Saturday was a good day for the Cubs as they were able to sneak past the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 at Great American Ballpark. Three home runs produced all of the offense including the eventual winning blast off the bat of Jeff Baker in the eighth inning. While it’s good to take advantage of the power in your lineup, the Cubs have been taking it to the extreme here in the opening week. The Cubs have managed to score 22 runs thus far and 13 of those have involved the long ball. Too much reliance on the home run can be an issue for teams as the season wears on. These teams generally lack consistent scoring because you just cannot expect to hit multiple home runs each night. This is certainly something to watch for moving forward.
Carlos Zambrano delivered a nice bounce back performance on Saturday afternoon, certainly one he needed to have. He lasted seven innings and allowed three runs while striking out nine Reds hitters. He started slow again in this one allowing Brandon Phillips to take him deep, which gave Cincinnati a 3-0 lead going into the fourth inning. Then, for the first time this season we saw the overpowering and dominant version of Big Z. He attacked the strike zone and shut out the Reds through the seventh inning before giving way to John Grabow and Carlos Marmol who finished things up.
Well pitched game by the Cubs, with Zambrano stirring up some memories of years past and Carlos Marmol looking like the closer everybody thought he would be last season. However, with him not being quite ready for the position last year, Cubs fans were forced to traverse through the Kevin Gregg era. It was rather rocky from start to finish. Marmol certainly looks ready now as he set down all three batters in order, striking out all three, to end yesterday’s game.
Today, the Cubs look to break even on opening week as Tom Gorzelanny makes his season debut against Mike Leake, making his career debut for the Reds.
