Rain, rain (won't) go away, washes out Cubs

The good news for the Cubs on Sunday was they picked up a half-game on the Brewers to improve their hold on first place in the NL Central to 1 game.

The bad news is they had a start by ace Carlos Zambrano wasted when rain halted their game against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field in the third inning.

No makeup was set with the only mutual open dates the rest of the season for both teams being Monday, Aug. 27 and Monday, Sept. 10.

Zambrano, making his first start since signing his new five-year, $91.5 million contract extension Friday, retired the first nine Cardinals he faced, three of them on strikeouts.

Then the rain came with the game scoreless in the bottom of the third. While the rain subsided after a wait of one hour and 48 minutes, the field was deemed unplayable.

"I was feeling good today," said Zambrano. "I was throwing the ball where I wanted and was feeling good with all my pitches. It was going to be a good game today."

Manager Lou Piniella didn't talk after the game but said through a Cubs spokesman that the only thing definite with regard to pitching was that Ted Lilly would start today against the Cardinals, although more heavy rain is in the forecast.

Zambrano said he might be able to start again as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday in San Francisco but that the decision would be left up to Piniella and pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

"Right now I don't know what they want to decide how soon I can come back," Zambrano said. "I'm ready to go either Tuesday or Wednesday. Whenever they need me, I'll be there."

Jason Marquis is the scheduled starter Tuesday against the Giants.

Zambrano threw 43 pitches and said Tuesday would be his normal day for throwing on the side.

Of those 43 pitches, 12 were to Cardinals leadoff man Aaron Miles, who eventually grounded to second.

"I said who is hitting Miles or (David) Eckstein?" joked Zambrano.

Despite rain all around the area throughout the day, the Cubs decided to try and play rather then possibly schedule a doubleheader for today or try to make the game up at a later date.

The game started on time, but a hard rain hit in the bottom of the third with no outs and Jason Kendall batting after a single by Matt Murton.

Everyone expected to see a more relaxed Zambrano, who admitted he was pitching recently while worried about his deal.

"They've been working on this contract thing a long time so I think it's going to relax him," Piniella said before the game. "The fact the Cubs made a commitment on a no-trade (clause), he wanted to stay here, the Cubs wanted him here -- I think that has more to do with it than the size of the contract. After a certain amount of money, what's the difference?"

Many of the Cubs watched the end of the Brewers' 7-6 loss to Cincinnati on the TVs in the clubhouse while waiting to play.

"It's kind of hard not to scoreboard watch, especially when it's right in front of your face and on TV, but the bottom line is we've got to take care of our stuff," Kendall said. "We can't worry about what Milwaukee and everybody else is doing."

Piniella was concerned about what Sunday's rain and the potential for more rain today would do to his pitching staff.

"It's not like we have a sixth starter sitting down there in the bullpen," he said.

Piniella has been careful not to tax his bullpen. He was going to give Bob Howry Sunday off anyway after using the right-hander in four of the last five games. Piniella also planned to use Carlos Marmol only if necessary for one hitter.

"You've got to have a rested bullpen," Piniella said. "Our starting pitching, if we can get 6 good innings from them we're in good shape. If we have to go a little longer it stretches it a little bit. But we only have 10 more days till we get to Sept. 1, and we'll call up a couple pitchers just to give us a little protection."

The bullpen has been a real strength of the team during its run to first place.

"I like the way our bullpen sets up," Piniella said. "I've said all along that with three left-handed starting pitchers it plays well into the strength of our bullpen, which is deep right-handed. We've got some quality there and we've got some depth."