Saturday's all right for fighting too

Things we learned in Saturday's 1-0 win over the Cubs:

1. Justin Hampson's role is apparently that of the long reliever who takes over after your starter is ejected early on.

2. Hiram Bocachica may not be a great player anytime soon but his throw out of Ryan Theriot at home in the fifth inning means he was worth picking up on waivers - even if he does nothing else all year.

3. Cubs fans are still paranoid about bad luck and apparently the entire city feels the need to tell everyone not to touch the ball.

4. I would never want to get in a fight with a guy who is 6'10" - and Derreck Lee shouldn't either. If Chris Young had connected, Lee wouldn't have gotten close enough to throw another punch.

5. The score keeper at Wrigley Field is very generous. How do you have two or three scoring opportunities without a hit? Carlos Zambrano took a no hitter into the eighth with a lot of help from the score keeper. I am surprised though, I half expected Marcus Giles' infield single to be ruled an error as well.

6. Is anyone else glad we have Russell Branyan in our lineup? I don't see him play much but when he does play, it seems like he makes an impact. I'm glad he hit his home run in the ninth and it's nice to know we have that kind of insurance on the roster.

Well, those are enough lessons for now. Greg Maddux takes the hill against his former team while the surprising Rich Hill will finish the series off for the Cubs.

Finding consistency

Thanks to struggling Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Mike Cameron, the Padres opened their series with the Cubs with a 5-1 win at home. The trio each had a home run off of Cubs pitcher Rich Hill - Cameron had two - and helped the Padres jump out to an early lead.

Jake Peavy then went into cruise control and kept the Cubs at bay, even though he only struck out a pedestrian six batters by his standards. It was also nice to see the Padres hit four home runs in a single game at Petco, considering people use words like "cavernous" and "pitcher's park" to describe it.

It's also great to see the guys five games above .500 now and have now won four of their last five. Game two against the Cubs will feature David Wells against Ted Lilly. I have a feeling the first one to seven runs will win this one.