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CHICAGO -- Carlos Zambrano and the Chicago Cubs put a
huge dent in the Cincinnati Reds' wild card hopes. Zambrano pitched seven scoreless innings and also homered en
route to posting an 11-3 victory over the Reds. By absorbing its second straight loss, Cincinnati (73-76)
fell five games back of San Diego in the National League wild
card standings. "Everybody has been grinding it out everyday," Reds manager
Jerry Narron said. "Our guys have battled all year and we have
still have 14 games left to play and I expect us to play just as
hard the rest of the way." After missing a scheduled start due to a lower back injury
suffered in a 5-4 setback to Pittsburgh on September 4, Zambrano
(15-6) showed no signs of rust as he yielded just four hits
while walking four. The righthander struck out six. "I felt very good out there today," Zambrano said. "I didn't
have any trouble with my back. I was just able to go out there
and do the job." He was instrumental at the plate as well, capping a seven-run
first inning with a home run off Sun-Woo Kim. "We have been working with Carlos to cut down on his swing,"
Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "You saw how easily he hit a
ball out of the park today. The good news is that his velocity
was there and he felt good all day." After Aramis Ramirez opened the scoring in the first off Eric
Milton (8-8) with an RBIs single to left, Jacque Jones connected
to left, a three-run shot for his 26th homer and a 4-0 lead.
Following a double by Henry Blanco, Ronny Cedeno extended his
hitting streak to 11 games with a two-run shot to left-center. "I feel sick about the way I pitched today," Milton said.
"Physically, I was not able to do what I wanted to do. My elbow
still isn't right. I could tell that from my bullpen session
on." Milton had a cortisone shot in his elbow 10 days ago. That was all for Milton, but the Cubs were not yet done, as
Zambrano capped the uprising by homering to left. "It was nice to be a part of the offense doing well today,"
Zambrano said. "I really wasn't trying to hit a home run, but
it went out anyway." Ryan Theriot recorded his first career multi-homer game. He led
off the fourth with a solo shot to left-center and opened the
sixth with his third home run of the season. "When you get up there you are just looking for a good pitch to
hit," Theriot said. "I was just trying to put a good swing on
it and I was lucky to get a couple up in the air today." Milton was pounded for six runs and six hits in one-third of an
inning. "It's a tough way to end the year," Milton said. "You have to
look at all the positives; we were picked to finish last. We
have had a pretty good season over all, although this isn't how
we want it to end up." Cincinnati has dropped 15 of its last 21 games.
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