A quick timeout from the Cubs to consider other news on the Chicago sports scene...

Longtime sourpuss columnist Jay Mariotti announced on Wednesday that he had resigned his position at the Chicago Sun-Times, a development which occasioned a pointed reaction from Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke. Per Phil Rosenthal in the Tribune:

Cooke issued a decidedly unsentimental statement concerning Mariotti's exit..."We wish Jay well and will miss him--not personally, of course--but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days."

The irony of all this is twofold.

First, the Sun-Times agreed with Mariotti on a contract extension until 2011 less than three months ago.

Second, Cooke's brief statement is more memorable than anything Mariotti has written in the past 17 years.

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With Wednesday's 2-0 win at Pittsburgh, the Cubs finished the fleshy underbelly part of their late-season schedule—a sequence of three series and nine games against the Reds, Nationals, and Pirates—with seven wins and two losses and a six-game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central. Now the Cubs have to get back to work.

On Thursday, the team will open a four-game set against the Phillies at Wrigley Field. Though the Phils lost to the Mets Wednesday to fall a half-game behind New York in the N.L. East race, they will come to Chicago still able to lay claim to a distinction unique so far this year in the National League:

The Phillies are the only team to enjoy an edge in their season series with the Cubs. (Charlie Manuel's team took two of three from Lou Piniella's boys at Citizens Bank Park back in mid-April.)