All's Well That Ends Well

Carlos Zambrano didn't get his no-hitter. Or his shutout.

Zambrano never struck me as the kind of pitcher who ever wants to give up the ball, but Will Ohman came on for a 1-2-3 ninth, his tenth straight scoreless appearance, in a non-save situation. Big Z, who reportedly was okay about coming out of the game after losing the no-hitter, wound up throwing 126 pitches, allowing one hit and two walks and striking out eight over eight innings. Oh, and he hit a three-run homer off the top of the wall in deep right-center and had a total of four RBIs.

And hey hey, Cubs win 8-0.

The other story of the night is eight runs and 13 hits for the Cubs. Since the arrival of Tony Womack, he and four other Cubs are now batting between .301 and .312. Two hits for Todd Walker, .312. A single and the 11th home run for Jacque Jones, .310 (nope, that's not a misprint). Two hits for Cedeno, .307. A home run for Michael Barrett, .301. And despite going 0-for-5, Tony Womack is still at .357 in a Cub uniform and .304 overall.

So it's been a good week. Things are finally looking up. Derrek Lee's cast is off, Mark Prior's making rehab starts... only one little I-told-you-so, my man Corey Patterson is now 25 of 26 and leading the major leagues in stolen bases. I took a lot of flak for backing Corey last year...