The above jpg was swiped from the erudite gent behind Bloody, Vile Excrement.

At Wrigley this afternoon, Matt Murton just hit a solo HR off Cincy’s Elizardo Ramírez, and the Cubs lead the Reds, 4-2 in the bottom of the 6th. Plenty of time for the Cubs’ pen to blow it for Kerry Wood, then.

Earlier today in Cleveland, the White Sox teed off on the Indians’ “Jump Off A” Cliff Lee (2.2 IP, 8 hits, 7 earned runs), winning 11-0. Jim Thome (above), Paul Konerko and Juan Uribe all went deep off Lee, with Thome adding a 2 run blast off noted Mike Piazza punching bag Guillermo Mota. Thome has 20 homers on the young season and it is very safe to say that someday, he might be as prodigious a hitter as Ryan Howard. Javier Vazquez, Neil Cotts and Jeff Nelson combined on the 2 hit shutout.

Another AL Central club could only manage a pair of hits today, as Randy Johnson, Ron Villone and Kyle Farnsworth toyed with the Tigers in a 4-0 Yankees win. Johnson had a no-hitter through 5 and 2/3rds before allowing a single to Ivan Rodriguez. Derek Jeter left the game in the 5th inning ; the NY shortstop jammed his right hand while sliding into 2nd during the 3rd inning. It was just yesterday that John Sterling solemnly pronounced that “we’ll never see another one like him” when extolling Jeter’s virtues as the greatest living human. Perhaps the YES mouthpiece oughta consider the way he tempts fate with such superlatives.