--LF Alfonso Soriano has seven homers, one short of the team record for April. 1B Derrek Lee hit eight last year. Sammy Sosa (2000, 2002) and Lee Walls (1958) are the other Cubs with eight home runs in April. Soriano has 52 homers leading off games. He's one behind Craig Biggio for second all time behind Rickey Henderson (81). Soriano was 0-for-4 Wednesday after hitting safely in 17 of the Cubs' first 19 games.
--After being benched Tuesday, C Geovany Soto returned to the lineup and went 0-for-3. He's 5-for-45 (.111) for the season. The Diamondbacks stole two bases Wednesday after stealing five in Monday's series opener. He is 3-for-16 in throwing out base stealers. --RHP Carlos Zambrano became the seventh pitcher to reach 1,200 strikeouts while with the Cubs when he fanned Arizona OF Chris Young in the second inning Tuesday. At the plate, Zambrano came a triple short of the cycle. He homered leading off the seventh. It was the 17th home run of his career, tops among Cubs pitchers all time.
BY THE NUMBERS: 11 -- Through the weekend series at St. Louis, Cubs starting pitchers already had turned in 11 quality starts for the season. With the offense struggling, the Cubs were only 5-6 in those games.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I will talk to him on a daily basis, and we'll see if he's ready to play. When he's ready, we'll get him in there." -- Manager Lou Piniella on RF Milton Bradley, who finally returned from a strained right groin on April 28.
