Carlos Zambrano was yelling and pumping his arms, looking as if he might go into another full-fledged meltdown.Instead, he kept his composure. He also kept a good run going.Zambrano passed Kerry Wood on the Cubs’ strikeouts list, Starlin Castro became the club’s first rookie in 66 years with six straight multi-hit games and the Northsiders beat the New York Mets 5-3 on Saturday.The Cubs won for the eighth time in 11 games under interim manager Mike Quade, thanks to another sharp performance from Zambrano and big day at the plate from Castro.Zambrano (7-6) moved into third on the club’s strikeout list with 1,411 – four more than Wood – after registering eight over seven innings. He allowed two runs and four hits while improving to 4-0 in six starts since his latest return to the rotation, another twist in a wild season that has seen the volatile ace bounce back and forth from the bullpen and get suspended for a dugout confrontation with former teammate Derrek Lee.The recent success comes while he’s dealt with a seriously ill nephew back home in Venezuela.That theory was tested with runners on first and third in the fourth, when Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran orchestrated a double steal as Lucas Duda struck out for the second out. Beltran eluded the tag from Castro at second as Castillo scored, cutting the Cubs’ lead to 2-1, and Zambrano wasn’t happy.But instead of losing it, he regained his composure and struck out Ike Davis to end the inning.Zambrano said Castro apologized and that he told the shortstop not to worry.And the fact is, Castro is proving to be a quick study — particularly at the plate.He raised his average to .321 with a double and single, scored a run and stole a base. The Cubs said he is the team’s first rookie with two or more hits in six straight games since Don Johnson did it from May 21-28, 1944.Marlon Byrd had two hits and scored twice for the Cubs, and Aramis Ramirez hit his 21st homer.Geovany Soto doubled in a run in the second and Xavier Nady added a sacrifice fly in the third as the Cubs grabbed a 2-0 lead. The double steal made it a one-run game, but the Cubs scored two in the fifth against Jenrry Mejia (0-3), sending New York to its fifth loss in six games.Byrd doubled to the right-field corner, driving in Castro after he led off with a single, and came around on a wild pitch to Tyler Colvin on what would have been an inning-ending strikeout to make it 4-1.New York’s Ike Davis cut the lead to two with a solo homer to right-center in the seventh, but Ramirez answered with one of his own against Elmer Dessens leading off the bottom half. Beltran doubled in a run in the eighth against Andrew Cashner, cutting it to 5-3, but the Cubs held on.Carlos Marmol struck out three in a scoreless ninth for his 27th save in 32 chances and third in as many games. He gave up a one-out single to Davis before getting Josh Thole and a pinch-hitting Mike Hessman to end the game.

NOTES—Mets ace Johan Santana (strained left pectoral muscle) expects to know if he’ll make his next start after a bullpen session Sunday. He threw in the outfield for about eight minutes before Saturday’s game. His next scheduled start is Tuesday against Washington…..Charlie Root is second on the Cubs’ strikeout list with 1,432, while Fergie Jenkins leads with 2,038.

CLEVELAND—OK, so the Bears finished this worthless so-called Pre Season winless. But so did the Indianapolis Colts for example. Many key Bears did not play in this one, same for the Cleveland Browns.Montario Hardesty, whose career at Tennessee was slowed by knee injuries, hurt his left one in the second quarter of Thursday night’s 13-10 win over the Bears, a potentially major blow to the Browns’ running game.Fellow rookie Colt McCoy got his first pro start and went a perfect 13 of 13 for 131 yards in two-plus quarters. The former Texas star fumbled his first snap, but finally showed some potential in easily his best performance of an otherwise rough preseason.Quarterback Todd Collins, recently signed by the Bears to back up Jay Cutler, completed 10 of 15 for 139 yards and a 15-yard TD pass to tight end Greg Olsen for the Bears (0-4).Phil Dawson kicked a 36-yard field goal — set up when Browns defensive back DeAngelo Smith blocked a Brad Maynard punt — as time expired for the Browns (2-2).Hardesty showed his inside power before getting hurt, scoring on a 1-yard run in the first quarter. He finished with 25 yards on seven carries.The team provided no details on Hardesty’s injury.Not wanting to risk injuries with their season openers looming, both teams rested most of their starters. Cutler didn’t play and the Browns sat starting QB Jake Delhomme and backup Seneca Wallace.Collins set up Cleveland’s TD with his own miscue. Backed up after a holding penalty, Collins was in the shotgun when he turned his head just as second-string center Josh Beekman hiked the ball. It bounced off Collins and Cleveland recovered at the 13. “It was pretty comfortable on most things,” Collins said. “The formations and play-calling, some of them I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be, but overall I thought it was a pretty decent effort other than the mishap we had on the shotgun snap.”

