CHICAGO — The New York Mets had no problems picking up Carlos Zambrano's pitches, which he realized a little too late.
Zambrano served up a season-high 11 hits over 3 1/3 innings, the third straight start in which he was unable to go five, as the Mets beat the Cubs, 4-1, to avoid being swept.
This was Zambrano's second start since coming off the disabled list, and he's given up 12 runs on 18 hits over 7 2/3 innings in the two games. That's not what the Cubs are looking for from their Opening Day starter as they try to stay in the playoff race.
"It was disappointing for me and for the team," Zambrano said.
There's nothing wrong physically, except the right-hander is a little out of whack mechanically.
"He's opening up his front shoulder and his arm's dragging," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Zambrano. "He's going to have to work on it. They're getting a good look at him because they're not swinging and missing at all, and that gives you a pretty good indication that you're showing the ball to the hitter a little prematurely and it gives the hitter a longer look. You're not staying closed enough to drive through the ball."
Zambrano watched video immediately after his early exit. He saw the same thing.
"[Pitching coach Larry Rothschild] told me probably I'm open too soon and they can see the ball better, and I think I'll work on that in my next bullpen session," Zambrano said. "Otherwise, my fastball was good, my split-finger was good today. Everything was good today. It looked like they could see the ball good today."
It was a good day to pitch at Wrigley Field, with the wind blowing in at 15 mph. That helped New York's Nelson Figueroa (2-3), who struck out a career-high 10.
"[Figueroa] had his offspeed stuff working today," Chicago's Jake Fox said. "He struck me out three times, and he struck me out on three different pitches."
"Those fly balls weren't going anywhere, so the threat of a home run was non-existent," Piniella said of the pitching conditions. "You had to bunch hits like the Mets did off Zambrano in the third and fourth innings to score runs. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to do that."
Aramis Ramirez hit an RBI single with one out in the Cubs' first to extend his home hitting streak to 18 games.
With one out in the Mets' third, Angel Pagan and Luis Castillo each singled, and both moved up on a throwing error by Zambrano, who tried to pick off Pagan at second. Daniel Murphy then lofted the ball to center and Kosuke Fukudome deked Pagan by acting as if he was going to catch the ball. It dropped for a hit and Pagan was late breaking for home, but he did score. Jeff Francoeur followed with an RBI single to take a 2-1 lead.
The Mets made it 4-1 in the fourth as Anderson Hernandez hit an RBI triple and scored on Figueroa's single. At that point, every Mets starter had a hit. Zambrano served up two more singles before he was lifted.
In fairness to Zambrano, some of the Mets' hits landed in convenient places.
"I made some good pitches and they hit them," Zambrano said. "Sometimes you come with your best and that day, the other team is locked in. They hit the ball good, and they hit bloopers — bloopers are still base hits. They don't put it in the scorebook as 'bloopers,' they put it in as a base hit."
With the loss, the Cubs missed a chance to gain ground in the National League Wild Card standings, a slightly more realistic option than the NL Central. St. Louis beat Washington on Sunday, and now has a 10-game lead. It'll be tough if Zambrano can't get in a groove. Sunday's loss was Chicago's 15th in its past 22 games.
"I don't pay attention to [the standings]," Piniella said. "If nobody gives us a chance, let's keep it that way."