Zambrano’s Walk Is a Good Thing for Cubs

This may slow the Chicago Cubs’ chase of the National League wild card: Carlos Zambrano won’t start against Pittsburgh again this season.

Zambrano pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings to outduel Oliver Perez and beat Pittsburgh for the fifth consecutive time this season, carrying the Cubs to a 1-0 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday night at Pittsburgh.

Sammy Sosa preserved the Cubs’ sixth shutout with a sprawling, belly-flop catch of Ty Wigginton’s bases-loaded, two-out line drive to right field in the eighth inning.

“I saw him closing and closing, then I saw it hit his glove, and I just hoped it stayed in his glove when he hit the ground,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “The guys [in the dugout] jumped for joy, including myself, just as if we won the World Series. That was a big play, that was a huge play.”

The Cubs made several excellent defensive plays to support Zambrano, who is the first to beat the Pirates five times in a season since Tom Seaver of the New York Mets was 5-1 in 1973.

“I have nothing against the Pirates,” Zambrano said. “But I’m always more comfortable pitching against the division [NL Central] teams. I tried to do the same things against them that I do against the other teams.”

The Cubs, a half-game behind San Francisco for the NL wild-card lead, are 5-0 against the Pirates over the last 10 days amid a stretch of 11 victories in 14 games.

Perez (10-10) retired the first 14 batters, only to lose his control and walk three in a span of four in the fifth -- including Zambrano, whose first career bases-loaded walk drove in the run.

Zambrano is a .209 hitter who homered Friday against the Cincinnati Reds and has three career home runs.

“Everybody knows Zambrano can hit,” Perez said. “I didn’t want to throw him a pitch in the zone where he could hit it, and I walked him.”

Philadelphia 12, Florida 4 -- Pat Burrell hit a three-run homer for the Phillies, and Eric Milton (14-4) won for the first time in more than a month.

Mike Lieberthal, Jason Michaels and Placido Polanco each had a two-run home run in the Phillies’ second victory in two nights at Miami after having lost 14 in a row at Pro Player Stadium.

Cincinnati 11, Atlanta 8 -- Javier Valentin hit a three-run homer to cap the visiting Reds’ five-run rally in the top of the ninth inning against closer John Smoltz.

Chipper Jones’ three-run homer in the seventh inning gave the Braves an 8-6 lead, but Smoltz (0-1) gave up four hits and five runs, walked a batter, threw two wild pitches and recorded only one out.

It was the fifth blown save in 45 chances for Smoltz.

St. Louis 3, Milwaukee 2 -- Larry Walker hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to lead the Cardinals at Milwaukee.

Ben Sheets set a Brewer record for strikeouts in a season when he struck out Albert Pujols in the fourth inning to pass Teddy Higuera, who struck out 240 in 1987. Sheets struck out eight and has 245.

New York 3, Montreal 2 -- Mike Piazza’s run-scoring single in the eighth inning at Montreal helped the Mets end a three-game losing streak.

Luis Ayala (6-12) set an Expo record for losses by a reliever, surpassing Mike Marshall’s 11 losses in 1973.

Only 3,664 were on hand, the second-smallest Olympic Stadium crowd this season and the Expos’ second consecutive crowd under 4,000.

Colorado 4, Arizona 2 -- Shawn Estes (15-7) outpitched Randy Johnson (14-14), and Jeromy Burnitz hit his 37th homer, lifting the Rockies at Denver.

Estes didn’t give up a hit until Alex Cintron’s infield chopper in the fourth.