Big Z throws gem in Cubs 5-1 win

A perfect 10? No, but Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs will take it.

Zambrano mowed down the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night in perhaps his best performance of the season as the Cubs posted a 5-1 victory at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs' ace worked 8 innings for the third time this season. He have up only 1 hit, a second-inning home run to Adam Dunn with one out.

After that, Zambrano retired the remaining Cincinnati batters he faced, all 20 of them. His best of the season?

"I don't know, man," said Zambrano, who has heard that one before. "Every time I throw a good game, you guys say, 'Is this as good as you feel all year?' I think games like this, obviously, they feel good. You just have to execute what you're feeling and what you have in your mind and your game-planning and let your teammates do the rest."

Speaking of 10, Zambrano became the second Cubs starting pitcher to reach 10 victories, joining Ryan Dempster, who won his 10th Tuesday.

"We try to consider ourselves a pitching-dominated team, or a pitching-oriented team," said manager Lou Piniella, whose team won its third in a row to improve to 55-36 and pull 4 games in front of St. Louis and 5 ahead of Milwaukee. "We give the ball to our starters. We watch their pitch counts carefully. And then we're fortunate we have some people in the bullpen who can get the job done.

"So, yeah, it's a tribute to our starters and a tribute to our bullpen that they hold on to these leads."

After Dunn's homer, the Cubs tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Aramis Ramirez put them ahead in the sixth when he led off with his 16th homer of the season. Just a few days ago, Ramirez was enduring an 0-for-28 slump. He has gone 2-for-3 in each of the first two games against the Reds.

"Everybody's going to go through a spot like that during the season," Ramirez said. "The only guy I've never seen struggle before is Albert Pujols. Besides that, everybody goes through a tough stretch like that. But I feel pretty good right now."

The Cubs chased Reds starter Johnny Cueto in the seventh, scoring three times.

The only thing left to watch was how far Zambrano could go in his second start off the disabled list, a stay made necessary by a shoulder strain. He wound up throwing 103 pitches.

"He wanted to go out and finish it, but it was only his second time out since being off the DL, and we were on a game plan of 100-105 pitches," Piniella said. "We let him hit (in the eighth). That appeased him a little bit."

Carlos Marmol relieved Zambrano in the ninth. He got spiked by Paul Bako on a groundout leading off. Marmol then got into two-out trouble and needed help from Kerry Wood, who got Brandon Phillips on a pop out to end the game with the bases loaded.

"Woody's had a little bit of a blister, and we tried to stay away from him," Piniella said. "We brought him in, and he did a real nice job getting Phillips."