Looking for a good game tonight from Soto...he's really going to open some eyes tonight. I hope Kosuke doesn't bail on pitches like he has been lately. I think Z will pitch two solid innings, and Soto and Rammy will go yard.

Finally, I think that an All Star game made up of players that the fans picked (including some players who are NOT the best at their positions), that "counts" in determining the world series winner is, in a word, ridiculous.

Let's go Cub All Stars!!!!

Agree Scott about the fans voting thing yet looking at the NL lineup who would u change? The only thing i really see is Sori starting instead of Fukudome but he is obviously hurt...nothing against fuk and i hate braun but he and holliday are cleary deserving of starting no matter who picks the lineup

Hey CCO and posters...I just wanted to let you all know that this is a great place to share with great people. You have no Idea how much this rocks and how much I enjoy this first half with you all! Thanks and lets have a great 2nd half!

Let's Go NL, Let's Go!!!!

Hello everyone.

huge game for us tonight.

Aaron, come on out tonight bro!

The pre-game was awesome! All of those players and The Boss

Let's see how Soto calls behind the plate, working with pitchers he'd never worked with before.

And I also hope that Sheets don't overthrow those breaking balls and hurt our young cannon's "spots" down the girdle~

:-D

Go CubS!!!

I second the writer above who says:

You have no Idea how much this rocks and how much I enjoy this first half with you all! Thanks and lets have a great 2nd half!

Between the live MLB coverage & the liveblogging on this site, even we Cubs fans down here in Oz can feel like we're part of it.

EAMUS CATULI

GO CUBS GO!

I really don't like this YES color analyst. He's misguiding his audience: "Lee has become a power pitcher." Huh? He's all about control, lady!

Just a thought but Soto should "accidentally" throw the ball at Sheets next time he throws to second...haha jk jk

Can't wait for Z to come in

Nathan, K-Rod, Papelbon, Rivera....

The NL better score some runs early

That was quick.

Neil is looking forward to seeing MSZ

NL -- 42 pitches in 2, AL - 34 in 3 --- classic difference between the 2 leagues. tis why pitcher ERA's get elevated when they go there.....

This is a really stupid question i am sure but i obviously missed something - what is the MSZ (I know it is referring to Z but the MS?)

NIce Sinker Z

Faced the minimum....not bad!

Matt came up with it based on a comment I made in Spring Training about all of the weight Zambrano lost in the offseason. I said Big Z looked more like Medium Sized Z...MSZ

Ahh dah i remember hearing that...thanks for refreshing my memory Neil

Matt came up with it based on a comment I made in Spring Training about all of the weight Zambrano lost in the offseason. I said Big Z looked more like Medium Sized Z...MSZ

Z has a good inning behind him. Soto's doing fine. Dome caught the flyball 3rd out in CF. Our guys are learning that they can do it on the biggest stage they've ever been on. This experience for all the Cubs will be a plus in the post season, and maybe our biggest take away from this game.

What a thrill to see 49 Hall of Famers on the field in Yankee stadium. If this event doesn't get your heart beating a little faster and bring some tears of joy to your eyes, have someone call the undertaker. Let's go Nationals!!!

Z striking out Arod reminds me of his book when he said he knew he could pitch in the bigs when he struck Arod out early in his career...nice pitch to Manny too HAHAHA

Nice job Z, picking off Bradley at 1st!!

Z with the pickoff!!!!!

Picked OFF!!! MUAHAHAH

I heard Colorado entertaining trade offers for Holliday.... How about the rest of the Iowa Cubs roster for him??

Z dominates in a second inning, and Lou congratulates Holliday for hitting one out. I'm expecting Aram to win it for the NL with another home run in the 8th or 9th.

Believe it or not, if this pitching duel keeps going:

1. Marmol won't get a chance to come up
2. Z will get his Win (thanks, Holliday, you made Yanks Stadium looked like Coors Field!)

And of coure, Z's "knuckleball" to Manny B would be remembered as the best pitch of the night!
:-D

If this is a preview Zambrano's performance on the big stage, I can't wait for the post season. Fukudome and Soto's ABs on the other hand, were rather less than Allstellar.

Oh No!! The AL has Ted Williams' frozen head mounted on a ski pole with a bat in his teeth. But his eyes are closed. They'e going to plant the pole in the batter's box. I hope we can hold him to a double and that there's nobody on .

I hope A Ram Tees off against Papelbon. That way Papelbon will have that running through his head during the World Series.

