The Wrigley Field vines are turning colors earlier than usual, the kids are getting ready to go back to school and the Cubs finally are starting to get their act together.
It’s beginning to look a lot like summer’s end in 2003, when a late-season push propelled the Cubs into one of the wildest postseason runs in franchise history.
Whether it’s all a mirage is unknown at this point, but the Cubs’ 13-4 victory over Milwaukee on a rainy Tuesday night at Wrigley looked mighty convincing.
“We always knew we had a good lineup,” Moises Alou said. “I guess we needed a wake-up call. Time is running out, a playoff chance is right there. Let’s go take it.”
Alou homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs, Derrek Lee hit a grand slam and Aramis Ramirez added a solo shot to give Matt Clement all the runs he needed . . . and more.
Clement (9-11) won for the first time since beating Milwaukee on July 26, and for the first time at Wrigley since June 8, when he beat St. Louis.
“For the first time this year, we’re all together as a unit,” Clement said. “In my mind, it’s nice we’re building momentum, going out and getting good starts in a row.”
The Cubs have scored 60 runs in their last seven games, winning six of them. That qualifies as their first extended hot streak since June 12-17, when they captured six straight on a trip to Anaheim and Houston.
With Florida pounding San Francisco 9-1, the Cubs took a one-game lead over the Giants in the National League wild-card hunt. On Wednesday they will go for their first three-game sweep at home since taking three from the White Sox July 2-4, with Greg Maddux facing left-hander Doug Davis in the final game of the season series.
In Clement’s previous 13 starts, the Cubs had scored a total of 25 runs, leaving him with a 1-7 record and five no-decisions despite a 3.15 ERA.
They hadn’t scored more than four runs for Clement in any single outing in those 13 starts since June 13, and he entered Tuesday’s start with the fourth-worst run support (3.78 runs per nine innings) of any National League starter.
But Alou’s three-run homer to left onto Waveland Avenue in the first and Lee’s grand slam in the second, both off Chris Capuano, gave Clement a 7-0 lead. Ramirez’s shot in the third and Alou’s two-run homer in the fourth, his 31st, made it 10-0.
Alou is on pace to break his career high of 38 home runs, set in 1998 with Houston. Sammy Sosa has led the Cubs in home runs for the last 11 seasons, but at age 38, Alou looks like he could break the streak.
Clement started out with four hitless innings, conjuring up visions of Monday night, when Carlos Zambrano carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. But Brady Clark broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff double in the fifth and scored on Bill Hall’s two-run homer.
Scott Podsednik added a two-run shot later in the inning, and Clement suddenly looked out of sync, rushing his pitches.
“Don’t go out there and try and mess with Mother Nature and hurry up,” Clement said. “I was doing fine at the pace I was pitching at.”
With two on, Clement reared back and struck out Russell Branyan and Geoff Jenkins to get out of the inning. He allowed four runs in six innings before being removed after 113 pitches.
With seven starts remaining, Clement is ready to look forward and forget the stretch of little or no support.
“The past is the past for me,” Clement said. “This is the fun time of the year.”
Double-digit delights
The Cubs have scored 10 or more runs 15 times through 125 games this season, on pace for 19 for the 2004 campaign, the most in recent memory. A look back through the 1984 season:
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YEAR W-L
2004 14-1
2003 9-0
2002 10-2
2001 16-0
2000 12-2
1999 9-1
1998 16-1
1997 7-0
1996 15-0
1995 11-0
1994* 6-0
1993 12-4
1992 5-1
1991 5-2
1990 10-1
1989 9-1
1988 8-0
1987 6-1
1986 6-1
1985 7-3
1984 16-0
*-strike-shortened year
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