Every baseball team when they are on a losing streak look to their ace pitcher to give them a quality start and a chance to break out. Well for the Chicago Cubs Friday night not only did they get that type of stellar performance from Carlos Zambrano on the mound, for good measure he added 4 hits in 5 trips to the plate driving in as many runs (2) as he allowed. The Cubs cruised to a 12-3 victory over their favorite team to play this season, the Pittsburgh Pirates who they have defeated in 9 of the first 10 meetings. Pirate starting pitcher, Zach Duke is already 0-4 vs the Cubs in 2008. Zambrano is one of those great pitchers to watch both on the mound and at the plate.
The Cubs scored in each of the first six innings building up a huge lead for Zambrano. In this game the #8 and #9 spots in the Cubs order were a combined 8-10 with a home run, two doubles and six RBI's. Not bad for the bottom of a NATIONAL LEAGUE batting order. This team has a lineup from top to bottom that can get on base and cause havoc for opposing pitchers. Reed Johnson 1/2 of the center-field platoon went 4-5 with 2 doubles and a 3 run homer to the deepest part of PNC park in Pittsburgh. The Cubs scored 12 times, pounded out 19 hits and generally had the Pirates on the ropes right from the start. Tomorrow's game features Jason Marquis for the Cubs who is still trying to find some consistency vs Phil Dumatrait for the Bucco's. Marquis features a very good sinker which like any sinker he must keep down to be effective.
