.

* Ryan Dempster has 32 wins at home since returning to the rotation in 2008. That’s tied for the most among NL pitchers with the Giants’ Tim Lincecum.

– Carrie Muskat

SS Castro

CF Johnson

3B Ramirez

1B Pena

LF Soriano

RF LaHair

2B LeMahieu

C Hill

P Dempster

– Carrie Muskat

Pitcher John Gaub, infielder DJ LeMahieu and outfielder Lou Montanez were recalled from Triple-A Iowa. LeMahieu and Montanez have both spent time with the Cubs this season. Gaub will be making his major league debut.

LeMahieu hit .243 (9-for-37) with one double and one RBI in 23 games with the Cubs earlier this season.

Montanez hit .239 (11-for-46) with three doubles, one home run and nine RBI in 25 games for the Cubs after being recalled May 24.

Gaub was acquired from the Indians in the Mark DeRosa deal on Dec. 31, 2008, and his first appearance will mark his Major League debut. LeMahieu, a second-round pick in 2009, and Montanez, who was the Cubs’ first-round selection in 2000, were both called up during the season. LeMahieu batted .243 in 23 games while Montanez hit .239 in 25 games from May 24-July 2.

At Iowa, Gaub, 26, posted a 3.42 ERA in 50 games, and was 7-for-11 in save opportunities. He struck out 75 over 55 1/3 innings, an average of 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings, and limited opponents to a .209 batting average. In five Minor League seasons, Gaub is 12-12 with 17 saves and a 3.60 ERA.

LeMahieu, 23, a right-handed batter, began the 2011 season with Double-A Tennessee and hit .358 with 15 doubles, two triples, two home runs, 32 runs scored and 27 RBIs in 50 games. He was promoted to Chicago on May 30, then optioned to Triple-A Iowa on June 28 and hit .286 with seven doubles, three home runs and 23 RBIs in 58 games. Combined, LeMahieu batted .319 in the Minors this season with 22 doubles, three triples, five home runs and 50 RBIs in 108 games.

Montanez, 29, batted .321 in 92 games with Iowa, hitting 22 doubles, seven triples and seven homers while driving in 69 runs. He hit .400 against lefties, .285 against right-handers.

Montañez spent seven seasons in the Cubs’ Minor League system before joining the Orioles before the 2007 season. He made his big league debut with Baltimore in 2008 and spent part of three seasons in the big leagues with the Orioles (2008-10) before signing with the Cubs as a Minor League free agent with an invite to Spring Training in January.

– Carrie Muskat

– Carrie Muskat

– Carrie Muskat

All the young guys who are first-years in Triple-A, like Marwin and DJ and Welington, need to keep stepping up and keep getting better and keep learning and take that from now until they get to the big leagues.

***

No fear. None whatsoever. First at-bat at Iowa, I took the first pitch and my thought process the whole time was, “See the ball.” It wasn’t, “What’s going to happen?” That didn’t cross my mind. In the second game, there was no thought process whatsoever, it was just baseball. I knew I was ready then. I’m glad, because I wasn’t really sure how  I was going to react and I reacted very well.

– Marlon

Royals 4

It’s taken almost mid season, but the Chicago Cubs have finally come out of hibernation.  I caught most of the game but went to bed during the eith inning when things were tied. 

The young guns are hitting the ball and getting it done.  Starlin Castro recorded his 102 hit of the year which is remarkable.  He’s still reckless, I should say careless when on base but at the plate he’s unstoppable.  Starlin Castro puts fear in pitchers everytime he steps up to the plate. 

DJ LeMahieu got two hits and is progressing well.  Once Rookie of the Year hopeful, Darwin Barney gets back off the injured list, things will really heat up.

Jeff Baker got a triple on a really good play.

Mike Quade hit the nail on the head by saying there were a lot of agressive things that happened last night.

You know, this time of year, the Cubs need to get a little agressive if they want to keep playing through October.

—Mark Gauthier

But they did have their moments, and when they have their moments (and when they don’t) we have a good time.

Reed Johnson: Possessed by Badass

-Reed going deep off of Mariano Rivera. Not an easy thing to do and he did it and we all yelled, “REEEEEEEEEEED!”

-Pat explaining that the seagulls have landed in right field to keep Kosuke company.

