NEWSLETTER
It’s ok to admit that you nervously peed yourself just a little bit when Carlos Zambrano threw an awkward-looking pitch, looked down at his hand, flexed it, and then proceeded to leave the game mid-at-bat .
Ha, you just admitted that you peed yourself. And it was all for nothing.
Zambrano left the game due to cramping in his right hand – he also experienced some hamstring cramps – and nothing more. Both he and Mike Quade say they aren’t concerned.
“I was kind of worried about it,” Zambrano said. “I threw that pitch [to Jones] with nothing [on it]. Hopefully, we can work on this and take care of this before my next outing.”
“It’s nothing serious,” Cubs manager Mike Quade said. “I guess he thought he could get through it. I wish we’d found out about it and made a decision about it before the home run.”…
“It’s no big deal,” Zambrano said. “I thought I could get away with that. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
Quade wasn’t upset that Zambrano didn’t tell the team he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.
“You want guys to say, ‘I got it, I’m going to do this,'” Quade said. “It’s a fine line. If you can’t, you can’t. They’ve been honest with me. I love the fact he wants to go back out there, but we’re talking about the first start of the year, and there’s a lot of baseball left to be played.”
Zambrano has been bothered by cramps in the past in his forearm and hand.
“You just deal with it,” Quade said. “If he’ll throw 100 pitches and give up two or less runs every outing, he can cramp up all he wants.”
Zambrano should be fine to make his next start this week. Somebody just get him some Gatorade – and keep him away from the cooler.
