Carlos Zambrano has never successfully avoided speaking his mind, and following the Chicago Cubs' sweep at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals, in which Albert Pujols twice beat the Cubs with walk-off home runs in extra innings, he was typically verbose. "We play like a AAA team," he said, also lambasting the pitch selection issues that led to Ryan Theriot getting a slider, instead of a fastball, from Carlos Marmol in the ninth inning. Theriot doubled to tie the game and blow the save for Zambrano, who had allowed just one run.
"We should know that Ryan Theriot is not a good fastball hitter," Zambrano said, "we should know that as a team," and that's especially true considering Theriot spent parts of six seasons with the Cubs before moving on to the Cardinals in the 2010 offseason.
Zambrano is 5-2 this season with an ERA of 4.23. In 11 years with the Cubs he's 121-76 with an ERA of 3.53 and 1494 strikeouts; he's signed through 2012 under the terms of a 2008 deal that promised him five years and $91 million.