Honestly speaking, I really can't like Russell Martin's call behind the plate since day 1. He's not asking anyone (esp. Volquez) to work the count, but always away, away, low, away, and away.

That's not the way to keep Z's win in here, and no, it's gone: JD Drew Homered tie.

:-(

Well that stunk....

To Russell Martin:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

You know, low and away isn't evangelical, and Longoria just proved you...

Man, Hurdle needs to get another catcher in!

Russell Martin is overrated. They need to put in McCann.

Aram needed one more hittable pitch. I'm disappointed that Hurdle put in a pinch runner for him. Hopefully, we score, but it looks like Dempster gets to be the hero with 2 innings of relief while the offense scratches out a run.

Dempster is lights out. Holy cow! 3 up and 3 down

Dempster!!! Struck out the side!

Three K's for Dempster in the 9th. Sweeeeet!! It looks like D will only get 1 inning. We need a run, said Mr. Obvious. Maybe Tejada hits one out since he is familiar with Rivera.

Oh well, at least we got to see Marmol on...

Well, it's Aaron Cook, and he's blowing it...

Excuse me, I made a mistake. Cook pitched fine. But Uggla (second baseman, Marlins) errored twice... WTF?!

Two errors by Dan Uggla!!!!!

Seems to me that Pinella should walk out to second base and knee Uggla in the balls. I do not even want to know what would happen if a Cubs player did that.

OMG! how did he get out of that? this is amazing stuff guys...maybe the best all-star week ever and if not right up there with Hamilton's show last night and then this game tonight...Great Stuff on a Great Stage!

most incredible inning I've ever seen in my life by a pitcher...I wanna trade for Aaron Cook right now

Sure would be nice to see Aram up in this spot...

Cook should not be in there... does not strike out enough people for my taste.
You can not afford to keep putting leadoff hitters on.

Amazing play!

They were lucky Navarro is slow as hell.

The Cook critics aren't watching the same game I am. Man, This is a ball game. Somehow we have to score the winning run!!

If ever a guy owed his team a hit, it's tonight's goat Uggla. Uggla K's with the worst AB since Kruk's against the Big Unit several year's ago.

I did not say Cook was bad... just putting 2 leadoff hitters on in a row is not good.

3 in a row now

Our luck and grit continues. Will we see Webb or Marmol--or both? Please NL. Find a way to score a run!!

3!?!?!

Another error by Uggla....

man, you just knew that Ugglas would figure into this negatively somehow....and to have one of our pitchers on the mound makes it worse

White Castle just grew up with an outstanding inning in the All Star Game. I'm pleased with our guys tonight.

Too bad we did not do much offensively

JimK,

I'm pleased with everyone except for "flail away" Fukudome.....He's been just awful of late, as teams have definitely figured him out. Early in the season he was doing what I call the drag hit, much like Ichiro, where all of his weight is going toward where the second baseman normally plays. Now, he's been bailing on pitches, and his weight is going almost exclusively toward the first baseman, or even worse, toward the first base dugout.

I hate to say it, because he's one of ours, but he did not belong in the All-Star game, and I think that's fairly hard to argue that he would be, given other more deserving player's stats. He made it because of the fan vote...which, I admit, I voted for him, just because he was one of ours, and I really liked his early season performance.

This is a game of adjustments though, and he hasn't made many. If he remains patient at the plate, teams will and have figured out that if you just throw him a first pitch strike, then throw him several sweeping breaking balls, you'll have him bailing.

Anyway, what a nice performance by Marmol out there getting out of Uggla's jam, ARAM drawing a walk, and did anyone else get the feeling that Soto's drive in his first AB was going out? Immediately when he hit the ball, I jumped up out of my seat, but I guess he caught it on the end of the bat.

I agree Jim....

forgot about Z and Dempster...man, there's more A-Stars than we ever had, so it's hard to keep track....Dempster, man, gotta hand it to him. 3 straight K's. WOW....and they weren't cheap either.

Forgive me, but this game reminds me of the Afgahn tribal beauty contest. Nobody won. Speaking of Uggla, maybe now he gets an important hit.

Poor Uggla makes it a perfectly disasterous night with a strike out. Gonzalez doesn't look good against lefties--at least tonight. Let's hope we play 16.

So we have to win the series not having home field advantage. That's alright with me. Good night sports fans who stuck this one out for 15 innings.

As long as we won the series, I wouldn't complain because Uggla helped the AL!

Thanks, JimK, see you Friday~

Well, when we go to the Series, we could win at home during game #4 or #5!

Garbage

Uggla was ugly and cost the NL the home field advantage. We will just have to win it any way!