Game Thirty-Three: Cubs (14-18) vs. Giants (16-17)
Game Time – 9:15pm C.T. Comcast SportsNet, WGN Radio, XM Radio Channel 189 & 190
Location – AT & T Park, San Francisco, CA
Carlos Zambrano (0-2, 4.43) vs. Matt Cain (1-4, 6.27)
Usually the phrase “a must win game” is often used in early May, but if there has ever been a case to….tonight is the right time. Carlos Zambrano is scheduled to make his 8th start of the season against Barry Bonds, Matt Cain and the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs need the win and Zambrano needs to erase the winless start to his season. The Cubs are setting new marks for futility with only 12 runs in the last 13 games. Rich Hill escaped a date with history thanks to Juan Pierre, but will Zambrano be able to deny Bonds as well. Bonds is 0-1 with 2 walks lifetime against Zambrano, but 43 of his 713 home runs have come off of Cubs pitching without any against the Cubbies in their last 9 match-ups. Zambrano had his best outing of the season against the Padres on May 5th….he was just out pitched by Chan Ho Park and the Cubs’ struggling offense could not plate any runs to support him.
The Cubs are 5-12 over the last 17 games and Juan Pierre is only hitting .209 (14-67) during that span and while it is evident the Cubs are missing Derrek Lee, the lack of production from Pierre is more than concerning and other than a few games….he has yet to live up to his reputation.
Dusty’s “Combination Ball” is missing two of its key ingredients….speed and power, but only one is on the DL.
Let’s Talk Cubbies Baseball….