Carlos Alberto Zambrano Matos (born June 1, 1981), nicknamed "Big Z" or "El Toro", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher.

Zambrano, who stands 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighs 275 pounds (125 kg), was signed by the Cubs as a free agent in 1997 and made his debut in 2001.

On July 1, 2002, Zambrano started against the Florida Marlins, taking a struggling Jason Bere's spot in the rotation.

The Cubs won the National League Central division, and were one win away from going to the World Series before being defeated by the Florida Marlins.

While Schilling pitched a strong game and recorded 14 strikeouts, it was Zambrano that received the attention as he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning.

Only 97 pitches were thrown on the afternoon for the victory, with Colorado managing to hit just four of them out of the infield on a breezy, cold day at Wrigley.

Once again Zambrano gained the victory, this time pitching six shutout innings before leaving with tightness in his back[20] A final start against the rivals was completed on September 18 as a rematch with Carpenter, with similar results as Zambrano pitched a complete game, giving up two earned runs and gaining the victory, his third of the season against the Cardinals.

Zambrano witnessed a strange injury surface early in the season that was first diagnosed as "tennis elbow"[21] but was later traced to his use of the internet to stay in contact with relatives in Venezuela.

[22] On August 7, in just the fourth meeting of pitchers with the same last name since 2000, Víctor Zambrano of the New York Mets outdueled[peacock prose] Carlos Zambrano in front of an attendance of 40,321 fans at Shea Stadium, pitching the New York Mets to a 6–1 win and a sweep of the three-game series.

Both Zambranos entered with 42 career wins, the second time in Major League history that opposing starters with the same last name came in with matching victory totals, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Beside this, it was the fourth time in modern Major League history that starting pitchers with a last name beginning with Z faced each other, according to ESPN.

For the second consecutive season, Zambrano was named the Cubs opening day starter, and with similar results from the previous year.

[26] In his 30th start of the season on September 4, Zambrano suffered a setback leaving the game early in the second inning with lower back stiffness, but an MRI indicated no significant disc injuries.

[29] Despite the Cubs finishing with the worst record in the National League, 2006 was a transformative year for Zambrano, as he thrived[peacock prose] under the pressure of assuming the number-one role in the Cubs' rotation as the former aces apparent, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, were incapacitated for the vast majority of the season.

[32] The Cubs management added Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis in the off-season as part of a $300 million spending spree.

[35] Zambrano made some changes in his delivery with Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild and turned in a stellar performance in New York yielding only one run while providing eight strong innings.

Zambrano also had a four-hit game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 23, making him the first Cubs pitcher since Lew Burdette in 1964 to accomplish this feat.

In his return from the DL on July 4, Zambrano pitched six shutout innings and recorded the victory in the Cubs' 2–1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

On July 19 he set the club record for home runs by a pitcher, when he hit a seventh inning homer in Houston off Wandy Rodríguez.

The game was moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee because of damage in Houston due to Hurricane Ike, making it the first neutral site no-hitter.

[49] On May 27, 2009, Zambrano was ejected in the seventh inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates after an argument with umpire Mark Carlson on a call of safe at home plate.

During his next start, Zambrano struck-out seven batters, and hit the game-winning home run en route to his 100th career win.

Zambrano pitched seven strong innings, giving up three earned runs, six hits, and striking out nine batters en route to his first victory of the season.

Cameras showed Zambrano appearing to yell at Derrek Lee, whom the pitcher apparently blamed for failing to field a sharply-hit ball off the bat of Juan Pierre, resulting in a lead-off double.

The Cubs coaching staff had to separate the two players and manager Lou Piniella opted not to send Zambrano back to the mound in the second inning.

[57] On September 15 at Busch Stadium, he once again faced Cardinal's ace Chris Carpenter and out-dueled him throwing 104 pitches over six innings giving up just 2 runs (1 earned).

[59] In his 4th start of the year, Zambrano dueled the San Diego Padres Tim Stauffer and pitched 8 scoreless innings at Wrigley Field.

[67] Cub teammates did not express sympathy for his plight, with veteran pitcher Ryan Dempster remarking, "He's made his bed.

He incurred lengthy team suspensions in June 2010[78] and August 2011 after unleashing tirades in the wake of bad pitching performances.

In another incident, he was suspended six games and fined $3,000 by Major League Baseball for arguing with umpire Mark Carlson and firing a ball into the outfield.