Carlos Zambrano continued his domination of the Brewers this season. He has pitched 21 innings against the Brewers and given up exactly one run.
Z is a big game pitcher. Against the Cards and Brewers, he is 2-0 (four starts) with a 0.43 ERA. You read that right, it is a zero ahead of the decimal point.
Gene Wojciechowski made a point in his recap; "July isn't August. August isn't September." That may be. But as for getting in the opponents head, this has to be good. Zambrano is now 4-1 against Sheets head to head. Sheets just didn't get beat, he got pounded.
Len & Bob were generous in saying he pitched well until the sixth inning. The Cubs were hitting rockets, they were just right at guys. In the second inning Kosuke laced one down the left field line and somehow Ryan Braun caught it on the run. DeRosa followed wiht a bullet caught by a leaping JJ Hardy.
The Cubs first run came on a DeRosa sac fly to the deepest part of center field. They had four hits in the first five innings in addition to those balls.
The sixth was the game breaker. It was almost the cycle in order. Lee led off with a single. Ramirez doubled off the wall. Fukudome tripled past a diving Ryan Braun. Unfortunately DeRosa couldn't come through with the home run. I am sure he is happy with the RBI single.
The hit parade continued. Singles by Fontenot, Soto, and Zambrano made for seven consecutive hits. Alfonso Soriano finally made the first out with a sacrifice fly. That was the end for Sheets. His sixth inning; 8 batters faced, seven hits, five runs allowed.
He probably could have had a little help in left field. On Ramirez's double, Braun quit running as if it were a home run. Now he probably wouldn't have made the play off the wall, but it was a good precursor to how uncomfortable he is in left field. He badly misplayed Fukudome's ball. All three singles following the triple were to Braun. Fontenot's was a short fly ball that it seemed should have been caught. Instead Braun tried to deke DeRosa into thinking he was catching it while he let it drop. After every play the camera showed Braun looking up at the big screen with a fore lorn look on his face.
Z ended up going eight innings, scoreless, before being relieve by Samardzija. He had a season high nine strikeouts, only two walks and five hits to go along with one broken bat. (After a failed sacrifice attempt when the game was still close)
Aramis was the offensive star with four hits, three of them triples. He was locked in for sure. Every Cub player, including Zambrano, had a base hit. Soto, Theriot, and Fukudome each had two bringing the total to 15 for the Cubs.
Chicago will put Ryan Dempster and Rich Harden on the mound for the last two games of the series. That won't make it any easier on the Brewers offense. There will be less pressure too as the Cubs are assured of leaving Milwaukee with at least a one game lead in the division.
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