Zambrano hardly fits definition of an ace

A wise journeyman pitcher once made a wise journeyman observation.

"There are a lot of No. 1 pitchers," he said, "but there are only a few aces."

A burning question around here has been which category Carlos Zambrano fits into.

The Cubs certainly are paying Zambrano ace money, as in $91.5 million. But he has been more of a No. 1 who this week was relegated to pitching Game 2 of the National League division series.

Thursday night, errors by Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee led to 4 of 5 Dodgers runs off him in the second inning being unearned.

But Zambrano did yield consecutive singles to start the inning. And he did fall behind in the count 3-1 before Russell Martin doubled in 3 runs.

So you could say Zambrano's infield defense let him down and that his pitching let down the Cubs by failing to limit the damage.

"Actually," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, "Zambrano threw the ball well."

Not well enough, though, and by game's end, long after Zambrano left, the crowd of 42,136 booed the Cubs and their eighth straight loss over three postseason series.

Ironically, Zambrano received a standing ovation after Piniella took him out, mostly for being a victim rather than a villain.

Big Z took his cap off, pointed to the sky and then sat in the dugout with a towel over his head.

Zambrano seemed to understand his role in a terrible team effort that left the Cubs down 2-0 in the best-of-five series.

Twice during Zambrano's 6 innings of work, pitching coach Larry Rothschild had to go to the mound to talk him out of throwing one of his infamous fits.

Anyway, it sure looked on this night like Zambrano remained a No. 1 starter rather than graduating to pitching ace ... however a pitching ace is defined.

"I think an ace is that guy that you trust to give the ball to," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said, speaking generally rather than about Zambrano.

Considering Piniella gave the ball to Ryan Dempster instead of Zambrano to open the playoffs, Big Z still must be in the process of establishing himself as an ace by Torre's standard.

"Those are the special players that can keep the game in slow motion," Torre said. "They don't let any outside influence speed it up and really get them off their rhythm or their thinking."

Uh-oh. How many times has Zambrano been distracted by an umpire's call or a teammate's error?

So Zambrano can't be an accredited ace yet, right?

"(An ace) is someone who takes responsibility for the staff," is Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's description of an ace. "He's a leader on the staff."

Zambrano has so many individual issues that it's difficult to imagine him mentoring others.

Zambrano's fragile psyche, his erratic emotions, his explosive nature during adversity ... no, those aren't characteristics a team wants others to emulate.

Yet Zambrano is talented, pitches deep into games and throws a lot of innings every season.

Overall it's hard to tell right now whether Carlos Zambrano is a borderline ace, an emerging ace or destined to simply be a No. 1 pitcher with an ace's salary.

At age 27, he still has to define himself and has a lot of time and big games to do it.

mimrem@dailyherald.com