-Davis’s gem and his first win as a Cub. Finally.

-Teasing Keith about charging the mound. (“I did other things, you know.”)

-DJ’s first extra base hit. He’s growing up so fast.

-A few really nice defensive plays by Ramirez.

-Billy Corgan in the booth, talking about his grandma taking him to games. Pat’s knowlege of Pink Floyd was also impressive.

-Soriano going yard for three runs. He seems to be picking up where he left off and we appreciate that.

-Scoring three runs on six hits. It may not seem like a big deal, but this is something that rarely happens for the Cubs. This is the kind of fun they need to be having more often.

And we had a fun watching them do it.

Walk-off Huggles!

-Being on the right side of a laugher. 12 runs in a game. We’re sold on this kind of offense.

-DJ LeMahieu’s first ever start at 1st base followed by his first ever 3-hit game and first ever RBI in the bigs.

-Best line of the series: “Someone has to chaperone the cased meats.” Thanks, Bob!

-Bob Uecker singing the stretch is always a good thing.

-The DL boys (Baker, Reed, and Soriano) all going deep.

-Kosuke going yard on a lefty.

-Pena going yard period.

-The fan that caught Reed’s home run.

-The Brewers using the tarp as a slip n slide during a rain delay.

-Demp throwing yet another gem. The ace is making a comeback.

-Rickie Weeks’s bad case of deja vu (Fukudome throwing him out twice trying to stretch a single to a double).

-Montanez+LeMahieu+Ramirez=triple denied.

-Barney+Pena+Ramirez=win.

-Fukudome+Castro+Ramierz=tie.

-Campana+Fukudome+Castro=walk-off win.

-Best math ever.

Despite owning the first-place Milwaukee Brewers the last two nights, the Cubs hope to claim the dubious honor of becoming the final team in the majors to win three in a row this season.  I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say it’s time to turn the page on this disastrous 2011 Cubs season and look toward the future.

But that’s where things get even more troubling for Cubs fans since there seems to be no real direction or plan from ownership and management.  I think Johnny Rotten had the same feeling about the fate of the British monarchy back in 1976: “No future!” (sorry, I know it’s a stretch, but I felt it was past time to throw in a seminal punk anthem on the blog).

Fingers are being pointed in every direction for the colossal failure by fans and media alike. There seems to be growing sentiment against new manager, Mike Quade, but he can only be accountable for what he does with the players he’s been given.  Pete and I witnessed him pull off an “according to Hoyle” miracle (have to throw in any Pulp Fiction reference whenever possible) Monday night when he beat a first place team with a Triple-A lineup replete with household names like Lou Montanez, Tony Campana, and French-rapper-turned-first-baseman, DJ LeMahieu. No, you can’t blame Quade for this mess, you’ve got to point the finger at the GM and the man paying him.

It’s still very early in his tenure and he seems like a genuinely nice guy, but owner Tom Ricketts doesn’t strike me as the next Mark Cuban who thinks of himself as a fan first and an owner second.  He hasn’t shown that he will do (i.e. spend) whatever it takes to win a world championship as Cuban has.  Ricketts seems far more concerned with the mystical Triangle Building—the most talked about geometric structure since the Pentagon—and getting his bison hot dogs into Wrigley than he does about the abysmal product he has on the field.

One could argue that Ricketts has been hamstrung by too many backloaded contracts for aging vets who are constantly injured or no longer producing (hey Alfonso, Aramis, Kosuke—are your ears burning?).  But the other major market teams (as the Cubs certainly should be considered) the Yankees and Red Sox have never let bad deals stop them from spending their way to the top.  They’ve simply spent more to overcome any bad decision or injury.

Even if Ricketts really doesn’t have the resources right now, which seems hard to believe, he still chose to retain the services of the architect of those criminally short-sighted deals that created the dire situation, Jim Hendry.  If Ricketts was truly concerned about winning he would have jettisoned Hendry as soon as he had the chance.  Instead he gave Hendry his vote of confidence thus endorsing perpetually schizophrenic decision making—vacillating between spending big money to win now and then capping spending to build for the future. Hendry’s fundamental flaw is that he has never been able to pick a lane and we are now seeing the results of his chronic indecision.

