Behind the power arms of Zambrano (above), Rich Hill and Lilly and a solid D, the Cubs were 29-15 since June 3. Al Tielemans/SI

• Koyie Hill, one of six catchers who have started for the Cubs in 2007 and a guy who was barely hitting his IQ, drove in five runs on Wednesday in the Cubs' 12-1 thrashing of the San Francisco Giants. Chicago scored seven runs after two were out, a trend that extended throughout this homestand. Of the Cubs' 56 runs in the 10 games, 25 came with two outs. "It's a little contagious," manager Lou Piniella says, "and it demoralizes the other team a little bit."

• The following day, Barry Bonds hits two Ruthian home runs -- a shot over the rightfield bleachers onto Sheffield Avenue and a homer to left center into the teeth of a 15-to-20-mph wind -- but the Cubs hung on to win 9-8. (The Chicago Sun-Times headline the next morning: NINE BEATS A PAIR OF JACKS.) Jacque Jones, trade bait in June, had four hits. Cliff Floyd, shaken moments earlier in a collision at first with Giants pitcher Matt Morris, sprinted home from second on a passed ball before leaving the game at the end of the inning. Cubs starter Ted Lilly singled with two outs in the fifth, swiped second for the first stolen base of his career and scored the eighth run on Alfonso Soriano's double. Chicago had five run-scoring hits after two were out. "For April and May," Floyd said, still dazed after the win, "I think we had five total."

• In his team's first 97 games, Piniella had used 84 different lineups, just none as different as the one he used last Friday against the Diamondbacks and 2006 Cy Young winner Brandon Webb. Piniella gave first baseman Scott Moore, called up from Triple A Iowa earlier that day, his first big league start of the season and used batboy-sized second baseman Mike Fontenot in the third spot in the lineup for the first time in Fontenot's career. Asked what advice he received from Lee, the normal No. 3 hitter, who was serving a five-game suspension for a June 16 fight with San Diego Padres' pitcher Chris Young, Fontenot replied, "Hit some singles and steal some bases."

He singled twice and stole two. Fontenot and Theriot, the flying Frenchman, also were attempting a double steal in the eighth inning when third baseman Aramis Ramirez laid into a hanging, 1-2 curve for a three-run homer that produced the final margin, Cubs 6, Diamondbacks 2. Firewagon baseball. "I was talking to some Diamondbacks guys before the game, and they're like, 'The wind's blowing in today,' and I said, 'That's 80 percent of the time,' " says third base coach Mike Quade, a native of suburban Chicago. "If you think Wrigley Field is an offensive paradise, well, no. When you've got kids like Fontenot and Theriot and Angel [Pagan, a second-year outfielder] who can run, you can execute some [strategy]."

In his first spring training press conference in February, Piniella, lured back to the dugout from the broadcast booth at age 63, introduced the phrase "Cubbie swagger," which seemed a contradiction in terms. Although the Cubs at last had weaned themselves from their dependence on eternally brittle starters Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, they were also coming off a 96-loss season. Despite general manager Jim Hendry's taking on $300 million in contract commitments over the winter -- including $136 million to sign Soriano for eight years and $75 million to keep Ramirez for five -- it still did not seem like enough to erase a century-long institutional memory of losing.

Piniella, hopeful, spoke of a "change of culture." Of course, he also committed the faux pas of placing the White Sox on the city's North Side and referred to the Magnificent Mile as the "Michigan Mile," but anybody can make mistakes, which is what the Cubs proceeded to do for the season's first two months.