Carlos Zambrano turned in a decent start on Wednesday night in Milwaukee. But once again, the Cubs failed to turn in a complete team effort as the offense lay dormant. Two early Brewer runs proved more than enough to seal another victory for the NL Central’s current first place team.
Part of this was because of the excellent pitching by Zack Greinke. Greinke threw 6 2/3 innings, striking out nine of that span and holding the Cubs to just three hits and three walks in that span. Though the Cubs weren’t great with runners in scoring position on Wednesday, Greinke made sure that had few attempts, ultimately holding the Cubs to just 0-for-1 with RISP.
Zambrano also pitched well, throwing 6 2/3 innings of two run baseball on six hits and three walks, while striking out three. But it wouldn’t be enough. He made a mistake to Prince Fielder in the second inning, giving up a solo home run for the Milwaukee first baseman’s 23rd of the season. The Brewers added another run that inning before Big Z settled down, but with the way the Cubs offense was functioning it almost didn’t matter.
The Cubs will try to avoid the sweep on Thursday in Milwaukee, with the first pitch in that game scheduled for 1:10 P.M., CDT.