Here is some more bad news for Cardinals fans: Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano is back in fine form.

In his second start since returning from the disabled list, Zambrano beat the Reds 5-1. He allowed just one hit in eight innings – an Adam Dunn homer – and he struck out five batters.

Zambrano threw 103 pitches and lobbied, unsuccessfully, to close out the game himself.

“Tonight he was really, really good,” Dunn told reporters after the game. “The pitch I hit was probably the only mistake he made the entire game. That’s probably the best I’ve seen him in a long time.”

Newcomer Rich Harden is getting lots of attention in Chicago these days, but Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti reminded fans that the Big Z is still the show.

“Cubdom will be watching, all right, focusing cautiously on Harden’s cranky right shoulder. But make no mistake, the newcomer is merely the yin to the yang of Carlos Zambrano, who always will be considered the pitching savior in any ongoing World Series scenario,” Mariotti wrote. “On a team of heavenly salaries and huge expectations, Zambrano is the crackling fire, the heart and soul on which this season’s giddy conviction is based.

“The lineup is potent. The bullpen is sturdy. The home record, 35-10, is ridiculous. Yet if the Cubs are to purge their long trail of trauma, once and for all, it will be done in October with a deep, high-quality rotation that features Z as the ace while Harden, Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly fall into place.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while poor Mark Mulder gets on his life:

• Why don’t the Cards just plug Brad Thompson into the starting rotation and see if he can repeat last year’s success?
• Did Rich Rodriguez really believe he could ignore that buyout clause in his West Virginia contract?
• Who could have guessed the Los Angeles Clippers would lose their key player to free agency?

MUST HAVE BEEN SOME PARTY

Lake Magazine reports Lake Martin, Ala., resident Shannon McDuffie recently found the pants of former Auburn football coach Pat Dye.

The pants washed ashore. Dye’s wallet and keys were still in the pocket. Here is the kicker: the pants have been missing for more than 20 years.

“I do remember those pants,” Dye told the magazine. “I don’t have any idea how I lost them, but we can make up a good story.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “In his recent book, Herschel Walker reveals he has multiple personality disorder. That’s no surprise to me. I could have told you that a long time ago when Herschel was running over the Gators while he was in college. One year, for instance, he transformed into Jim Brown, the next year he thought he was Eric Dickerson and the year after that he was Walter Payton.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “People are buzzing about Rafael Nadal’s five-set Wimbledon win over Roger Federer. Great match. And now a great rivalry, something that golf and women’s tennis lacks. Nadal seems like a nice kid as well as a terrific player. One suggestion, though: Check into some sleeves. Hide the guns, and while you’re at it, Rafa, try men’s pants.”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Can’t say I was overjoyed about the epic match between Nadal and Federer. I mean, if this keeps up, I’ll have to start watching tennis. On the other hand, the matching headband bit was very cute. If I’m not mistaken, the last couple to pull that off was John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘Perfect.’”

Rick Reilly, ESPN.com: “Yankee Stadium is our Roman Coliseum, our sports Louvre, our Delphi. So why are people planning to steal from it? Because they should. They must! The cathedral of baseball has a date with bulldozers at the end of this season before the new Yankee Stadium (ugh) opens in 2009. That means next week’s All-Star game sets up as a kind of Final Viewing, and, like any good funeral, grievers will be trying to slide a wristwatch or a set of cufflinks off the corpse on the way by. This might turn into a pickpocket convention: armrests, pieces of façade, maybe even turnstiles will go missing.”

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, angry over comments by Keith Hernandez during last Sunday’s Mets-Yankees telecast, had a ‘very heated’ confrontation with the broadcaster aboard the team’s charter plane that night, the New York Post reported. Luckily, other Mets stepped in before the flight turned into a red-eye.”

MEGAPHONE

“You know why I like that? I don’t see guys mumbling behind people’s backs and stabbing teammates in the back. If you want to say something, say it there and then we figure out things to settle down.”

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, after two of his players, Orlando Cabrera and Jermaine Dye, nearly came to blows.