Harang and Zambrano Battle Again in Cubs 3-2 Win

Division rivals Aaron Harang and Carlos Zambrano met for the eighth time on Saturday.

Harang is 4-2 head-to-head and Zambrano is 1-5.

Harang left for a pinch hitter after seven innings. He allowed three runs, all by home run. In his first 12 innings of the season, Harang has given up four home runs.

Kosuke Fukudome hit a two-run home run and Alfonso Soriano hit a solo home run.

The blasts nulified the run scoring single by Ryan Hanigan and Brandon Phillips two-run home run off Zambrano.

Pinch hitter Jeff Baker greeted Harang's retalief, Arthur Rhodes with a home run to give Zambrano the opportunity to post his 16th career win against Cincinnati. Cincinnati has beaten Zambrano 10 times. But by pitching into the seventh inning for the eighth straight start versus the Reds, Zambrano was the beneficiary.

Carlos Marmol struck out the side in the ninth inning to preserve the win for Zambrano.

"You don't see theat happen to Arthur too often," Dusty Baker said. "It looked like a good pitch and he went down and got it. They have a good bench over there."

Harang has been battling "the crud, that's going around" he gave up just four hits and walked no one.

"I just made a couple mistakes and they made me pay for them," Harang said. "It is part of baseball, you have to battle through it, when you're not feeling well. Everybody does it."

"All three home runs were on breaking balls," Baker said. "They didn't miss them or pop it up. You hate to lose like that. After we scored early, we didn't get a whole lot of chances."

One chance the did have was shut down when firstbaseman Derreck Lee jumped to corral another line drive by Jay Bruce with Phillips running and two out. Bruce has one hit in 18 at bats but is hitting line drives all over the place. He showed frustration after Lee's grab.

"Jay's been hitting in some tough, tough luck. He's hit some line drives every day. I don't think there is a taller firstbaseman in the league that could have caught that ball. It's hard to keep telling him to keep swinging," Baker said.

Rhodes has given up less than a home run per nine innings for his career covering 782 appearances and 1101 2/3 innings. In his last five seasons coming into this one. He has been touched for seven home runs in 117 2/3 innings or .35 per nine innings.

"I started him (Jeff Baker)off with a change up because most guys come off the bench looking first pitch fastball," Rhodes said. "Then I threw him a fastball away. I threw him a good slider down and in. It just caught the good part of the bat. It was a good pitch. It was only only one run. I came back and threw some good pitches and got the last three out. You can't hang your head. You have to come back tomorrow."