The Friendly Confines have never seemed friendlier, and that’s a big reason why the Cubs (36-21) are the best team in baseball entering June for the first time in 100 years.
Alfonso Soriano homered, Jim Edmonds drove in two runs, and the Cubs beat the reeling Colorado Rockies 5-3 on Sunday to complete a perfect seven-game homestand.
The Cubs entered June with the best record in baseball for the first time since 1908, when they last won a World Series. They started the new month by finishing a four-game sweep of the defending National League champions and sending them to their seventh straight loss.
Chicago is 26-8 at Wrigley Field after wrapping up its first perfect homestand of at least seven games since April 14-26, 1970. Now, they’ll try to establish some momentum away from home.
The road has been far less friendly, and one concern is that they’ve played 11 more games at home than they have on the road.
“At the end of the day, you should play better at home,” second baseman Mark DeRosa said. “I just think the splits and the numbers get skewed. We’ve only been on the road two or three times. You run into one bad road trip, it looks worse than it is.”
The Cubs play 23 of their next 32 games on the road, where they’re 10-13 heading into a seven-game trip to San Diego and L.A.
“We’ll get a pretty good gauge of where we’re at,” manager Lou Piniella said.
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CUBS HITS
Padres pitcher and former Cub Mark Prior will undergo season-ending surgery on his injured right shoulder, the latest medical setback to a once-promising career.
– Rookie Sean Gallagher (3-1) allowed three runs and six hits while striking out a career-high eight batters in 52/3 innings.
– The Cubs gave RHP Carlos Marmol and 1B Derrek Lee the day off. Micah Hoffpauir started at first and batted third for Lee.
– Alfonso Soriano committed his second error when he dropped Todd Helton’s lazy fly to left with two out in the first but threw him out at second.
NEXT SERIES
at San Diego
Monday: 9:05 p.m., CSN. RH Carlos Zambrano (7-1, 2.33) vs. RH Cha Seung Baek (1-1, 5.23)
Tuesday: 9:05 p.m., CSN. RH Jason Marquis (2-3, 4.98) vs. LH Wilfredo Ledezma (0-2, 4.25)
Wednesday: 9:05 p.m., WGN. LH Ted Lilly (5-4, 5.54) vs. RH Greg Maddux (3-4, 3.69)
