Cubs @ Padres - 6/5 - (recap)

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Zambrano caps West quest with style
Righty blanks Padres on three hits in seven innings
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO -- Carlos Zambrano was having a little trouble early in Sunday's game. He walked the first three batters he faced, he was pacing around the mound, and he couldn't find his rhythm.

Chicago Cubs catcher Henry Blanco went out to the mound. It was a very one-sided conversation, and Blanco did all the talking. After the inning ended, and the two were in the dugout, Blanco took it a step further.

"Henry was good," Zambrano said. "He said he will slap me."

"He has good stuff," Blanco said of the excitable right-hander. "He has great stuff. He just has to trust his stuff and go after hitters."

Zambrano did just that and avoided Blanco's threat when he combined with Will Ohman and Ryan Dempster on a five-hit shutout to lead the Cubs to a 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres and their ninth win in the last 10 games.

The Cubs completed the West Coast trip with a near perfect 6-1 record, and now trail Central Division-leading St. Louis by 5 1/2 games, and are the National League Wild Card leaders.

"It's early, but we don't want the Wild Card," Zambrano said. "We want to win the division. We will win the division. That's our goal."

Zambrano (4-3), coming off a combined one-hitter against Los Angeles, continued to stymie hitters. He gave up three hits and walked four over seven innings while striking out seven. The right-hander, who turned 24 on June 1, entered the game with opponents batting .193 against him.

"His stuff is so electric," Derrek Lee said of Zambrano. "He didn't have his best command, but he knows when he needs a pitch how to get it done."

"He's a beauty," Jeromy Burnitz said.

Give Blanco a big assist.

"He helped me a lot," Zambrano said of the catcher. "I appreciate that. When I calmed down, I said, 'This is my game. I have good stuff today. Let's go. Forget about everything, forget about the umpires, forget about the hitters.'"

"He listens all the time," Blanco said. "He knew what we were talking about. I was telling him to make some adjustments and battle back."

In his last four starts, Zambrano has given up three earned runs over 29 innings.

"I'm feeling hot," Zambrano said. "You can see the team and everybody getting hot. It looks like 'D-Lee' woke up everybody. He was carrying the team at the beginning. I see that, I see 'D-Lee' play like that, how he's playing, how he's hitting. Let's fight for the team. We have a pretty good team, we have hitters, we have pitching. We'll do anything to win as many games as possible to catch st. Louis."

D-Lee is Derrek Lee, in case you haven't noticed, who's leading the National League in nearly every offensive category, and he's been carrying the Cubs on his big shoulders.

"He's fun to watch and he's been the best player in the game the first two months of the season, no doubt," Burnitz said.

Lee batted .485 (16-for-33) on this road trip with four doubles and six RBIs, while Neifi Perez has filled the leadoff spot admirably and hit .412 (14-for-34) in the seven games. The Cubs collected at least 10 hits in each of their last nine wins.

"Keep it coming," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.

Lee and Corey Patterson each hit RBI doubles, and Burnitz and Aramis Ramirez each hit RBI singles for the Cubs, who could've easily given up on the season after injuries to Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Nomar Garciaparra, Chad Fox, Joe Borowski and Todd Walker. Borowski and Walker are back, and it's only a matter of time before Prior and Wood are inserted into the rotation.

"With all the adversity we had early on, I think people expected us to go the other way and we haven't," Lee said. "We kept our heads up and played great baseball. I don't see any reason why we can't continue like this. It's only going to get better when we get guys back and get healthy.

"Who gets credit? Everybody," Lee said. "It takes 25 guys. Everybody gets credit. Guys are stepping up and playing great baseball."

"It was a great road trip," Baker said. "We had great pitching. [Zambrano] was in and out of trouble quite a bit, but we got some timely hitting there. It was tough to come here -- these guys haven't lost a series I don't think this year. We picked up another game in the standings, and now we can go home and hope we can continue to do it at home. We've got a tough schedule ahead of us."

The Cubs will be happy to return to Chicago healthy. The Padres are battling a viral infection that knocked Sunday's scheduled starter Jake Peavy out. Woody Williams (2-3) was activated from the disabled list, and gave up one run on four hits and two walks over five innings.

Not only was this a productive road trip for the Cubs, but it was fun.

"Everybody talks about having fun," Burnitz said. "'Oh, let's go out and have fun.' I never understood that. Never. You have fun when you put together some wins. That's what we've done, and it's been a good time."

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

[awefullspellare]

It's been an awesome last week or two. 9 of 10 now! Let's keep it going with those Jays.