It is quickly becoming a lost season for Carlos Zambrano and, not so coincidentally, the Cubs as well.
When they have needed an ace to lift them up the most, Zambrano has either been on the disabled list or missing in action, which is where he was Sunday in a 4-1 loss to the Mets.
On July 27, the last time Zambrano pitched past the fifth inning, the Cubs beat Houston and shot into first place by a half-game.
He is winless since and, with his loss Sunday, the Cubs are a season-high 10 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central.
Part of the difference?
Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter is 14-3 this season, while Zambrano has half as many victories and twice as many losses.
But of all his starts, Sunday’s may have been the most disappointing, not because the Cubs are still in a pennant race but because they were feeling good about themselves after two straight victories over the Mets and Zambrano was supposed to be back on tack.
Eleven hits and four runs in 3 1/3 innings?
“I thought he would be better,” manager Lou Piniella said.
“Of course,” Zambrano replied when asked if he was disappointed. “We’re in the middle of a pennant race. And I pitched OK, I didn’t make too many mistakes, but it looked like [the Mets] came ready to hit.”
Well, to be sure, the Mets came ready to hit Zambrano, sending him to the showers in the fourth inning when nine of the last 11 batters he faced had hits.
They had one hit, a meaningless single, in the final 5 2/3 innings off Tom Gorzelanny, Sean Marshall, John Grabow and Angel Guzman.
Cubs batters collected only six hits in seven innings off Mets starter Nelson Figueroa, who was 0-3 with a 7.11 ERA in three previous starts this season, not to mention 0-4 in nine lifetime appearances against the Cubs.
In other words, the Mets came ready to hit Zambrano, who was very hittable.
“You can see the bullpen did an excellent job with the same [Mets] lineup,” Piniella said.
Figueroa looked more like Zambrano than Zambrano did on an afternoon when a cool wind was blowing in from left field at 15 m.p.h.
“[Figueroa] threw strikes,” Piniella said. “This was a very nice park to pitch in today. The threat of a home run was nonexistent and you had to bunch your hits to score, which [the Mets] did.”
And the Cubs didn’t. They had more than one hit in only the first inning, when they scored on a Milton Bradley walk and consecutive singles by Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez.
As for Zambrano, in his two starts since returning from a DL stint for back spasms, he has given up 18 hits and 12 runs in 7 2/3 innings for a 12.91 earned-run average.
Are there still physical problems?
“I feel fine,” Zambrano said. “Physically, I feel great. I’ve been working hard on everything, doing everything to finish the season strong.”
Pitching coach Larry Rothschild noted that Zambrano might be “opening up” too soon, which allowed Mets batters a better look at his pitches.
“I will work on that in my next bullpen session,” Zambrano said.
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Big number
.15
Nine-inning average number of home runs allowed by Carlos Marmol (one in 60 1/3 innings). Atlanta’s Peter Moylan has allowed none in 56 2/3 innings.
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dvandyck@tribune.com
