Colvin leads Cubs to sweep over Cardinals

What's the deal with the Cubs lately?

Is it new manager Mike Quade?

Is it the influx of young kids on the roster?

A little bit of both, according to Cubs catcher Koyie Hill.

"You really have to appreciate the energy we've had the last few weeks," Hill said on the WGN pregame show. "A little bit of it has come from the young guys who have come up and have been so enthused to be in the big leagues.

"It's fun to see everybody running balls out and hustling and playing the game the right way. A lot of that you have to attribute to Mike Quade and his coaching staff. Quade has established a high energy level and guys respond to it. It's been a lot of fun."

The good times continued Wednesday night in St. Louis as the Cubs, behind a 4-run seventh inning, highlighted by Tyler Colvin's 3-run home run, rallied for a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals to improve to 5-1 on their road trip.

The homer was the 20th of the season for Colvin and propelled the Cubs to their first sweep of the Cards since June 1988 when the winning pitcher was a young Greg Maddux.

"I'm thrilled to win games," said Quade, who is 14-7 since taking over as skipper. "To come in here and play like this against a club that's fighting like a son of a gun to get the division makes it even better."

It wasn't just the kids having all the fun Wednesday. Carlos Zambrano, despite not having his best stuff, continued to roll since his brouhaha at U.S. Cellular Field. He is 6-2 in his last 8 starts and is 6-0 since the new Busch Stadium opened. Big Z allowed 4 hits and 1 earned run over 6 innings to improve to 9-6.

"When I come here, for some reason I feel good," Zambrano said. "I said before the game, any time you face (Adam) Wainright or (Chris) Carpenter, you got to come with your 'A' game. Those guys are not easy matchups. They're two of the best in the league, and you got to come dealing, too."

Aramis Ramirez belted his 23rd homer of the season in the eighth to give the Cubs some breathing room.

They needed it because things got a little dicey in the ninth, and Carlos Marmol added to it by hitting Albert Pujols to load the bases but finally put out the fire with consecutive strikeouts to record his 31st save of the season