CHICAGO -- Carlos Zambrano can hit, he can run, he can pump his fist and he can jump, but the most important element of his game, as far as the Chicago Cubs are concerned, is that he can pitch.

Zambrano combined with two other pitchers on a one-hitter Saturday and Jeromy Burnitz hit his first home run to lead the Cubs to a 4-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

"He was lights out today, that's for sure," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "That just shows you why he's one of the best pitchers in the National League. When he's on, he's just about unhittable."

Zambrano (1-0) was as close to unhittable as he could be. The right-hander struck out six and walked two over 7 1/3 innings. He also had two hits, including an RBI single in the second, and he dove safely into third base advancing on a single by Corey Patterson in the seventh. He eventually scored on Todd Walker's two-run double.

"He was throwing great from the beginning," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "He threw the ball well, he hit well, he ran well. He did everything well today. He wanted that victory. He knew we needed it. His fastball was moving and he threw a great ballgame."

However, Zambrano gave his teammates and the crowd of 38,743 at Wrigley Field a nervous moment in the first inning. He stopped the game after striking out leadoff batter Brady Clark. Baker, trainer Mark O'Neal and the infielders all came out to the mound and looked at Zambrano's right forearm.

"It was the same thing that happened to me last year, a cramp," Zambrano said. "I have to drink more water. It has nothing to do with my elbow or my shoulder."

It apparently didn't affect his pitching.

"His stuff was moving all over the place," Milwaukee's Junior Spivey said. "You couldn't go up there and look for certain pitches because his stuff was moving so much. I don't think he located like he wanted to, but his stuff was so good that he could get away with doing that. There were pitches that looked, to me, like strikes, but I came in and looked on video and they weren't."

Burnitz enjoyed being on the same side as Zambrano for a change.

"If you're playing against him and he strikes you out and he's pumped up running off the field, it gets a little frustrating," Burnitz said. "Like I said, it was a lot of fun to watch him, and he can hit as well. He's a good guy to have on your side."

The Cubs may want to work on his baserunning technique. Zambrano slid head-first into third base in the seventh inning before eventually scoring on Walker's hit.

"Somebody said it looked like one of those old Western films where you get shot in the back going into third base, but he got there," Walker said. "When Z's throwing as well as he did [Saturday], nobody's going to give him a hard time about stuff like that."

Maybe someone will tell him to be careful?

"You're apprehensive about the head-first slide," Baker said. "That's what you don't like to see, because of the potential for injury to his shoulder and fingers, but that's how he plays. He's an athlete. He drove in the first run and got two hits. How do you monitor that? It's hard to monitor hustle, and he runs almost better than anybody on the club."

"I do anything to score a run," Zambrano said, "especially when Ben Sheets is on the mound or a good pitcher like [Roger] Clemens."

"I learned last year, you're not going to stop him," Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee said. "That's the way he plays. Most of the time you don't get hurt when you're playing hard."

Chad Fox pitched two-thirds of an inning in the eighth and LaTroy Hawkins pitched the ninth for Chicago. It was a good comeback for Hawkins, who blew a save opportunity in the home opener Friday.

"That's what I always do, is try to get guys back in there as soon as possible," Baker said of Hawkins. "He threw the ball well today. Things worked out for us."

It was the first combined one-hitter by the Cubs since July 2, 2003, when Matt Clement, Kyle Farnsworth and Joe Borowski did it against Philadelphia.

Zambrano helped himself in the second by hitting a two-out RBI single, driving in Burnitz, who had walked.

"They pay me to pitch," Zambrano said. "Anything extra is a gift."

Burnitz made it 2-0 with a one-out home run in the sixth, his first. He launched a 1-0 pitch from Sheets (1-1) into the center-field bleacher seats.

"I couldn't hit that ball any better," Burnitz said. "I thought it was out, and when I saw the guy [center fielder Clark] running, I picked up the pace a little. It was a wind-blowing-in day at Wrigley, so you had to hit it really good to hit it over the fence."

Burnitz is getting good vibes from the right-field fans.

"When the team's winning and you go deep, they love you," Burnitz said.

It helps to have good defense, too. Lee made three key defensive plays.

"People always want to talk about how pitching and defense wins championships," Walker said. "The reality of it is when you've got five guys who can throw like Zambrano did, it makes the defense easy. So basically, pitching wins championships. We need to get our guys healthy and throwing like they're capable, and if we can do that, we're going to be tough."