Cubs Win Their Opener On The Road...

This isn't a sports blog but I do mention the highlights of the Chicago sports scene, and certainly the Cuba winning their road opener is a highlight because the way they play ball it could be the last win of the season....

Cubs, Big Z beat Astros in season opener

-- chicagotribune.com: "HOUSTON — If they held an election last October to pick the top goat of the Cubs' playoff loss to Los Angeles, Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez probably would've finished 1-2 in the voting.

The two wound up a combined 3-for-25 in the Dodgers' three-game sweep.But Soriano and Ramirez helped get the Cubs' 2009 season off to a good start Monday, homering off Roy Oswalt to kick-start the offense in a 4-2 win over the Astros.

Carlos Zambrano allowed one run in six innings, striking out six while earning his first Opening Day victory in his fifth attempt.

Asked beforehand what was going to be the key for Zambrano, manager Lou Piniella said: 'He's calm, cool and collected. Let's keep it like that for eight good innings.'"Zambrano? Calm, cool and collected?

He managed to do just that for six-plus innings, which was fine by Piniella.

"I think the first two years I've been here he probably over-readied himself," Piniella said of Zambrano's Opening Day struggles. "But he seems nice and relaxed and confident."Soriano was also relaxed and confident, as ESPN announcer Rick Sutcliffe discovered when he walked up to Soriano's locker before the game.

"What did I say in spring training?" Sutcliffe asked Soriano.

"Just me and you, baby," Soriano replied.

"I said, that's my MVP this year," Sutcliffe said.

"Just stay healthy, that's the key," Soriano said.

"You going to prove me right?" Sutcliffe asked.

Soriano smiled sheepishly and said: "Yeah."

Asked afterward if being an MVP was his goal, Soriano said no and that he just wanted to stay healthy and put up some good numbers.

"Let's see if I can play 155 games," he said.

Piniella wouldn't say how many games he expects to play Soriano.

"My number is less than [155]," he said, laughing. "But he's feeling really, really good, he's moving well in the outfield and he's been swinging the bat here the last couple weeks of spring training. He's on target. We're going to try to rest these guys as much as possible, believe me."

After Soriano led off the game with a home run on Oswalt's second pitch, the 50th time he has done that in his career, Ramirez added his 250th career homer in the second. Mike Fontenot's double and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Theriot made it 3-0 in the fourth, giving Zambrano all the runs he needed.

Zambrano started out slowly but picked up steam, amping up his velocity as the game wore on.

He escaped a jam in the first when Carlos Lee flied to right with runners on first and second. Milton Bradley made the catch and threw to first, where Lance Berkman had scampered back. But Derrek Lee spotted Kaz Matsui well off second, and fired to Theriot for the rare 9-3-6 double play.

With runners on first and third and one out in the third, Zambrano struck out Ivan Rodriguez on a 93-m.p.h. fastball before inducing Berkman to ground to second to end the inning. Zambrano gave a slight fist pump as the ball rolled toward Fontenot, and proceeded to dominant afterward.

He retired the next 10 hitters, and was yanked in the seventh after a leadoff single by Miguel Tejada and a walk to Geoff Blum. Aaron Heilman induced a double-play grounder, before Michael Bourn's slow roller toward first resulted in an infield hit, bringing home Tejada with the Astros' first run.

Neal Cotts got the final out to get the Cubs out of the inning, before Carlos Marmol posted a scoreless eighth. Pinch-hitter Micah Hoffpauir added an insurance run in the ninth with a two-out, RBI single, and new closer Kevin Gregg closed it out in the ninth.

---