MESA—On a cool,partly cloudy day,the San Francisco Giants remained one of the hottest teams in Spring Training by beating the Cubs 5-1.Carlos Zambrano had an easy 1-2-3 first inning,got out of trouble in the top of the second after Aubrey Huff led off with a double, but the “Bad Z” showed up in the Giants third when John Bowker,Kevin Frandsen and Aaron Rowand each singled to fill the bases. Zambrano then plunked Eugenio Velez to force in Bowker, and switch hitting Pablo Sandoval hit one hard into the jet stream which helped take it into the Cub bullpen in right field for a grand slam to cap a five run inning.That was all the Giants needed.
The Cubs got their run in the bottom of the fourth off San Francisco’s second pitcher Brandon Medders when Derrek Lee walked, Michah Hoffpauir ran for him, took second on a wild pitch,and scored on a double over CF Velez’s head. Zambrano(0-1) left after three innings,giving up the five runs on six hits,walking one and fanning one.

NOTES—The weather has been wierd to say the least. At game time here in Mesa it was 55* but in Chicago it was 58*! Some Spring Training Desert weather….The cool weather his holding attendance down as just 9,381 saw this game at Ho Ho Ka,which usualy leads all of baseball in Spring crowds……The Giants improved to 7-1 while the Cubs dropped to 3-3….The Cubs play the San Diego Padres in Peoria Az Thursday with Carlos Silva(0-1)opposing Jon Garland(0-0).

LES