Beat it, Z!

The Cubs have suspended struggling, troubled and often over-emotional pitcher Carlos Zambrano indefinitely.

Upon being lifted after the first inning today against the White Sox, Baby Z had an altercation with 1B Derrick Lee (he let up 4 runs in the 1st).  His latest explosion came after he felt Lee and 3B Aramis Ramirez didn't dive for balls he thought they should have.  Well Carlos, maybe if the balls weren't smoked down the line, they'd have had a chance to react.

I mean things are bad in Cub-land.  Lee, a career .282 hitter, is batting a paltry .233 this year with 10 HR and 33 RBI.  Ramirez is struggling as well.  He returned to the lineup for the first time since June 7 at Pittsburgh (left thumb contusion).  He's also a career .282 hitter but is hitting .165 with 5 HR and 22 RBI this year.  They're 9 games under .500 and 4-6 over their past 10.  They have a manageable 3.91 ERA as a staff but are only hitting .257.  That formula won't amount to a good season for Cub fans.

With two big guns in the lineup along with an always excitable Big Z having poor seasons, Lou Piniella doesn't have much going right on the North Side.  I am going to say it ain't his fault, I like Lou.  My guess is old Carlos there doesn't.  But I'm sure the feeling is mutual - Piniella can get a 5.10 ERA and 4.5 BB/9 IP from any shlep in their system.

Zambrano is a baby, plain and simple.  He's a hot-head who has all the ability in the world, but carries the weight of the world on his shoulders (and he probably can, he's 6'5" 260 lbs.) 

The Cubs are 8.5 GB of the Cardinals.  They'll run out Carlos Silva (8-2, 3.01) tomorrow against "The Rock" Freddy Garcia (8-3, 4.85).  Should be a dandy on the South Side.

In the meantime, Carlos, stay home and take a hard look in the mirror, if you haven't thrown it out the window already.  You'll always be a lightning rod.  Grow up.

Walk It Off

Monday night in the MLB featured some great games and some laughers.

We'll narrow it down to the Top 3 - all walk-off wins:

#3 - At "The Trop", the Rays got a walk-off, one out squeeze bunt from Jason Bartlett in the 11th inning, beating the Indians 4-3.  Several weeks ago the Indians go burned by the Angels on a similar play, but there were two outs when Howie Kendrick got his base hit bunt past the pitcher.  Chris Perez was complaining about it being a "stupid play" - listen man, it's the big leagues, you need to get wins when you can.  It ain't Kendricks fault your team sucks.  The Rays improved to an MLB best 27-11.  The Tribe fell to 15-21.

#2 - Aramis Ramirez raised his average all the way to .175 in this one, and hit the walk-off 2R HR in the 9th off Rockies pitcher Matt Belisle to give the Cubs a 4-2 win.  Ramirez singled in the 1st, driving in the Cubs first run of the game.  Ramirez has been on a tear lately - he's raised his average from .148 to .175 over the past 10 games.  The saddest fact is, he only has 3 multi-hit games all year - this guy makes $16.75 million a year.  What is wrong with the Cubs?  Rockies fall to 19-19, Cubs improve to 17-22.

#1 - Poor Papelbon.  Ha.  Not only did he allow A-Rod to tie the game in the 9th with a 2R HR, he allowed a 2R HR by Marcus Thames to lose the game.  After the "A-bomb from A-Rod", Cano flew out to centerfield before Cervelli got drilled in the elbow.  Thames came to the plate and wasted little time - he jumped on the 92 mph fastball and hit a line-drive into the LF seats.  Yes, he pimped it a little out of the box, but you know what, it was his first career walk-off HR.  He threw the bat, and began his sprint around the bases.  Then he got the pie face.  I stayed up for it, and was pissed when the blew the lead, but man, it's always nice walking-off on the Red Sox.  Yankees 25-13, Red Sox 19-20. 

Plenty to do today - 3,600 white folding chairs waiting for me to set them up.  Graduation season is upon us.

Today in Sports History

1979 - The Phillies defeated the Cubs, 23-22, at Wrigley Field in a game which featured 50 hits and 11 HR.  Dave Kingman of hit 3 HR for the Cubs, who despite losing the game, belted 6 of the 11 HR's.  Mike Schmidt hit 2 for the Phillies.

The starting pitchers for both teams lasted only 1/3 of an inning each:
PHI starter Randy Lerch:  .1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 HR
CHI stater Dennis Lamp:  .1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 2 HR, 1 Assist.

PHI pitchers overall numbers looked like this:  10 IP, 26 H, 22 R (19 ER), 3 BB, 4 K, 6 HR Allowed, 59 Batters Faced.

CHI pitchers overall numbers looked like this:  10 IP, 24 H, 23 R (21 ER), 12 BB, 7 K, 5 HR Allowed, 68 Batters Faced.

There was not a single wild pitch and only one HBP (Bob Boone (PHI) was hit by Willie Hernandez (CHI)).

Not a day to be a pitcher or pitching coach.