A week into August and the Rockies revamped bullpen appears to be as good as advertised. The only run the pen has allowed since the trade deadline was given up by deadline acquisition Joe Beimel when Joey Votto homered off of him against the Reds on Sunday. The Cubs, meanwhile, have been leaking runs out in the late innings like a sieve, leading only Milwaukee in reliever ERA this month. The key to this game and the series might be getting past the Cubs starters into the parts of their pitching staff they don't really want us to see.
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For tonight, this plan could go well with our patient, left hand heavy lineup, as Zambrano has fairly chunky walk rate and is coming off the shortest outing of his season on Monday.
Omar Quintanilla gets the start at second tonight in place of the slumping Clint Barmes, we'll see how this works out, but it's not likely to be much worse.