On a day when the Big Unit was supposed to be traded and wasn't, maybe Mark Prior and Eric Milton ditched plans to watch video of the opposing batters in favor of a screening of the infamous Randy-Johnson-Kills-Dove incident. Maybe they both plotted, "If we can't hit a dove in front of home plate, maybe we can down one above the ivy."

How else to explain the endless stream of fly balls in the first game of the weekend series with the Phillies?

Mark Prior got his outs like this:

flyout
strikeout
foulout
strikeout
strikeout
strikeout
flyout
flyout
flyout
flyout
flyout
lineout
strikeout

For those of you counting, that's not a ball on the ground -- a 0-8 groundball-flyball ratio, and that's not even including the four home runs he allowed. Prior was more of a groundball pitcher last year, but was also flyballish in 2002, so who knows what his true calling is. Milton, for his sake, also allowed a bunch of flyballs as well, with three of them leaving the yard.

It was nice to see the Cubs:

a) score a lot of runs

b) score them against Milton a week after he almost no-hit them

c) score them in a comeback effort

As I write this, the Padres are getting crushed and the Cardinals are beating the Giants. Is it mildly depressing to root for the Cardinals to beat up the rest of the league in order to better the Cubs' chances of making the playoffs?

If the west coast games hold up, the Cubs will enter tomorrow's trading deadline in second in the Wild Card race, only a game back of the Padres.

Padres    -
Cubs      1
Giants    2
Marlins   5
Phils     5
Astros    6
Reds      6

We'll see shortly if the Cubs add anyone before the first of the trading deadlines -- according to all the chatter here and there, it seems that Orlando Cabrera is the guy with the best chance of being a Cub come Sunday.