orangemosquito

Carlos Zambrano couldn’t throw a strike last night and as a result gave up three runs in the First Inning.  Luckily I wasn’t there yet to see this disgusting display of pitching.  However, I did arrive in time to watch “Big Z” crush the baseball when he was at the plate and improve his season average well above .333.  Zambrano tied the game in the Third Inning with an RBI Triple.  Pitchers are not supposed to be doing that sort of thing.  In fact his performance led my friend Alan who has Zambrano as his top fantasy pitcher pleading that pitcher’s hitting statistics should be used, not just in NL-only leagues.  For me, it made me wonder how we can get this guy’s bat in the lineup on a more regular basis.  Perhaps, he becomes the main go-to Pinch Hitter when he isn’t starting on the bump.  Maybe the super athletic Derrek Lee can find another position and let Zambrano play the easiest position on the diamond.  Maybe move the Asian Sensation Kosuke Fukudome-nia move to Center Field and play Zambrano in Right Field and just hope the other team never hits a fly ball out there.  Ultimately, that is all very silly, but very few pitchers in the history of baseball have been able to hit the ball in the same manner as Mr. Zambrano.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, he is hitting over .333 for the season.  That is flat out gawdy. 

With all that being said, he barely pitched long enough to qualify for the win, but he got his five innings and turned it over to the bullpen, which did a great job until Carlos Marmol in the ninth inning almost blew the game and did give up a three-run homer to the hottest man on the planet (I mean hitting-wise for clarification), Adrian Gonzalez.  Then Kerry Wood came into the game to close it off and I thought the Cubs were headed for maybe their most disappointing loss of the season.  But, much to my surprise Wood struck out Yao Ming, I mean Tony Clark on three straight 96 MPH fastballs at the guys numbers, meaning Wood actually was aiming for the announcing booths behind home plate.  Former Cub Michael Barrett then put a knot in all Cubs fans’ throats when he crushed a ball to left field, but it died on the Warning Track in the glove of Reed Johnson, and the Cubs escaped Game 1 w/ a much closer than it should have been victory.  Let’s hope Game 2 goes a little more smoothly w/ Jason Marquis on the hill.  Let’s also hope the rest of the Cubs’ offense wakes up, because Marquis isn’t going to bail the Cubs’ out like his predecessor did.

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