Cubs back up the swagger
Confident club peaking when it counts with biggest lead of season
Mark DeRosa remembers the optimism the Cubs had leaving spring training, only to stumble through a losing April and May while the Milwaukee Brewers took off in the National League Central.
''We knew when we came out of spring training we had the makings of a championship team, but we didn't get out on the right foot,'' he said Sunday. ''We didn't always make it easy on ourselves, making a lot of fundamental mistakes sometimes, but now we find ourselves 3½ games up and playing our best ball.''
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
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Cubs beat Pirates
That turnaround, starting in June, has brought the Cubs to their biggest division lead of the season after a dominating 8-0 victory Sunday completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and a 5-1 final homestand.
The Cubs are 10 games above .500 at 83-73, but their most important number is four.
A combination of Cubs victories and Brewers losses equaling that number will give the Cubs the division title and send them back to the postseason four years after hearts were broken against the Florida Marlins.
And the Cubs could clinch a postseason berth this week against those Marlins, the first opponents on the closing six-game road trip.
''There's still baseball to be played,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''We have more business to take care of, and hopefully we can do it soon. But the important thing is to get it done.''
Winning is the objective, but it was as important Sunday for starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano to perform well. The staff ace had not won at home since July 18. Five days after losing to the Cincinnati Reds on three days' rest, Zambrano was dominant until the forearm cramping that has bothered him all season forced him from the game after six innings.
''I'm OK,'' he said afterward. ''I feel good. I don't know why it happens. I'm a pitcher, not a doctor. I took care of it before and just have to drink more water.''
Zambrano struck out the first four batters and finished with six strikeouts, allowing only three singles and three walks for his career-high 17th victory.
''My brother was in the clubhouse, and he said you have 13 losses but you also have 17 wins,'' Zambrano said. ''The good thing about this season is I don't have many no-decisions. I lost a 1-0 game to San Diego, a few 2-1 games before the All-Star break. Those things happen during the season.''
Zambrano also used his bat again. His sixth-inning double was part of a three-run inning highlighted by Derrek Lee's 20th homer. It was the last of 12 hits off lefty Tom Gorzelanny (14-9), who had tormented the Cubs this season.
The other Cubs homer came from shortstop Ronny Cedeno, a last-minute replacement when Ryan Theriot experienced stiffness in his lower back. Cedeno went 3-for-4 as the latest benefactor of Piniella's magic substitution wand.
''What a big day he had,'' Piniella said. ''Since the St. Louis series, he's been getting some playing time and making the most of it. We might play him Tuesday in Florida against Dontrelle Willis and give Theriot an extra day.''
Piniella also had the right moves after Zambrano left in the top of the seventh. He called upon Kerry Wood for two scoreless innings, then Michael Wuertz for a scoreless ninth.
''We trust each other and trust the guy next to you,'' DeRosa said. ''Guys have a lot of confidence now.''
Confidence is what Lee believes Piniella meant when he talked six months ago about developing ''Cubbie swagger.''
''We are a confident team now,'' Lee said. ''Our pitching, our defense, our offense. And in these big games, confidence goes a long way.
''It turned around in June. We finally made [Wrigley] a home-field advantage, and that's huge.''
The Cubs probably will have plenty of fans in Miami and Cincinnati this week, not that any extra urging is needed now.
''I felt all along we'd get hot in September, and we have,'' Piniella said. ''But let me tell you this: We still have work to do.''
CUBS 8, PIRATES 0 | CUBS LEAD BREWERS BY 3½