Carlos Zambrano was ejected in the seventh inning but that did not stop the Cubs from beating the Pirates for the second straight game. Zambrano went nuts in the seventh inning when he thought he tagged out Nyjer Morgan at home plate after he threw a wild pitch. Big Z went wild in a ball-tossing, bat-swinging tirade after being ejected with the score 2-2. With Zambrano bumping the umpire during his tirade, he will probably also be suspended and could possibly miss a start.

The offense and bullpen had Zambrano’s back however as they came right back and scored three runs in the eighth inning and then held off the Pirates to secure the 5-2 victory. The big eighth inning was fueled by a go ahead home run from Reed Johnson and rbi doubles from Andres Blanco and Jake Fox. Blanco and Fox were just called up before the game and they made their precense known right away at Wrigley Field.

Other than the three runs in the eighth inning, the two other runs came in the first inning when Milton Bradley hit a rbi triple to score Ryan Theriot which was than followed by a fielders choice off the bat of Johnson. The Cubs should not have scored the second run in the inning but the Pirates made a costly error on the throw to first when they were trying to turn a double play.

Back to Zambrano who tossed 6 1/3 innings. Zambrano was pretty good on the day even though he allowed seven hits. Off those seven hits, the Pirates only scored two runs however. Six strikeouts helped Zambrano out considering he also walked three batters in just over six innings of action.

The bullpen wasn’t lights out but they got the job when they needed too. Angel Guzman recorded the final two outs in the seventh inning when Zambrano was ejected and than Carlos Marmol made his return to the team with a scoreless inning in the eighth inning. Marmol ended up picking up the victory and is now 1-1 on the season. Up and down closer Kevin Gregg, walked two but did not allow the Bucs to score as he notched his seventh save of the season.

It wasn’t a pretty win but I’ll take it. Up next for the Cubs is a huge four game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Currently the Cubs are four games out of first place and they just need to keep on winning. Let’s see if the Zambrano tirade will spark the team similar to when he and Michael Barrett went at it in the teams dugout back in the 2007 season.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast