Marlins 6 Cubs 9

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Box score. The elusive offense returns, and the Cubs get homers from Soriano (three-run shot) and Lee (solo shot) and doubles from Theriot, Fontenot, and Aramis, and 9 runs on 12 total hits.  The Cubs went down 5-0 early, but manage to battle back and win an important game on a day where both Milwaukee and St. Louis lost.  The Cubs will now head to Milwaukee for a key series, up one on the Brewers and up four on the Cardinals.

Marquis was awful, and was doing nothing except grooving fastballs to the free-swinging, MLB home run leading Marlins.  The relievers, Gaudin for an inning and Samardzija for two, were perfect, thankfully.

A funny moment in today’s game.  Dan Uggla smashed a home run onto Waveland in the 5th, which was caught by resident ballhawk Dave Davidson (who blogs here).  Dave was caught on national TV switching the baseball out, and launching a replacement ball back onto the field.  This is pretty standard practice for ballhawks.  (Ballhawks are those guys with gloves, standing usually on the corner of Waveland and Kenmore, waiting for home runs during BP and the games.)  Game home runs are rare, and more so now after the bleacher expansion, and highly prized.  Being a former ballhawk for a few months, I can understand.  I caught 5 batting practice home runs, and certainly wouldn’t have thrown back a gamer had a I been lucky enough to snag one.  Plus, why give the real ball back to an opposing player, if it’s a significant piece of memorabilia, like a player’s first big league home run?  Incidentally, Dave is the same guy who caught Barry Bonds’s home run #752 on Sheffield:

Even Hot Dog Guy got some air time.  All in all, the broadcast made me homesick for Lakeview.