Carlos Zambrano was unable to follow up his no-hit thriller on Friday afternoon from Wrigley Field, as Adam Kennedy’s grand slam highlighted a 5-run 1st inning & led the St. Louis Cardinals to a 12-6 win over the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs’ magic number to clinch remains at 2, and can be reduced to 1 if Milwaukee loses to Cincinnati on Friday evening.

Skip Schumaker led off the top of the 1st inning with a double against Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano.

Ryan Ludwick then singled, which put runners on 1st & 3rd with nobody out for Albert Pujols.

Pujols then hit an RBI single to score Schumaker from 3rd base & give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Felipe Lopez then walked to load the bases with nobody out.

2 batters later, Adam Kennedy hit a grand slam (2nd of season) to give St. Louis a 5-0 lead.

The Cubs had an early chance to cut into their deficit in the bottom of the 1st inning after Alfonso Soriano hit a lead-off single against Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright.

2 batters later, Derrek Lee walked to put runners at 1st & 2nd with just 1 out for Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez then popped out to Troy Glaus at 3rd base before Jim Edmonds’ groundout to Albert Pujols at 1st base ended the scoring threat.

The Cardinals then struck for more damage in the top of the 2nd inning, which started with Jason LaRue’s ground rule double off Zambrano.

2 batters later, Ryan Ludwick walked to put runners at 1st & 2nd with just 1 out for Felipe Lopez.

LaRue then scored from 3rd base on a wild pitch from Zambrano to give St. Louis a 6-0 lead during Felipe Lopez’s at-bat.

Lopez then hit an RBI single to score Ludwick from 3rd base, which gave the Cardinals a 7-0 lead.

Troy Glaus then walked to put runners at 1st & 2nd with 2 outs, which ended one of Carlos Zambrano’s most shortest outings of his career.

Sean Marshall then came into the game from the Cubs bullpen & gave up an RBI single to Adam Kennedy, which scored Lopez from 2nd base & gave St. Louis a commanding 8-0 lead.

The Cardinals scored another run in the top of the 4th inning after Aaron Miles hit a 2-out double off Cubs reliever Angel Guzman to score Adam Kennedy (who hit a 2-out single) from 1st base & give St. Louis a 9-0 lead.

Ryan Ludwick made it 11-0 in the 5th with his 2-run homer (34th of season) off Guzman.

The Cubs were able to end the shutout in the bottom of the 5th with an RBI double by Daryle Ward & a RBI groundout by Casey McGahee which made it an 11-2 game.

St. Louis scored their 12th & final run in the top of the 6th inning on Brian Barton’s 2-out RBI single.

Chicago scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning on Kosuke Fukudome’s 2-out RBI single & Mike Fontenot’s run on a wild pitch from St. Louis reliever Josh Kinney.

The Cubs then scored their final 2 runs of the game in the 9th inning on Casey McGehee’s RBI groundout & Felix Pie’s RBI double.

Adam Wainwright (10-3) gets the win for the Cardinals after pitching 5 innings & allowing 2 runs on 4 hits.

Carlos Zambrano (14-6) takes the loss for the Cubs & fails to join teammates Ryan Dempster & Ted Lilly as 15-game winners after allowing 8 runs on 6 hits in just 1 2/3 innings of work.

The Cubs could actually be celebrating their 2nd straight NL Central title with a win on Saturday afternoon against the Cardinals at 2:55 PM cst from Wrigley Field, as southpaw Ted Lilly (15-9, 4.13) will be opposed by Cardinals righthander Joel Pineiro (6-6, 5.24).

The Cubs have not won a start by Lilly at home since their August 8th win against St. Louis. Lilly has allowed just 1 hit over his last 15 innings of work & has a 3.30 ERA in 12 starts since the All-Star Break.

Piniero is 4-5 in 16 road starts this season with a 5.84 ERA & a 6.56 ERA in 8 starts since the All-Star Break.

Again, a Cubs win on Saturday (assuming that Milwaukee loses on Friday night) ensures that Chicago will clinch the NL Central for a 2nd consecutive season & make back-to-back trips to the postseason for the first time in 100 years.

Signing off for now,