So is the plan to act like a major market club and spend what it takes to win, or build for the future? Cubs fans have been stuck in limbo for too long. Ricketts has to decide soon or there will be no future for Cubs fans to look forward to.

In the first two months of the season, the Cubs have had 8 men on the DL at one time or another and at least 3 listed as day-to-day at some point. At one time, the Cubs were down 60% of their rotation (now just 40%) and are currently down 80% of their outfield (Kosuke is the last man standing, so to speak).

Bets are now being taken on Twitter as to who is going to be the next guy on the DL. Five guys in the last ten days. Odds are pretty good that someone is going down.

I think it’s safe to say that the Cubs have been bitten by the injury buy and bitten hard.

Not pictured: GIANT FANGS

“The first thing we have to do is figure out how to spell his name,” Mike Quade said.

Quade said they couldn’t play short-handed without Baker and Reed Johnson, who was placed on the DL Sunday.

“I wanted to see ‘Bake’ hit the other day and I didn’t think he looked as comfortable as he needed to be,” Quade said. “He’d still suck it up for us and still pinch-hit but that leaves us in a pretty tough situation defensively.”

LeMahieu may be asked to fill in at first base if the Cubs need to give Carlos Pena a day off. That was Baker’s job. The other option is Blake DeWitt.

LeMahieu had been told Sunday he was going to be promoted to Triple-A Iowa, and then went fishing with friends. He got a phone call from player development director Oneri Fleita that there had been a change in plans and he was going to Chicago.

“I was like, ‘Did I get traded?’” LeMahieu said. “[Fleita] said, ‘Have you ever heard of Wrigley Field?’”

His father was in Milwaukee and drove down and his mother flew across the country from California to be at Wrigley on Monday.

“I dreamed about this as a kid, like everyone says,” LeMahieu said. “When you’re playing in Double-A, youknow a call might be coming but I don’t think you can ever prepare yourself for the actual call.”

* Matt Garza, on the DL with a right elbow contusion, threw on flat ground Monday and was expected to throw a side on Wednesday. Could he still be ready in St. Louis? “Not out of the question,” Quade said. “I’d like him back as quick as I can get him back.”

* Geovany Soto said he was able to test his leg in his two Minor League games. He was activated from the DL Sunday after being sidelined with a strained left groin.

“I ran for a little bit and whenever I hit the ball,” Soto said Monday. “It felt good. In my head, I was a little concerned. I didn’t want to [re-injur] it or feel it at all and I never did.”

* Players were wearing special Memorial Day caps.

* It was suddenly summer at Wrigley Field on Monday.

“I just like it hot and comfortable,” Quade said. “The hotter the better for me. I believe when the weather warms up, our offense will be better. It’s just a more comfortable situation. It’s good to see the sun.”

– Carrie Muskat

Baker suffered a groin injury when the team was in Boston, and was hit by a pitch on Saturday, but still had difficulty running on Sunday.

Baker will join pitchers Andrew Cashner and Matt Garza and outfielder Marlon Byrd on the disabled list.

Baker was batting .368 overall, .512 against left-handers.

LeMahieu was a second round pick (79th overall) by the Cubs in the 2009 draft. He was batting .358 with 15 doubles, two triples, two homers and 27 runs batted in, in 50 games with the Cubs’ Double-A affiliate, the Tennessee Smokies.

The 22-year old LeMahieu is the first member of the Cubs’ 2009 draft class to make it to the majors.

To make room for LeMahieu on the team has designated Jeff Stevens for assignment.

Baker joins Reed Johnson (back), Marlon Byrd (face), Andrew Cashner (shoulder), and Matt Garza (elbow) on the DL. The Cubs did get Randy Wells back on Saturday and Geovany Soto on Sunday.

More info on DJ: He played second and third with the Smokies, and was hitting .459 against left-handers, .310 vs. right-handers. He’s been red-hot this month, batting .419 in 27 games. He hit second and third in the lineup. What should help the Cubs is he was batting .357 with runners in scoring position.

So far, the Cubs have added Tony Campana, Brad Snyder, Lou Montanez, Welington Castillo, Casey Coleman, Scott Maine, Jeff Stevens, Marcos Mateo and Justin Berg from their Minor League system this year plus acquired pitchers Doug Davis and Rodrigo Lopez. And it’s not yet June.

– Carrie Muskat