Get ready, folks!

With the Cubs’ Magic Number at one, the race to the ninth inning is on.

The Cubs took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning against the Cardinals at Wrigley this afternoon and added two more runs in the fourth, the second coming on a perfectly executed squeeze by starting pitcher Ted Lilly.

If the Cubs’ score holds up, it would put the Cubs in back-back postseasons for the first time since 1907-1908. Those are pretty good years as far as Cubbie Nation is concerned.

The slumping second-place Brewers have been in desperation mode this week after losing the Wild Card lead they’ve held much of the season, firing manager Ned Yost and today starting C.C. Sabathia on only three days’ rest. As I’m writing, the Brewers took a 2-1 lead over the Reds at Cincinnati.

It doesn’t really matter how you clinch, but every team wants to finish the job themselves with a putout in front of the home fans. While I’d just as soon see the Cubs finish their game first, I’m almost curious to see what happens if the Reds come back for a walkoff win while the Cubs are still on the field.

For now, start chilling the champagne and let’s hope that five-run Cub lead holds up for four more innings.

No-no, no, no-no, no-no-no-no...

The phrase "first time since" has come up a lot for the Cubs this year, and tonight was one that I've been waiting to fall by the board for a long time.

I was a fetus when Milt Pappas threw the Cubs' last no-hitter, and I get the feeling that the generation that lived and died with Leo Durocher's Cubs doesn't understand what it's like hanging your definition of a low-hit game on Chuck Rainey, who fell short at the end, and Kerry Wood, who fell short at the beginning. They got to see Milt Pappas do it. And Burt Hooton do it. And Kenny Holtzman do it twice. And if they're a little older, Don Cardwell and Toothpick Sam Jones.

My generation, or speaking for myself at the very least, wondered for years who was going to be the guy to do it. For a long time there wasn't an obvious choice. We haven't even seen them lose a no-hitter. Then Woody came along, but he never got one. And Mark Prior, but that didn't pan out.

But there was always something special about Carlos Zambrano. Keeping a team hitless into the middle innings was something he'd do a couple times a year, but there was always a question of Big Z keeping his cool and keeping his head in the game long enough to take it through nine innings.

I held my breath when he struck out in the eighth inning, holding his bat over his head like he was about to break it over his knee, like we've seen before. But when he paused and changed his mind it became that one moment where you no longer believe it's going to happen, you just know it's going to happen, and you can sit back and enjoy the ride.

Any Cub fan knows Z takes great pride in his hitting, and to see him go back to the dugout and laugh about it instead of letting it get to him, well, I hope when he finally hangs up his spikes we look back at it as the moment where he turned a corner. Not just as a pitcher and as a staff ace, but as a man.

Tonight, Carlos Zambrano, you are the man.