Outing to forget for Zambrano

Cubs manager Lou Piniella had to walk a fine line Friday.

On one hand, he expressed sympathy to starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano, whose grandmother died this week, forcing Zambrano to make a quick trip to Venezuela on Wednesday. He returned Thursday.

On the other hand, Piniella wasn't pleased with Zambrano's comportment as he tried to remove Zambrano from the game after just 1 innings on the way to a 12-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

As Piniella neared the mound, Zambrano began to walk off, a no-no in Piniella's and most managers' worlds.

"It's not the easiest thing in the world," Piniella said of Zambrano's situation. "I didn't get him in trouble out there. All I expect when I take a pitcher out of a ballgame is wait and stay on the mound, give me the baseball. No more and no less."

Zambrano was one of the story lines. The other was that the loss kept the Cubs from clinching the NL Central title outright Friday. The Milwaukee Brewers' 11-2 loss at Cincinnati later Friday assured the Cubs of a least a tie, and their magic number is 1.

For his part, Zambrano was making his first start since no-hitting the Astros on Sunday night. He looked out of whack from the get-go. His velocity was down and he looked distracted on the mound. However, he said his troublesome right shoulder was not a problem.

"There's no excuse, no," said Zambrano, who fell to 14-6 and endured his shortest outing since lasting 1 innings on Sept. 4, 2006. "They (the Cardinals) came here ready today, and I wasn't ready. It's one of those games that you just have to forget and get to the next thing."

Zambrano did say he was tired from the long trip over a short time.

"I think so, yeah, because my legs didn't want to respond when I was warming up in the bullpen," he said. "You have to go out there and perform, and there's no excuse. Do the best you can to at least battle in the game and give chances to your team to win the ballgame, and I didn't do that."

The Cardinals jumped on Zambrano for 5 runs in the first inning, including a grand slam by Adam Kennedy.

Zambrano came out after facing six batters in the second and giving up 3 runs.

He wanted to exit quickly until Piniella ordered him back on the mound until he got there.

"That was stupid from me, from my side," Zambrano admitted.

"I have too (many) things on my mind. Obviously, that wasn't a good move. I apologized to Lou, and I will talk to him."

Zambrano said he thought about asking Piniella to move his start back, but Piniella was having none of it.

"Who was I going to start?" the manager asked. "Who did you want me to start? I feel bad for the fact that his grandmother passed away, and I respect his right to go to Venezuela to see her, but outside of that, I've got nothing else to say."

The Cardinals further blew it open in the middle innings against the Cubs' bullpen. Piniella used the blowout to get most of his regular players out of the game.

"We got some players out; it looked like a spring-training game," Piniella said.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=236339">Irked Piniella takes media to task<span class="date"> [9/19/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>