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Andrew Zarzour surprised even himself. He thought he closed his eyes right before swinging but felt the hard vibration of contact anyway. He opened his eyes up to see a high pop up hanging in the air toward right field. Sammy Sosa settled under it, and Zarzour was out to end the fourth inning.
But he had made contact with a Major League pitch! Nice...
The game seemed to hum along from there. Zarzour gave up a single to Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel in the top of the fifth, but struck out Alex Gonzalez. His teammates then engineered a beautiful 5-4-3 double play that was sure to be on SportsCenter later in the evening. Trachsel tried to take out Eric Young with a slide, but Young soared over him and delivered a nice strike for the second out at first.
Sammy Sosa led off the sixth inning for the Cubs, but Zarzour struck him out! Whoa Nelly! Preston Wilson and Mark Grace then hit into ground-ball outs, and the score stayed 3-1.
Dodgers manager Davey Johnson kept Zarzour in the game through the top of the seventh, and the youngster worked another 1-2-3 inning. Kirt Manwaring struck out. Henry Rodriguez flied out to right-center, and Mickey Morandini hit into a ground out to second. Wow...
Zarzour knew his night was done when Johnson told back-up catcher Paul LoDuca to step into the on-deck circle in the bottom of the seventh inning. But Zarzour couldn't complain.
His line for the night: 7 innings pitched, five hits allowed, one earned run, one walk, five strikeouts. Of the 80 pitches he threw, 50 were for strikes. His ERA would be 1.29 after the evening. But would his record be 1-0? That would be up to the bullpen...
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