Zambrano closes out Dogs' victory

Luke Westphal and the Chicago Dogs pitching staff hurled 9 stellar frames, stifling the Milwaukee Milkmen in a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night at Impact Field in Rosemont.

The Dogs' pitchers dished out 13 strikeouts and retired twelve straight batters to end the game.

Milwaukee got its lone run on a Garrett Copeland solo home run on the second at-bat of the game, but Westphal dazzled after that. The Clintonville, Wisconsin, native finished with 2 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run allowed while striking out 8 over 5 dominating innings.

The Dogs answered right back in the bottom half of the opening frame. Gustavo Pierre walked to bring up Keon Barnum, who smoked an RBI double to the right field corner to knot the game at 1. Two batters later, Kelly Dugan singled home Barnum to put Chicago ahead, 2-1.

In the bottom of the second, Harrison Smith led off the frame with a triple to right-center field. Pierre then skied a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1 in favor of Chicago.

Casey Crosby entered in sixth and threw the first of two shutout frames. The former Detroit Tiger has not allowed an earned run since July 4th.

The Dogs added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. After hitting a single Pierre stole second, but an errant throw from Milkmen catcher Manuel Boscan went past center fielder Derek Reddy, sending Pierre all the way home to make it 4-1.

Luke Wilkins threw a perfect eighth inning that included 2 strikeouts. In his last three appearances the Australia native has retired nine straight batters, six of them via strikeout.

Rey Gonzalez added an RBI single in the eighth to complete the Dogs' offense.

Carlos Zambrano entered in ninth and pitched a 1-2-3 frame with a strikeout to secure Dogs' fourth straight win.