Cubs swat away pesky Nats this time around

WASHINGTON -- After letting a game get away to the Nationals on Friday night, the Cubs were determined not to let it happen again Saturday.

So the offense went out in the first two innings and jumped on Washington pitcher Matt Chico for 5 runs.

They then left it in the capable hands of their own starting pitcher, and Carlos Zambrano put the Nationals to sleep with 7 innings of shutout ball as the Cubs won 7-0.

"Yeah, we should have won that game last night," said third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who doubled twice and had 2 RBI. "We played good enough. We pitched good enough. But that's in the past. We got it going tonight."

The Cubs bunched 4 hits in the first inning, including a 2-run single by Mark DeRosa to grab a quick 3-0 lead.

In the second, Derrek Lee hit a 2-run double, silencing the Nationals fans in what seemed to be a pro-Cubs gathering of 35,188 at new Nationals Park.

From there, Zambrano went to work. He ran his pitch count up to 59 after 3 innings, but he settled down after that.

"He gave us exactly what we needed," said manager Lou Piniella, whose Cubs are off to a 16-8 start for the first time since 1995. "Our bullpen was short."

Zambrano walked four and struck out five and said he was well aware his bullpen mates needed a breather after being overworked for much of the past week.

"As soon as I went over there and I was warming up and I figured out that I was feeling good, I said I had to give 7 or 8 strong innings," said Zambrano, who raised his record to 4-1 and lowered his ERA from 2.67 to 2.21. "Everything that I planned before the game was working."

For Zambrano, it was simple.

"Strikes," he said of throwing 21 first-pitch strikes to the 30 batters he faced. "Today was the only game I walked four batters, but that's OK. When you feel good and you have good stuff, you can walk people and you can get out of the situation anytime you want. So far this year, I've been throwing the ball where I want and been throwing a lot of strikes.

"The first pitch is the key. I told you the first day of the season the first-pitch strike is the key. Being ahead in the count is an advantage for any pitcher."

The Nationals had baserunners in every inning against Zambrano, but he got strikeouts to end a pair of innings, and he stranded nine Nationals on the bases before Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber finished up.

For the third straight game, the Cubs did not hit a home run. Their batters struck out 12 times, but they also managed 5 doubles among their 13 hits. They also drew 5 walks.

"Zambrano's the one," Piniella said. "We needed 7 or 8 innings from him, and that's exactly what we got. We needed to swing the bats a little bit, and we did."

Cubs 7, Nationals 0

At the plate: Aramis Ramirez and Ronny Cedeno each had 2 doubles. Ramirez's second double drove in 2. Derrek Lee had a 2-run double, an RBI single and 2 walks. Geovany Soto struck out five times, giving him 8 strikeouts in two games. "He caught a shutout; he was shut out, also," said manager Lou Piniella, who might rest Soto today.

On the mound: Carlos Zambrano tossed 7 shutout innings, giving up 5 hits and running his record to 4-1. Zambrano ran his pitch count up early but threw only 8 in the fifth and 9 in the sixth. He wound up with 114 pitches, 69 for strikes.

-- Bruce Miles