Baker's home run leads Cubs over Reds 4-3

Posted April 09, 2010 11:00 pm

By Bruce Miles

CINCINNATI - The Cubs weren't quite ready to declare, "That's just how we drew it up," after Saturday's much-needed 4-3 victory over the Reds.

But they drew a little closer to that ideal.

Starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano rebounded from his opening-day debacle to pitch 7 innings and improve to 1-1.

Lefty setup man John Grabow did his job in the eighth, and closer Carlos Marmol struck out the side in the ninth for his second save.

"Look, from what we've experienced here in the first five games, starting pitchers going 7 innings is probably the best remedy," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team is 2-3. "Now we can go to our short people and to our closer and take our best shots that way.

"We'll get these kids (young pitchers) work from time to time to get them sharp and hope they improve."

The Cubs lost an eighth-inning lead and the game Friday night as rookie reliever Esmailin Caridad gave up 4 runs. On Saturday, Piniella turned to his veterans.

On the other side of the game, home runs accounted for all 4 runs, with Kosuke Fukudome hitting a 2-run blast in the fourth, Alfonso Soriano hitting a solo homer in the fifth, and Jeff Baker adding a leadoff pinch-hit shot in the eighth to break a 3-3 tie.

For the season, the Cubs have scored 17 runs, with 8 home runs accounting for 12 of those runs.

"We're hitting home runs, and we need to sustain some rallies a little bit," Piniella said."

Zambrano seemed to get stronger as the afternoon wore on. He gave up a run in the second and a 2-run homer to Brandon Phillips in the third as the Reds took a 3-0 lead.

He allowed only 1 hit after that and finished by striking out the side in the seventh. He wound up throwing 110 pitches.

"The last game, I was trying to locate my fastball too much," Zambrano said. "I'm a sinker pitcher, and that's the mentality that I had to day. Just throw the ball. That's why I was watching the (radar) gun. When I saw 89 (mph) on the board, that's not my pitch. My pitch is 93, 94, 92 - sinker.

"That's why I was watching the scoreboard. I wanted to throw the pitches that I want. No 89, no locating pitches. Just throw my sinker and let my sinker run as much as I can."

Zambrano walked only two and struck out nine in turning in the longest performance by a Cubs starter to date.

Fukudome's homer came after Ryan Theriot led off the fourth with a single. The homers by Soriano and Baker were leadoff home runs.

Cubs pitchers also got a lot of defensive help. Second baseman Mike Fontenot make a couple nice plays, including one in the fifth when he went toward the middle and slipped as he threw, but still got Orlando Cabrera at first.

In the eighth, with Grabow pitching and Phillips on first, Derrek Lee made a leaping snag of a hot liner by Jay Bruce to keep the ball from going to the right-field corner.

"What a nice play Derrek Lee made at first base," Piniella said. "I can see why Dean Smith wanted to recruit him (to play basketball) over at North Carolina. Fontenot made a few nice plays. It was a well-played game."

Bruce Miles' game tracker

Cubs 4, Reds 3

Continuing quality: Carlos Zambrano turned in the Cubs' fourth straight quality start. The starters have given up 5 earned runs in 25 innings for an ERA of 1.80 ERA. The Cubs are 2-2 in quality-start games.

Making them count: Zambrano threw 14 pitches in each of his first 3 innings. He had 96 pitches after 6 and wound up with 110 for the day, 66 of them strikes.

Where are the hits? Cubs batters managed just 5 hits. They have 32 hits in five games with 8 of those hits being homers.

The quote: "I think I was fresh from the last start," joked Carlos Zambrano, talking about his 11/3-inning performance on Opening Day.

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