Odds and ends that occurred to me while listening to the Cubs struggle against the Reds late on a Wednesday night, when odds and ends are the best I can come up with...

The Cubs are in the middle of one of those high-scoring, Wrigley Field free-for-alls, which, while enormously entertaining, the Cubs seem to almost always lose. (I don't have any actual numbers to back me up on that; my feeling is no doubt affected by specific memories of this fiasco, in which Dave Kingman's three home runs went for naught, and also this mess, when the Cubs found a way to squander a 12-1, third-inning lead. And I always had such high hopes for Mike Garman...)

Earlier this evening, the Cardinals humbled the Brewers for the second game in a row, and whether or not the Cubs manage to win this slugfest against the Reds--tied 9-9 in the seventh inning at this writing--the Cards now appear to be in the NL Central race to stay. As for the Brutal Crew, Yovani Gallardo, who I wrote glowingly about when he first assumed injured Ben Sheets's spot in the starting rotation, has now gone 1-2 with a 10.35 ERA (no joke) in his last four starts.

The Brewers are playing like hell, yet they're still 1 1/2 games up on the Cubs...which, I'm afraid, says a whole bunch about the Cubs.

Len Kasper just reported that the Cubs signed their first round pick and the third pick overall in the June amateur players draft, third baseman Josh Vitters from Cypress High School in Anaheim. Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts called Vitters "the best high school hitter in the draft this year." He has also been called "a future middle of the order hitter with 30-plus home run power and a .290-.300 hitter."

Oh, look at that: Tom Dressen is tonight's seventh-inning-stretch singer. Adrian Zmed must have been booked.