Holy cow, what a game Sunday night up in Milwaukee for the Chicago Cubs and Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano and the Cubs were taking on the Houston Astros in Milwaukee due to the damage in the Houston area from Hurricane Ike. Zambrano tossed his first career no hitter against the Astros in front of a 98% Cubs crowd.

Zambrano’s no hitter was the first no hitter for the Cubs since 1972 when Milt Pappas no-hit the San Diego Padres. Zambrano had 12 days off in between his starts due to some discomfort in his throwing shoulder but he didn’t have any problems throwing the ball on Sunday night. He was normally throwing the ball over 95 mph and had his slider working great.

Alfonso Soriano got the Cubs on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning when he hit a solo home run off of Astros starter Randy Wolf. The team then scored four more runs in the third inning when Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto both had doubles. Lee finally hit the ball hard and in the air to score two runs while Soto’s double scored one run. Aramis Ramirez also added a rbi single of his own in the third inning.

The cubs are now up 7.5 games in the division on the Milwaukee Brewers and their magic numbers is 7. Ted Lilly will take the mound for the Cubs as they face off in an afternoon game against the Astros at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Hopefully we can watch another Cubs win and keep dropping that magic number!

Congrats to Big Z on his memorable no hitter!