NOTES—Bears GM Jerry Angelo is comfortable with the 38-year-old Collins as Chicago’s second QB. “We’ve seen enough of him,” said Angelo, who plans to keep three quarterbacks. “His arm looks live. We feel good about him. We have confidence that he’s going to be our backup.” … Angelo said some of the final roster decisions will be difficult. “We have more decisions with the roster this year than we have had with past rosters on the fringe players.” … Dawson was wide on a 58-yarder on the final play of the first half. He also made a 24-yarder.　

Final 1 2 3 4 T Northern Illinois  (0-1) 0 0 3 7 10 Iowa State  (1-0) « 7 10 0 10 27

AMES—Alexander Robinson rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns and Iowa State beat Northern Illinois 27-10 Thursday night.Austen Arnaud added 265 yards passing and a TD run for the Cyclones (1-0), who raced out to a 17-0 halftime lead. Iowa State’s offense stalled much of the second half, but its new-look defense held the Huskies (0-1) to just 249 yards of offense.Robinson’s 63-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter put the Cyclones ahead 14-0. NIU pulled within 17-10 midway through the fourth quarter, but Robinson’s 5-yard touchdown run with 5:05 left put the game out of reach.Quarterback DeMarcus Grady threw three interceptions for Northern, which fell to 4-10 against the Big 12.The Cyclones looked set to cruise to an easy and encouraging win against the preseason favorites in the MAC’s West division, but the Huskies sprung to life early in the second half. Northern Illinois quickly drove to Iowa State’s 2-yard line on their first series of the third quarter. But Iowa State’s defense, which only had three returning starters, buckled down and held the Huskies to a 19-yard field goal that made it 17-3.Iowa State sophomore Jake Knott had two interceptions, and the first pick bailed the Cyclones out deep in their own territory late in the third quarter. Daniel Kuehl’s shanked punt gave the Huskies a short field, though, and Grady’s touchdown run with 8:51 left made it 17-10.The Cyclones put the pesky Huskies away on their next drive. Arnaud found Collin Franklin for a 34-yard reception, and a personal foul on a failed third-down conversion gave Iowa State new life.Robinson followed with his second TD of the night, and Knott’s second pick set up Grant Mahoney’s 23-yard field goal with 2:37 left.Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill had three choices at quarterback, and few knew Grady had won the job until he trotted onto the field.Grady showed promise running the ball, with 54 yards on 14 carries, but he was just 14-of-29 passing for 93 yards.Chad Spann had 80 yards rushing for the Huskies.Iowa State opened the scoring on a 2-yard touchdown run by Arnaud late in the first quarter, which came after his apparent 53-yard TD run was called back for illegal procedure.Iowa State safety Zac Sandvig, in for the suspended David Sims, picked off Grady to open the second quarter. On the next play, Robinson ran through a massive hole up the middle and shook off a few late tackles to make it 14-0. The 63-yard run was the third-longest of Robinson’s career.Cyclones appeared set to cruise into halftime until Tracy Wilson intercepted a tipped Arnaud pass and brought it back to the Iowa State 23. But Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads burned a pair of timeouts icing Michael Cklamovski on a 33-yard field-goal try and it worked, as Cklamovski hooked it left. Arnaud, who spent the offseason tweaking his throwing motion, was 27-of-36 passing but threw a pair of interceptions.Though it was only the opener, this was a crucial win for the Cyclones given how tough their schedule looks to be. Iowa State plays four preseason top 10 teams, starting with next week’s trip to No. 9 Iowa. The rival Hawkeyes figure to be a much tougher test than the Huskies.

