Carlos Zambrano is Chill and Other Bullets

It’s probably for the best that the Cubs didn’t win the series against the Yankees, lest we all be left to wonder what might have been if the Cubs had just played up to their ability earlier in the season.

  • Randy Wells says his arm strength is feeling more normal with every start, even if the results aren’t quite where he wants them to be. At times he looked like the Randy Wells of the past two years – hitting his spots, great late movement, great sinker – and at times he looked like a BP pitcher.
  • Mike Quade offers the self-unaware quote of the week: “You just keep working through it to winning series. It’s funny, the three-in-a-row thing … but I’ll take two out of three the rest of the year and never win three in a row and be really happy about it. You can make a lot of money in this game doing that.” The Chicago Cubs haven’t won back-to-back series since 2010. Keep hoping for two out of three, Mike.
  • Quade used Chris Carpenter’s rough outing last night as a teachable moment. When he removed the kid, Quade was seen giving Carpenter a talk rather than just taking the ball. “He just told me to keep trusting in my stuff every time you go out there, adjust, and get better every time you go out,” Carpenter said. “Use today as a stepping stone or learning curve, whatever you want to call it. Just don’t get down on yourself and stay positive out there.” For his part, Quade says he sees Carpenter as a closer in the future.
  • For those of you “vote with your wallet” types, this won’t make you too happy: the Cubs set a franchise attendance record in their three-game set against the Yankees. It was the highest series attendance since 2007, and included the highest single game attendance – Saturday’s game – since 1978.
  • Fluffy questions about the Crosstown series, which starts today.
  • Mike Quade is pretty excited about the series, which he admits is a little more important than just any other series. I actually like that.
  • Yes, last year around this time at the Cell is when and where Carlos Zambrano blew up at Derrek Lee, leading to a month-long suspension and anger management. We get it. Does everyone in the media have to write about it as though that somehow makes it more likely that he’ll have a blowup today? I’m not even going to link for fear that the shear volume of articles would overwhelm this post.
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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