Henry Blanco had the game-winning hit in Friday's 3-2, 11-inning Cub victory over the Cardinals, but it was Jim Edmonds's two home runs against his former mates that commanded the day's highlight reel.

Back in May when Edmonds was newly a Cub, some jerk set up a sort of Jim Edmonds Death Watch tied to the number of at-bats the centerfielder could accumulate without earning his first RBI in Chicago blue pinstripes. The number reached 26 before Edmonds clubbed his first Cub home run in a 10-9 win over the Rockies, and the fact is, Edmonds has been producing ever since. Heading into Friday's action, Edmonds's offensive numbers as a Cub were .279 AVG/.381 OBP/.588 SLG/969 OPS. In 56 games, he has hit 14 HR and collected 38 RBI.

Moreover, coupling Edmonds's offense with that of fellow centerfielder Reed Johnson (.299/.363/.444), the Cubs have gotten the second best productivity in the NL from a position that looked like a potential offensive sinkhole for them back on Opening Day, when it was manned by non-hitting Felix Pie.

Here's a look at the offense, as measured by OPS, which National League teams have gotten from their respective centerfielders (team's primary CF is in parens):

1. St. Louis (Rick Ankiel) 854
2. CUBS (Jim Edmonds) 853
3. San Diego (Jody Gerut) 844
4. Pittsburgh (Nate McLouth) 835
5. Philadelphia (Shane Victorino) 828
6. New York (Carlos Beltran) 795
7. Milwaukee (Mike Cameron) 791
8. Atlanta (Mark Kotsay) 749
9. San Francisco (Aaron Rowand) 739
10. Arizona (Chris Young) 721
11. Washington (Lastings Milledge) 718
12. Florida (Cody Ross) 715
13. Cincinnati (Corey Patterson) 698
14. Colorado (Willy Taveras) 658
15. Los Angeles (Matt Kemp) 621
16. Houston (Michael Bourn) 590

With Wednesday afternoon's resounding 11-4 win over the Astros, the Cubs completed the 20-games-in-20-days gauntlet that awaited them following the All-Star break.

Here is how Lou Piniella's team fared in that stretch, which commenced with a Friday night game in Houston back on July 18th:

Won: 12
Lost: 8
Runs Scored: 108 (5.4/game)
Runs Allowed: 71 (3.6/game)

Some impressive individual numbers...

Alfonso Soriano, who didn't even return from the Disabled List until July 23rd and so, only played in 15 of the 20 games, has helped reinvigorate the Cub offense during this span by going 23-for-66 (.348) with 6 HR and 15 RBI. Reed Johnson, who saw extra playing time while Jim Edmonds rested his banged up body, went a scorching 17-for-36 (.472) with 3 HR and 9 RBI.

Newcomer Rich Harden, despite getting cuffed around by the Astros on Tuesday, posted some stunning figures in his four starts, like 37 strikeouts against just 6 walks in 24 2/3 IP with a 669 OPS Against. And Harden's fellow former Oakland Athletic, reliever Chad Gaudin, earned 3 of the Cubs' 12 victories in the 20 games, with 16 strikeouts, 3 walks, and a handsome 1.80 ERA over 10 innings.

Finally, the standings facts...

Cubs' position at beginning of 20 games: 1st, +4.5 games over St. Louis; +5 over Milwaukee
Cubs' position at end of 20 games: 1st, +5 over Milwaukee (12-8 in this period), +5.5 over St. Louis (11-9)

Obviously it would have been swell if the Cubs had been able to separate themselves from their two NL Central rivals over these past 20 games. On the other hand, neither team was able to bite into the Cubs' advantage at the All-Star break and there are now 20 fewer games remaining on the teams' regular season slates, which has a lot to do with this piece of arithmetic:

By the reckoning of ESPN and coolstandings.com, the Cubs currently have an 81.4% probability of winning the division and a 94.6% likelihood of making the post-season.

Is it reasonable to reduce a three-hour, thirty-minute ballgame to a pair of ground balls that, combined, consumed all of 20 or 25 seconds of the evening?

Of course not, but here goes:

The telling moments for me in Tuesday night's 3-2 Cub defeat at Tampa were Neil Cotts's seventh-inning throwing error on a ball hit by Akinori Iwamura, which set up the Rays' ultimately critical insurance run, and of course, the play that Evan Longoria and Willy Aybar made on Reed Johnson's bunt with two outs and the tying run just ninety feet away in the top of the ninth.

It really is true that the same kinds of mistakes that can easily be overcome against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals of the world can be backbreakers against a good team like the Red Sox or the Angels or the Phillies or, hard as it is to believe, the Tampa Bay Rays.

Based on a tip from Inside The Ivy, The Cub Reporter has posted the news that Matt Murton is on his way to Chicago, presumably to replace Eric Patterson, who would be sent to Triple-A Iowa, from whence he came earlier this week.

Patterson was hitless in four at-bats in today's 3-2 victory over the Pirates and struck out in three of his five PA's since the recall.

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Going into Friday's game with the Pirates, here is the Cubs' offensive production by batting order position (stats for each position are AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS):

1. Soriano (11 games), Fontenot (2), Theriot (2) -- .194/.237/.306/543
2. Johnson 6 G, Theriot 5 G, Soriano 2 G -- .225/.267/.352/619
3. Lee (15) -- .379/.432/.742/1174
4. Ramirez (15) -- .224/.352/.431/783
5. Fukudome (13) -- .300/.408/.417/825
6. DeRosa (13), Soto (2) -- .321/.449/.643/1092
7. Sot0 (9), Theriot (3) -- .339/.415/.482/897
8. Pie (6), Theriot (3), Blanco (3) -- .175/.238/.193/431
9. Lilly (4), Zambrano (4), Dempster (3) -- .245/.310/.321/631

The Tribune is reporting that Reed Johnson, who had a career-high four hits on Thursday, two more hits on Friday, and is now hitting .375, will get a shot at the leadoff spot on Saturday, when the Cubs go up against Pittsburgh lefty Tom Gorzelanny.

Stats: Bill James Online