VIDEO MATCHUP CUBS VS. CARDINALS

With an eye toward the rivals' four-game showdown at Wrigley Field this weekend, Cubs second baseman Todd Walker and Cards pitcher Jeff Suppan played a game of ESPN MLB2K5 on Xbox Live.

BY THE bottom of the third, Walker (left), wearing jeans and a plaid button-down shirt as he worked the controls from an Xbox office in New York City, had put up eight runs off Suppan (right), who used himself as the starting pitcher. "Dude, first I take one off the dome"--Suppan had beaned Walkerwith a pitch--"and now you walked the pitcher," said Walker, laying it on through the two-way speaker. Suppan, playing in a Tampa hotel room, was undaunted, ultimately leaving himself in for a complete game. "What does it mean when it says CONF. next to your name?" he asked in the fifth. "It stands for confidence," Walker explained of the colored-coded meter, "yours is at an alltime low." Walker then mentioned that the virtual Cubs fans would love to see the Cards shut out. Only Jim Edmonds's eighth-inning, two-run homer, measured on screen at 400 feet, broke the goose egg. --Lisa Altobelli

CUBS 8, CARDINALS 2

COLOR PHOTO

JOHN IACONO (WALKER)

COLOR PHOTO

ELSA/GETTY IMAGES (SUPPAN)