Zambrano homers as Cubs rip Bucs
CHICAGO — Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs' offense made Mike Quade's managerial debut at Wrigley Field relatively easy.
Carlos Zambrano allowed one unearned run in 5Z\c innings and hit a two-run homer to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 14-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.
Aramis Ramirez was 2 for 3 with four RBI to help Quade win his first game at Wrigley Field as manager.
The Cubs scored seven times on seven hits in the fourth and were 7 for 7 to start the inning. They brought 11 batters to the plate to knock out Pirates starter Paul Maholm (7-13).
"Pick your guy, wow. Zambrano settles down, takes care of business early in the game, put a few runs on the board and everybody is happy. That's a formula we would like to see, we would like to see every evening," said Quade.
Rookie Starlin Castro had three hits and the Cubs improved to 5-2 since Quade took over for Lou Piniella Aug. 23.
Zambrano (6-6) allowed four hits, struck out seven and pitched around four walks. He left after throwing 112 pitches.
The Pirates have lost four straight games and are 10 games behind their 2009 pace, in which they finished 62-99.
Maholm lasted only 3Z\c innings and allowed eight runs on nine hits. Pittsburgh's only runs came on an RBI double by Pedro Alvarez and an RBI groundout by Ryan Doumit.
"Not being able to get ahead, not throwing my sinker if I can," Maholm said. "It goes back to failure to do that and establish down and away, not missing over the middle, and getting into bad counts."
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