CHICAGO -- So how come they can't do this anywhere but cold, damp Wrigley Field?
Fresh off sweeping the big, bad Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, the Cubs bullied the anemic San Diego Padres 12-3 on Monday night, proving once again that they can take the whup-up out of the can, even if they can't take the can on the road.
Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, the Cubs are experiencing one of the largest, most confounding discrepancies in the game -- hitting 70 points higher and scoring nearly three more runs per game at home than on the road.
Consequently, they lead the majors with 15 home wins, allowing them to take over sole possession of first place in the National League Central for the first time in two weeks despite a losing road record.
"I don't know -- the Friendly Confines?" asked shortstop Ryan Theriot, who reached base four times and scored three times Monday. "I have no idea why."
"It don't make no sense to me," cleanup hitter Aramis Ramirez said.
But these are the facts: Despite an almost identical home and road ERA, the Cubs haven't won a road series in their last five tries after winning their first road series in Pittsburgh.
That's because of a .246 road average and 4.3 runs per game on the road, compared with home numbers entering Monday of a .313 average (second in the majors), .399 on-base percentage (first), .502 slugging (first) and seven runs per game.
Carlos Zambrano got in on the offensive fun Monday, connecting for a double to leadoff the Cubs' six-run fifth that included an Alfonso Soriano home run. Zambrano added a single in the sixth when the Cubs tallied five more runs.
Zambrano won his fifth straight decision on the mound. Pitching with an extra day's rest after his start Sunday was scratched because of rainy conditions, Zambrano (6-1) allowed six hits and three runs in seven innings.
The Cubs have three players ranked in the top 10 in the league in home hitting, including Kosuke Fukudome (third, .441) and Derrek Lee (ninth, .358). Those two are hitting .209 and .271 on the road. Reed Johnson, Ramirez and Theriot also have big home-road gaps.
It's one of the areas manager Lou Piniella wants to fix when he says, as he did Monday, "‘We have work to do."
"‘Our rotation's still in a little bit of flux," he said. "And offensively, we've hit really well at home and not hit nearly as well on the road, so there's some work there. Some middle ground."
Why?
"I don't have any answers to it," he said. "But it's too early to draw any conclusions."
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