Chicago Cubs Recap: Carlos Zambrano Is Human

The Chicago Cubs win streak ends at 5 games, but they are still looking good for the rest of this series.

Carlos Zambrano didn't show what he had before.  In his first two starts, Zambrano was lights out and, basically, nobody could even come close to his stuff.

Through those games, he was 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA.  Tonight, he allowed 5 runs on 9 hits in 6 innings.  But through 3 innings, Zambrano was being his usual beastly self, not allowing a single run.

Then he allowed 2 runs in the 4th, 1 in the 5th, and 2 in the 6th before he was pulled in favor of Sean Marshall, and his ERA jumped to 3.20.

The bullpen didn't allow any runs in their 3 innings, and the game ended with a 5-3 score.

The Cubs continued to show their power as Derek Lee cranked his 4th HR (a solo) on the season.  Aramis Ramirez knocked one out the next at-bat and Alfonso Soriano added his own one man blast in the 6th.

On the Philadelphia Phillies side, Brett Myers (the one who pulled the elaborate prank on Kyle Kendricks) gave up three runs in eight innings of work.

However, he held 4 of the position players to either 0-4 or 0-3 records on the day.  This means that for some of the Cubs lineup, they could hit him with ease (Lee and Ramirez both had 2 hits for the game), but for some of the young guns (like Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto) hitting Myers was nearly impossible.

Pat Burrell had a 2-run HR that tied the game and later hit an RBI double to take the lead.  He has been strong all season (4 HR 12 RBI) and will be critical for the Phillies if they want to repeat as NL East champions.

Notes

• Kosuke Fukudome went 0-4 on the day, the first time in his MLB career that he didn't reach base in a game.
• Aramis Ramirez hit his 149th HR as a Cub, passing Mark Grace on the All-Time Cubs HR list.  It was also his 500th extra base hit.
• The Phillies have the Cubs number, Pat Burrell is hitting .519 with 6 HR and 12 RBI's in his last 9 games against the Cubs, while the Phillies are 7-1 in the last 8 games that Brett Myers has pitched against the Cubs.