Brewers manager Ned Yost was asked before Tuesday night’s game whether the Cubs would get a huge psychological lift if they beat Ben Sheets after handling CC Sabathia on Monday.
“Psychological lifts evaporate about the first of August,” Yost replied. “And we’re not even there yet, so …”
A couple of hours later, the Cubs battered Sheets in the sixth inning of a 7-1 victory, taking a 2-0 lead in the four-game showdown between the NL Central front-runners.
Whether Yost is channeling Dr. Sigmund Freud remains to be seen, but beating the Brewers’ pair of aces on back-to-back nights at Miller Park was definitely a pick-me-up for a Cubs team that has struggled to win on the road throughout the season.
Carlos Zambrano pitched eight innings of shutout ball, improving to 12-4, and the Cubs knocked out 15 hits, breaking open a tight game by stringing together seven straight hits off Sheets during a five-run sixth.
With the win, the Cubs increased their lead over Milwaukee to three games while staying four games ahead of third-place St. Louis.
“We’ve still got a lot of baseball to play, regardless of what happens in this series and regardless of who comes out on top,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “We’ve still got the months of August and September.”
There’s no doubt that plenty of time remains in the season, and the Cubs’ offense still has a few kinks to work out. But the Cubs are buoyed by the fact that their starters lead the league in pitching, and the staff as a whole leads the league in pitching since the All-Star break.
After finishing June on the disabled list, Zambrano ended July with a 4-1 record, allowing two or fewer runs in four of his five starts. He scattered five hits Tuesday, striking out nine and walking only two, while becoming unglued only once — after popping up a bunt in the fifth inning and breaking the bat over his knee.
Mark DeRosa’s sacrifice fly in the fourth gave Zambrano an early lead before the Cubs piled on against Sheets (10-4) in the decisive sixth.
With runners on second and third and no outs, Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun made a diving attempt on Kosuke Fukudome’s sinking liner, which rolled toward the wall for a two-run triple. DeRosa drove in the Cubs’ fourth run with a single, and Zambrano’s bases-loaded chopper drew a poor throw to the plate from shortstop J.J. Hardy, allowing another run to score.
Alfonso Soriano’s sacrifice fly made it 6-0 and ended Sheets’ night, giving road-tripping Cubs fans a chance to beat the traffic down Interstate Highway 94.
Zambrano was lifted after eight innings and 118 pitches, giving Jeff Samardzija a chance to pitch the ninth for the second straight outing. He gave up Milwaukee’s only run.
While everyone on both sides downplays the importance of the series, the Cubs have already earned at least a split, putting the pressure squarely on the Brewers.
As Yost said before the game, “This is not an everyday occurrence.”
The tense atmosphere can only help his young Brewers team down the road.
“I think it’s kind of like a dress rehearsal for postseason play,” Yost said. “This was a postseason atmosphere (Monday) night, it really was. Everything that went on, it’s exactly like the postseason. So to be able to experience that, it’s good, especially right now.
“You try to tell people or your players what the postseason is like … but you can’t because there’s no way you can tell them exactly the way it’s going to be, and when you get there it’s 50 times better than you explained it.”
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psullivan@tribune.com
