By Jeff A. Wilson
Chicago Cubs ace pitcher, Carlos Zambrano did yesterday what every good and successful pitcher in the big leagues does at some point in the season. He went out there with subpar stuff and he battled and he scratched and he clawed his way thru a 130 pitch ( 2nd most in his career) performance throwing only 79 strikes, walking 4 and being constantly behind the hitters. He still found a way to limit the Dodgers to only one run on 4 hits over 8 grueling innings with men on base constantly.
It is easy to pitch when you have your best stuff, but when you have an umpire with a tight albeit according to K-Zone accurate strike zone and you feel you are being squeezed, it makes it that much tougher. When Zambrano left after 8, the Cubs trailed in the ballgame by a 1-0 score and they managed to score the tying run off Saito, one of the better closers in the National League. This setup the Cubs 9th inning where Geovany Soto lofted a flyball sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1 and send it to extra innings. The Cubs held the Dodgers in their half of the 10th and then in the bottom of inning #10, a Mike Fontenot pinch hit double set up Alfonso Soriano to be the hero with his bloop single to left field scoring Fontenot with the winning run.
Comments
I agree, Jeff--Zambrano is finally growing into the ace role always predicted for him. He was often good, but just as often terrible, in the past, and now seems much more confident and consistent. If the Cubs are to continue their winning ways, he's going to be a huge part of that.
Go Z-man!