The offense came to play in the home opener yesterday as the Cubs defeated the Brewers 9-5. While it wasn't quite a classic Cubs-Brewers slugfest, the day delivered homers from new Cub Xavier Nady, 2B Jeff Baker, and Aramis Ramirez. The Brewers got a longball of their own from noted homersexual Ryan Braun. Dempster gave up all five runs, but pitched well enough to secure the win.

Other good signs:

1. Marlon Byrd was 3-5 with a run scored and an RBI. And he's still not Milton Bradley.

2. The homer by Ramirez snapped an 0 for 17 skid.

3. James Russell, Snork, and Carlos Marmol combined to allow 1 hit (Russell, which did allow a Dempster baserunner to score) and 1 walk (Marmol) over 2.2 innings. Wolter's head explodes in shock.

4. The Cubs managed to put up some big numbers against Doug Davis, a soft tosser who has given them issues in the past.

I can only assume that like the past few years, the offense will continue in this feast or famine fashion. The series continues Wednesday.