Lots of good things to take away from todays 7-6 victory. Randy Wells continued to look great, striking out seven over 6 1/3 innings. Soto finally picked up the right bat and put one onto Waveland. More importantly, he had a great at-bat in the 8th inning that ended with a walk during a rally that started with the Cubs losing 6-3, two outs and nobody on base. Let's hope this trend continues. Even better, the four-run 8th inning came courtesy of one LaTroy Hawkins who, up until now, has looked like a serviceable setup man for the Brewers. Revenge like that is so sweet you could drizzle it over pancakes.

Derrek Lee sat this one out with a sore hand but it's nice to have a guy like Xavier Nady who can step up and hit in his absence. The other new guys (Baker, Byrd, and Colvin) all made good contributions and are making our bench look much better than I thought it would be. Finally, Marmol came in to close out the game and dealt the Brewers some absolutely filthy pitching. His fastball was up around 95 and his slider was bending and twisting in ways that I've only seen in a Canadian strip club. Three Ks later and we could be on our way to the first sweep of the young season.