CINCINNATI — Carlos Zambrano was prepared to do everything he could to earn his 100th career victory.
Zambrano pitched into the seventh inning, hit a key home run and added a couple of heads-up defensive plays for good measure to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 2-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night.
“I felt good,” said Zambrano, who didn’t allow a hit until Adam Rosales lined a single to left with one out in the fifth inning. “Thank God we won the game. I’m happy about the 100th win. It makes me proud, but the most important thing is we won. After my last start, I felt bad about what happened.”
Zambrano gave up two hits and a season-high five walks in 62/3 innings. He struck out seven while reaching the milestone in his third try since beating Florida on May 3 for win No. 99. Since then, he spent 19 days on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain, lost at San Diego and was suspended six games for an altercation with plate umpire Mark Carlson on May 27 in Chicago.
His return was delayed one more day by rain that washed out his scheduled start Thursday in Atlanta, but he shrugged off the interruption.
“Zambrano pitched really, really well — really well,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “He got a little tired at the end.”
The Cubs pushed across a run in the first on Ryan Theriot’s one-out infield hit and three walks Theriot finished with two hits after opening Chicago’s road trip 1-for-10.
Zambrano (4-2), who struck out the side in the first, hit his second homer of the season and 18th of his career on Micah Owings’ first pitch of the fifth inning, extending the Cubs’ lead to 2-0. The switch-hitter smacked the homer from the right side after striking out left-handed in his first at-bat.
“I have a little discomfort in my left hand,” Zambrano said. “It’s nothing serious. In the National League, you have to do both. I have a decent swing right-handed and left-handed. That turned out to be the difference. I’m happy about that.”
Phillips broke up the shutout with a one-out RBI triple off of reliever Carlos Marmol in the eighth, snapping Cincinnati’s streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 16.
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