Zambrano Has Third Good Game in a Row
Submitted by cubsnet on Tue, 2006-05-16 21:43.
The Cubs need some mojo right now, and Carlos Zambrano just provided it for the third straight game. Following an April 30 loss to Milwaukee, in which Zambrano allowed 7 earned runs in 4 innings, moving his record to 0-2 and his ERA to 5.35, Zambrano has put up the following line over his past three starts:
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | ERA |
| 23.0 | 13 | 1 | 10 | 24 | 0.39 |
The only thing to quibble with in those numbers is the 3.9 BB per 9 innings, but the results have been superb. Zambrano has pitched deep into games, allowing Dusty Baker to avoid putting in the game Roberto Novoa, Will Ohman, and Glendon Rusch, who seem to have tended to turn small deficits into demoralizing ones.
Fellow blogger Charles Rector saw hope for a sweep of the Nationals before this game. Let it be so.
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Big Z
His ERA for the season is now a perfectly respectable 3.34.
As a fan, I think part of the appeal of Zambrano is that you never really know what to expect when he takes the mound. He may get shelled, or he may take a no-hitter deep in the game. He may strike out 10 or 12, or he may get 20 ground-ball outs. He's bore much heavier workloads than young pitchers should, but his only injury has been from using the computer, and even that wasn't serious. He's not only a switch hitter, but he's the biggest hacker on a team full of hackers.
He's an enigma. He can be immensely frustrating, but no matter how frustrating he gets, it always seems like there's something great coming just down the road.