Lilly, Zambrano help Cubs top Brewers 5-1
MILWAUKEE - Maybe Carlos Zambrano didn't want to upstage Ted Lilly.
On an electric Saturday evening before a sellout crowd at Miller Park, Lilly won his 2010 debut as the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1.
The game also featured the first relief appearance of the year by Zambrano, the Cubs' opening-day starting pitcher. Zambrano shut down the Brewers in the seventh and pitched the eighth.
After the game, however, he wanted no part of talking about it.
"You saw the game," he said to reporters. "I felt good. That's it."
And then he walked away.
Maybe it's just as well, because the first six innings belonged to Lilly, who pitched scoreless ball and allowed only 3 hits. Only a stiff back prevented him from going out for the seventh. Lilly was making his first start after off-season surgery on his left shoulder.
"Lilly, how about Lilly, the way he pitched?" said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team won its second straight to improve to 8-10. "Six really good innings of baseball."
Lilly was economical all night, as he outdueled Brewers lefty Doug Davis and stranded five runners.
"I felt good," he said. "I was happy with the way the ball was coming out. I had a couple erratic moments, but for the most part, I was mixing it well. I struggled with my changeup early in the game, and I got a little better feel for it."
Lilly described the back as having "a little tightness," but he said he was OK. As far as adrenaline, that was something else, as he said he was "maybe a little too geeked up."
"I hadn't been out there," he said. "I get excited at an opportunity like this - important games against our division rivals, I guess you could say."
The Cubs got RBI singles from Marlon Byrd (3-for-5) in the third and Aramis Ramirez in the sixth before they added 3 in the eighth.
The big drama cam in the seventh, when Zambrano relieved John Grabow with two outs and runners at first and third. On his second pitch, he retired Rickie Weeks on a half-swing comebacker.
Zambrano gave up a run in the eighth, but he was pretty good in his first relief appearance since June 28, 2002, against the White Sox. The move of Zambrano to the pen has its skeptics, but if it works, it solves a lot of problems for a team whose bullpen has been shaky.
"No question," Piniella said. "Come on. Our bullpen was really too young. And then we had the injury to (Angel) Guzman and the injury to (Esmailin) Caridad on top of that. We had to shore it up, and we felt that Carlos was the guy to do it, and I'm convinced that he will do it, yes."
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Bruce Miles' game tracker</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Cubs 5, Brewers 1</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Join the club: In his 2010 debut, Ted Lilly turned in the Cubs' 12th quality start by working 6 scoreless innings of 3-hit ball. Cubs starters have an ERA of 1.27 in quality-start games.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Counting them up: Lilly threw 78 pitches, 50 for strikes. He threw 20 pitches in the fifth inning and finished with 6 (all strikes) in the sixth. Carlos Zambrano, making his 2010 relief debut, threw 2 pitches in the seventh and 26 in the eighth. </p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Tacking them on: The Cubs took a 2-0 lead into the eighth, when they tacked on 3 more, with Geovany Soto hitting an RBI single, Zambrano getting a sacrifice fly and Ryan Theriot hitting a run-scoring single. </p>