Remember when we were looking forward to Houston series filled with marquee matchups? Clemens-Maddux, Prior-Pettitte, Miller-Zambrano? Pettitte is now out for the season, Clemens will likely miss a start, and a suspension to Wood means we get a weekend filled with Munro, Rusch, and Backe. Sunday will see a good matchup, though, as Wood returns to face Oswalt.

As unfathomable as it seems, here are the standings among the top dogs in the NL Central:

TEAM      W  L   GB
-------------------
St. Louis 78 42  - 
Chicago   65 55  13.0 
Houston   60 60  18.0

Chicago has underperformed a bit, Houston's been a huge disappointment, and the Cards have outdone expectations. And even though in the end it is no solace, Baseball Prospectus's third-order standings—a measure of how each team would normally be expected to fare given its offensive and pitching performances—shows a closer race (results before yesterday's games):

TEAM      W  L   GB
-------------------
St. Louis 73 46  -
Chicago   69 50  4
Houston   62 56  10.5

In fact, the Cubs' third-order record is the second-best in the National League, and the third-best in all of baseball (behind the Yanks and Cards).

While this doesn't mean squat in the actual standings, it does offer a glimmer of hope for the team down the stretch. If the Cubs are actually as good as BP's stats indicate, their record for the remainder of the season may better reflect their run differential. It's another reason to like the Cubs' chances in the Wild Card race.

Friday
7:05 pm, FSN
Pete Munro (vs. Cubs) (2-4, 4.24 ERA, 41 K/15 BB) vs. Glendon Rusch (vs. Astros) (5-1, 4.04, 63/22)

Saturday
6:05 pm, WGN
Brandon Backe (vs. Cubs) (1-1, 5.32, 15/8) vs. Mark Prior (vs. Astros) (3-3, 4.97, 74/29)

Sunday
1:05 pm, WGN
Roy Oswalt (vs. Cubs) (13-8, 3.44, 159/42) vs. Kerry Wood (vs. Astros) (7-5, 2.91, 94/34)

Key head-to-head matchups:

Alou vs. Miceli: 5-16, 313/333/688, 3 2B, 1 HR
Patterson vs. Oswalt: 12-32, 375/375/688, 2 HR
Sosa vs. Hernandez: 4-10, 400/538/700, 1 HR, 3 BB, 3 K
Sosa vs. Weathers: 11-28, 393/438/786, 3 HR
Lee vs. Miceli: 0-8, 000/000/000, 4 K
Lee vs. Oswalt: 3-19, 158/158/263, 7 K
Lee vs. Weathers: 1-12, 083/421/083, 6 BB
Sosa vs. Oswalt: 4-28, 143/143/286, 1 HR, 13 K
Walker vs. Oswalt: 6-33, 182/206/242, 9 K

Bagwell vs. Dempster: 11-29, 379/538/724, 3 HR, 9 BB
Bagwell vs. Mercker: 8-22, 364/360/864, 3 HR
Beltran vs. Hawkins: 7-21, 333/391/667, 2 HR
Berkman vs. Dempster: 9-24, 375/516/875, 4 HR, 7 BB
Kent vs. Mercker: 11-27, 407/448/704, 2 HR
Kent vs. Rusch: 8-17, 471/550/824, 1 HR
Kent vs. Wood: 11-24, 458/522/1083, 4 HR, 5 BB, 6 K
Vizcaino vs. Prior: 7-17, 412/444/882, 2 HR
Ausmus vs. Farnsworth: 2-13, 154/214/154, 3 K
Ausmus vs. Hawkins: 3-15, 200/235/200
Biggio vs. Farnsworth: 4-23, 174/296/304, 1 HR, 10 K
Kent vs. Farnsworth: 2-14, 143/143/214, 4 K

Note: Jeff Bagwell got a cortisone shot yesterday and was unavailable last night. No word yet on whether he'll play tonight.