Kosuke Fukudome had three hits, including a go-ahead double, during a perfect day at the plate and the Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 on Wednesday to take two of three and a series from the team with Baseball’s worst record for the only time this season.Carlos Marmol escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning and finished for his 25th save in 30 chances.Starter Tom Gorzelanny was knocked out in the third when Jose Tabata lined a shot off his right hand. The left-hander departed for X-rays, but five Cubs relievers combined to allow four hits the rest of the way.Thomas Diamond (1-3), who replaced Gorzelanny, gave up two runs and two hits in 1 2-3 innings for the win. Marmol walked in a run with two outs in the eighth but struck out Tabata to preserve a 5-3 lead. The victory left the Cubs at 5-10 vs the Bucs this season.The ten wins Pittsburgh got against the Cubs were twice as many as they got against any other opponents this season(5 vs both the Brewers and Reds. To put this in another persepctive, the Pirates have 10 of their Maor League worst 44 wins against the Northsiders!

NOTES—Attendance was announced as 33,555…..The Cubs have Thursday off,then host the New York Mets starting Friday at 1:20pm with Randy Wells(6-12)facing R.A.Dickey(9-5).

LES

CLEVELAND—For the second straight game, Manny Ramirez watched from a few feet away as one of his new teammates hit a game-winning homer.He provided only a bloop a single in his debut but he was on deck when Paul Konerko hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to give the White Sox a 6-4 win and three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday.Ramirez’s debut with the White Sox was anything but a hit for seven innings. The Sox trailed 4-1 going into the eighth, but they rallied after the Indians pulled Carlos Carrasco, who was making his first start of 2010.With the intimidating Ramirez waiting in the on-deck circle, Konerko connected with two outs off Justin Germano (0-1) as the White Sox improved to 3-0 on a 10-game trip that will next take them to Boston, where Ramirez may not be welcomed back with open arms by Red Sox fans.On Tuesday night, Ramirez was on deck in the ninth and ready to pinch hit when A.J. Pierzynski hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in a 4-3 win. Tony Pena (4-2) pitched three innings after replacing Freddy Garcia, who left after four with a stiff back. Rookie Chris Sale, the team’s first-round draft pick, pitched the ninth for his first career save. The left-hander struck out Shin Soo-Choo with the tying runs on base to end it.Wearing his familiar No. 99 and dreadlocks yet to be trimmed to team appearance standards, Ramirez went 1 for 3 in his return to the AL after 2½ seasons with the Dodgers. He grounded out in the second, struck out in the fourth, blooped a single to right in the seventh and was hit in the upper back by a 70 mph breaking ball from Germano in the ninth, two pitches after Konerko hit his 33rd homer.The White Sox were counting on Ramirez’s presence in their lineup to make a difference, and it already has — without him even hitting the ball hard.They did get a home run from its other Ramirez, shortstop Alexei, whose solo homer started the comeback in the eighth. He added a sacrifice fly in the ninth.Alex Rios also homered for the Sox.Before the rally, the Sox hardly looked like a team in playoff contention. They made three errors and struggled against Carrasco, recalled from Triple-A Columbus to start the series finale. He allowed six hits and three runs in 7 1/3 innings.In the fourth, Garcia attempted to field an infield roller hit by Jason Nix to the left of the mound. After chasing it, he walked back to the rubber slowly but appeared OK. He finished the inning, but didn’t come out for the fifth and was replaced by Pena.Garcia, who is 8-2 in his last 16 starts, has managed to stay off the disabled list so far this season after injury problems hampered him the past three years.Along with running a team that always seems immersed in controversy, Ozzie Guillen is doing all he can to manage expectations about what Ramirez can do for his team in the season’s final month as they chase the first-place Minnesota Twins.

NOTES—With Ramirez on board, the White Sox are the second team in history to have players with at least 300 (Konerko), 400 (Andruw Jones) and 500 (Ramirez) homers. The 2002 Texas Rangers were the first with Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro. … Of Konerko’s 33 homers, 12 have come in the eighth inning or later. … Indians 1B Matt LaPorta (strained left hip) was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game. He singled as a pinch-hitter in the ninth on Tuesday. LaPorta had surgery on the hip in October.