It's On

Some will tell you the story from last night's game is Ted Lilly making Jim Hendry look smart. In his first start of the season, Lilly was Maddux-esque. Let's see him do that two or three more times before getting giddy.

But that wasn't the real story.

The real story was the 9th inning. With a three run lead, an no Kerry Wood to turn to, Lou Piniella was forced to give the ball to Ryan Dempster.

Ryan Dempster pitched the ninth for his first save (since August 14, 2006), completing a three-hitter. After he threw a first-pitch ball to Ken Griffey Jr., Piniella went out to the mound with some advice.

"I said it was 30 degrees and it was snowing, get the ball over the plate and you'll win a ballgame," Piniella said.

That's not the whole story. After walking Edwin Encarnación and throwing ball 1 to the left handed Griffey in a spot that would have been behind right handed Derrek Lee's head were he batting, Piniella laced his language a bit more colorfully than what he said to the papers. Dempster settled down and ended the game on a 340 foot pop out.

Dempster has an annoying habit of throwing a lot of balls. It sure seems like Lou knows this and has Dempster on a short leash.

The first returns on the dismissal of Dusty Baker have been realized.