Lilly, Zambrano end season with losses

The Blaze of Glory tour ran out of spark Wednesday.

One day after Ryan Dempster tossed a complete-game shutout over the Pirates, the left-right combo of Ted Lilly and Carlos Zambrano took to the mound Wednesday in a day-night doubleheader.

The difference was night and day from Dempster, as neither Lilly nor Zambrano finished on satisfying notes as the Cubs dropped both games, 4-0 and 8-2.

Lilly, who wrested the de facto title of staff ace from Zambrano this year, gave up all 4 runs in the first inning and was outpitched by Charlie Morton, who tossed a complete game.

Zambrano, on the heels of a complete-game shutout of the Giants last week, wasn't nearly as sharp in his 6 innings.

Lilly fell to 12-9 with a 3.10 ERA. Zambrano finished 9-7 with a 3.77 ERA.

Overall, manager Lou Piniella expressed happiness with his starting rotation, which was solid most of the season.

"The rotation's been fine," said Piniella, whose club fell to 82-76. "We've pitched well. The rotation's functioned well all year. We've had three or four (pitchers) go on the DL from time to time, but outside of that, they've given us opportunities to win games. That's all you can expect. They've done that and more."

Lilly and Zambrano each missed significant time with injuries this year, and both fell far short of their victory totals from a year ago and in innings pitched.

"Well, I'm not real satisfied with it," Lilly said. "First thing is that there wasn't an opportunity for myself or any of us to get a chance to pitch in the postseason. And I missed time. So I'm not happy about that. One of the goals that I have going into the year is to be a guy that the club can rely on to make all of their starts, rack up innings. I wasn't able to do that."

Both Cubs pitchers ran up their pitch counts early. Lilly threw 34 of his 115 pitches in the first, as the Pirates scored 4 runs. Zambrano tossed 30 of his 117 in the first, when Pittsburgh scored once.

The Pirates scored 3 off Zambrano in the third, with Ryan Doumit hitting a double that drove in 2 of his 4 runs for the night.

"We were expecting a better ballgame after the San Francisco start," Piniella said. "Didn't get it. What did I see? His command wasn't as good. I don't think his stuff was as good, either. We scored 2 runs in both games. That ain't going to do much."

Zambrano failed to reach double digits in wins for the first time since 2002, when he made 16 starts in 32 games.

"It was a very disappointing game," Zambrano said. "I wasn't able to come back. The season is over for us, and I'm going to work hard in the off-season and come back ready for next year. Like I said the other day, we learn from experience, and obviously, this was an experience for me. Just put this year behind me and think about next year.

"Start my throwing program in January. This year I will start earlier with my conditioning program, in November, and we'll go from there. The goal for next year is come healthy and come ready for spring training."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>No quality here:</b> Neither Ted Lilly nor Carlos Zambrano was able to turn in a quality start. Lilly gave up 4 runs in 7 innings, and Zambrano allowed 4 runs in 6 innings. The Cubs are 22-43 when they don't get a quality start.</p> <p class="News"><b>He's streaking:</b> Kosuke Fukudome extended his hitting streak to eight games with a single in the eighth inning of Game 1. Fukudome is 11-for-31 (. 355) during the streak. </p> <p class="News"><b>No harm no foul:</b> The Pirates's Lastings Milledge slid hard into Ryan Theriot in the first inning of Game 1 to break up a double play, and the Pirates went on to score 4. ""No, I thought it was a clean play," Theriot said. "That's how you play the game."</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=325585">Hill happy to be finishing first full season in Majors<span class="date"> [9/30/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>