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Cubs try to salvage series against rolling Astros

Sep 3, 2008 - 12:48 PM Houston (73-66) at Chi Cubs (85-54), 8:05 pm EDT

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Cubs have the best record in the National League, but not all is perfect as the club now has reason be concerned about the health of staff ace Carlos Zambrano.

While the Cubs try to avoid a three-game sweep against the Houston Astros on Wednesday, Zambrano will pay a visit to team doctor Dr. Stephen Gryzlo for an evaluation on his injured arm.

Zambrano complained of pain in his throwing arm after tossing five pedestrian innings in Tuesday's loss.

"He told our pitching coach he was not feeling good," Piniella said. "He went upstairs to our trainer and he will see our team doctors tomorrow. When we know more about it, we will let you know about it."

Zambrano returned to the rotation after having his scheduled outing over the weekend pushed back due to a tired arm and surrendered three runs, five hits and three walks over 86 pitches.

"I had no idea there was anything wrong with him," Cubs catcher Geovany Soto said. "The first two innings, he threw the ball real well and after that, he just seemed to try and compete."

If the burly righthander is out for the stretch run of the season, the Cubs could see their 4 1/2-game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers (80-58) in the National League Central dissipate.

Such stakes make righthander Ryan Dempster (15-5, 2.95 ERA) all the more valuable to their suddenly brittle rotation. The Cubs are set to skip Rich Harden's turn in the rotation this week for precautionary reasons, and a report in the Chicago Sun-Times this week claimed Dempster will follow suit sometime in the near future.

With Zambrano's possible serious injury, Dempster will need to maintain his stellar work put forth all season. He will attempt to notch his career high in wins while the Cubs try to avoid losing a season-high five games in a row.

Dempster is 4-8 with a 5.29 ERA in 14 career starts and 1-2 with a 2.84 ERA in three outings in 2008 versus the Astros, who will look for their second eight-game winning streak in less than a month.

Randy Wolf (8-11, 4.73) will counter for the Astros with hopes of improving to 3-1 in eight starts with the team since being traded from the San Diego Padres on July 23.