Big Z gives 'zero' return at right time
This is why it's such a great game. On any given night in a 162-game baseball season, you never know what you're going to see, be it on an otherwise nondescript April evening or on an NFL Sunday in September.
You never know when you're going to see Carlos Zambrano throw the Chicago Cubs' first no-hitter in 36 years, a gem of a game in a highly memorable season, against a red-hot Houston Astros' team. ...
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| Carlos Zambrano's gem on Sunday night should revitalize the Cubs and their fans. (AP) |
What's next, Alfonso Soriano going deep in Racine?
For a while, for the best, the Cubs-Astros series went dark this weekend. With Hurricane Ike roaring in on Texas and disaster imminent, baseball moved in the middle of last week to postpone the Friday and Saturday games. Sunday's game was on hold while everyone watched the Weather Channel and held their breath, praying that Houston and the rest of Texas weren't in for a replay of Hurricane Katrina.
It's horrific down around Galveston, and bad in many other places. Enough of Houston was without power, and so many folks were affected, that finally, and some said too belatedly, baseball Saturday evening moved two Cubs-Astros games to Milwaukee.
The third will be played in Houston on Sept. 29, the Monday after the regular season ends, if necessary.
Given the way Zambrano mowed through the Astros in his first start since Sept. 2, that game may not be necessary. Not to magnify one loss, but the Astros, baseball's hottest team since the All-Star break -- their 35-16 mark and .686 winning percentage were best in the majors -- are perilously close to having to run the table to get to October.
Their rallying cry pretty much has been "Hey, Colorado did it last year", and it's difficult to argue with that.
Unless you're Zambrano, who was sensational in throwing the Cubs' first no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972. He walked Michael Bourn in the fourth and hit Hunter Pence with a pitch in the fifth, but he overcame each during a 110-pitch effort that was not only an effort for Cubdom annals, but, no doubt more important to many at this moment, it was an effort designed to stop the worry of Cubs fans in its tracks.
For a man who complained of a tired arm and then underwent an MRI for a sore shoulder, this was a solid barometer that Big Z is back.
For a team whose rotation was shaken to its core while Zambrano sat out for nearly two weeks, from Sept. 2 through Sunday evening, this was a gift from the heavens.
And maybe the most impressive thing was that a big, emotional right-hander, who himself can be as tempestuous as a hurricane, kept everything under control as history was beckoning and an impressive, last-minute crowd of 23,000 turned deafening.
