Rich Harden tied a season-high with 11 strikeouts & helped the Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 6-1 on Sunday afternoon from Wrigley Field.

The victory gives the Cubs their eight consecutive series win, which has not been done since 1937. It also makes the Cubbies MLB’s first team to 80 wins.

Why is this important? The 2007 Boston Red Sox became baseball’s first team to win 80 games last season & wound up winning the World Series.

Theriot then stole 2nd base during Aramis Ramirez’s at-bat, who hit a grounder to Bergmann after trying to check his swing with 2 strikes.

Daryle Ward then popped out to Ryan Zimmerman at 3rd base to end the scoring threat.

Mark DeRosa then went deep for the 4th consecutive game in the 2nd inning, a solo homer (18th of season) to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

DeRosa now becomes the first Cub to homer in 4 straight games since Fred McGriff did it in September of 2001.

Jim Edmonds then drew a walk against Bergmann & Geovany Soto followed with a 2-run homer (19th of season) to give Chicago a 3-0 lead.

Soto’s blast tied the franchise’s all-time rookie home run record, which was set by Randy Hundley in 1966.

Washington then got on the board in the top of the 3rd inning on Austin Kearns’ lead-off solo homer (7th of season) to make it a 3-1 Cub lead.

The Nationals then threanted to cut their deficit even more in the top of the 5th inning after Ronnie Belliard hit a lead-off single against Cubs starter Rich Harden.

3 batters later, Belliard was then able to advance to 2nd on Harden’s wild pitch during Anderson Hernandez’s at-bat, who flied to Jim Edmonds in centerfield to end the scoring threat.

The Cubs then put together another scoring rally in the bottom of the 6th inning after Aramis Ramirez hit a bloop lead-off double against Bergmann.

Daryle Ward hit an infield pop fly to Ryan Zimmerman at 3rd & Mark DeRosa struck out before Jim Edmonds ended the scoring threat with his groundout to Ronnie Belliard at 1st base.

Chicago then tried to add onto their lead in the bottom of the 7th inning after Mike Fontenot hit a 1-out double against Bergmann.

Pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome then delivered a 2-run homer (9th of season) off Nationals reliever Steve Shell, which gave the Cubs a 5-1 lead.

Alfonso Soriano then reached 1st base safely on a throwing error by Nationals 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman before Ryan Theriot followed with a single, putting runners at the corners with just 1 out for Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez was able to beat out a routine double-play ball, which scored Soriano from 3rd base & gave Chicago a 6-1 lead.

Washington then put together a big scoring rally in the top of the 8th inning after Austin Kearns reached 1st base safely on a throwing error by Aramis Ramirez at 3rd base.

2 batters later, pinch-hitter Ryan Langerhans walked against Cubs setup man Carlos Marmol, which put runners at 1st & 2nd with 2 outs for Willie Harris.

Harris singled to load the bases with 2 outs for Cristian Guzman, who struck out looking to end the scoring threat.

Jeff Samardzija pitched a scoreless 9th inning to end the game & give the Cubs their 8th consecutive series win, which is a first for a franchise since 1937.

Rich Harden (4-1) wins his 3rd consecutive start for the Cubs after pitching 7 innings & allowing just 1 run on 2 hits while tying out a season-high with 11 strikeouts.

Jason Bergmann (2-10) takes the loss for the Nationals after allowing 4 runs on 4 hits in 6 1/3 innings of work.

The Cubs will now head to Pittsburgh & face the Pirates in a 3-game series beginning Monday evening at 6:05 PM cst at PNC Park, as southpaw Ted Lilly (12-7, 4.25) will be opposed by Pittsburgh righthander Jeff Karstens (2-2, 2.25).

The Cubs have won 5 of Lilly’s last 6 starts dating back to July 23rd at Arizona, while Lilly has gone 2-1 in 4 August starts with a 3.04 ERA.

Karstens started his season by throwing 15 consecutive scoreless innings, but has suffered losses in each of his last 2 starts after allowing 8 runs in 13 innings of work.

One of Karstens’ 2 shutout wins came against the Cubs on August 1st, as he pitched 6 scoreless innings during the Pirates’ 3-0 win.

Signing off for now,