(postgame, Carlos Zambrano contemplates the fate of Cubs fans who booed him.)

Fortunately for Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs, who took a solid beating from the Dodgers Monday of 11-3, the NL Central sported lots of key Labor Day losses, as the Cardinals and Brewers both fell down on the job just as hard. It kept the Cubs’ first place lead intact, but that’s all they got coming off of an inspriing come-from-behind weekend at Wrigley. As predicted in this space, the NL Central has tightened up into a Three-Way Dance of Cubs, Brewers, and Cardinals. The one Cub feeling heat these days from otherwise giddy Cub fans is Zambrano, utterly ineffective in his six starts of the division race. Instead of owning up to that, Zambrano put misbehaving Cub fans on notice:
“I don’t accept the fans were booing me,” Zambrano said. “I don’t understand that. I think these are great fans of baseball, but they showed me today they just care about them. That’s not fair.

“When you’re struggling, that’s when you want to feel support from the fans,” Zambrano said. “I don’t accept it. I just pointed to my head because I will remember it. The great moments of my career will come.”

Not soon enough for the Cubs. Zambrano has not won since July 29, and is 0-5 with an 8.29 ERA since, giving up 31 earned runs over 33 2/3 innings. Fifteen of those runs have come with two outs in the inning. Zambrano also has not won since signing a five-year, $91.5 million contract with the Cubs on Aug. 18.