Carlos Zambrano Did Not Help His Cause Today

Carlos Zambrano, who recently found it in his good graces to extend the Opening Day ultimatum he'd given the Cubs to give him a- well- a Carlos Zambrano sized extension, did not have a good afternoon as the Opening Day starter in the Cubbies rotation today. He walked five batters and gave up five earned runs in only five innings of work as Adam Dunn went to work on the Big Z, taking him deep twice in the first three innings.

I always wonder how much a performance like this will actually alter contract negotiations. I mean, the Cubs are paying him for the past four plus years, not for this afternoon. And for his part, Z certainly was ready for today. The radar gun on WGN showed him hitting 96 mph even into the fifth inning today. It was really the control issues that killed him, and they get lots of pitchers at this time of year. Perhaps if the currently discussed figures are correct, Zambrano's deal will drop from $85 million to $84.5 million.

As for the Reds side of things, I already mentioned Dunn's two homers and Aaron Harang picked right up where he left off last year with seven strong innings, scattering six hits and allowing only an unearned run. Oh, and the Ken Griffey Jr. and Ryan Freel thing with center field and right field clearly seemed to work out as the two went a combined 4-for-7 and each drew a walk and scored a run. And I'm so excited that it's Opening Day that I sat inside watching most of the game thinking to myself, "Damn, it sure is nice outside."