Carlos Zambrano pitched 8 brilliant innings in route to his 10^th victory of 2008 on a beautiful night in Wrigley.  Zambrano located his pitches very well having both the slider and sinker working nicely.  Coming off the DL only last week, Zambrano gave up a homerun to Adam Dunn, with one out in the 2nd inning, and then sat down the next 20 Reds batters he faced.  

Offensively the Cubs got it going early.  After going down 1-0 on  Adam Dunn’s homerun the Cubs answered as rookie All-Star Geovany Soto led off the second with a double, and then scored from second on an error by Cincinnati Red’s shortstop Jeff Keppinger.  Soto’s hustle was reminiscent of his inside the park homerun in Houston earlier this year.

After Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot made a brilliant play to end the top half of the 6^th inning, Aramis Ramirez took the very first pitch of the bottom half and sent it to souvenir city to give the Cubs their first lead of the game.  Red’s pitcher Johnny Cueto would then go on to strike out the next two batters and escape any further damange.  The Cubs offense struck again the very next inning.  After Cub’s left fielder Reed Johnson led off with a single, Zambrano attempted to bunt him over to second.  Zambrano was called out at first even though he beat the throw by a country mile.  This brought Lou out of the dugout and sparked the Cub’s offense.  With two outs, Kosuke Fukudome doubled in Reed Johnson to give the cubs a 3-1 lead.  Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez then both followed with RBI hits off of Red’s reliever David Weathers and the Cubs went in to the 8^th inning with a 5-1 lead. 

Carlos Marmol came in to pitch for the Cubs in the top of the 9^th and got into some early trouble.  After appearing to tweak his foot, while making the second out of the inning, Carlos then gave up a hit and walked the next two batters to load the bases.  Lou then made the call for All-Star closer Kerry Wood to come in for a chance at his 23^rd save.  Wood did not disappoint an ecstatic Wrigley crowd by getting Red’s second baseman Brandon Phillips to pop out to Derek Lee for the last out of the game.

Carlos Zambrano gets the win as he pitches 8 strong innings giving up only one hit and one run while striking out 5.  He moves to 10-3 on the season and looks to pitch next in the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium.  Cueto is credited with the loss as he moves to 7-9 on the season.

Ted Lilly will take the mound tomorrow in hopes of becoming the third Cub pitcher to win his 10th game of the season as he faces Cinicinnati right-hander Bronson Arroyo.  The Cubs will be looking to sweep the Reds and win their 4^th straight. 

Written By:  Murray Shaw