4/21/08 vs. Mets; W 7-1; (13-6)

I was able to watch the first few innings of this game Monday night. I was out for some drinks with friends of mine before we headed to the Asia concert. I saw Aramis give the Cubs a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth before we left. Turns out that was all the offense needed.

Carlos Zambrano pitched a solid seven innings shutting down the Mets. He wasn't exactly sharp tonight. As we watched the early portion of the game, it appeared he wasn't quite as sharp as you would like. Five of the seven innings he allowed base runners, but had some defensive help cleaning them up in all but the sixth inning.

Like I said in an earlier post, with Marmol and Wood, a lead in the seventh is pretty secure. Sure enough, both Carlos and Kerry faced the minimum number of batters and secured the win. Woody needed only six pitches for the second game in a row. He would have been in line for another save, except the Cubs piled on in their half of the eighth inning.

With the meat of the order coming to the plate, the Cubs capitalized on some mistakes. Derek Lee was safe on an error and Aramis was hit by a pitch. Kosuke singled to load the bases with no one out. DeRosa then struck out and Soto popped up to turn our rally into potential disaster. However, two unlikely heroes came through with two outs. Ronny Cedeno singled, he is now 3-3 with bases loaded this year, followed by a three run blast by Felix Pie. Yes, the Felix Pie who came into the game hitting .172 with no extra base hits. I guess all his batting cage work is finally starting to pay off.