Pair of homers back Sampson's win

Mike Cervenak led the New Orleans Zephyrs by knocking in three runs for the consecutive night, and Chris Sampson improved to 6-0 with seven strong innings as the Z's beat the Iowa Cubs 4-2 on Saturday night.

The Zephyrs were down 1-0 in the fourth when Cervenak came up with two men on and took a Casey Coleman 2-2 pitch just fair over the left field wall to give the Zephyrs a 3-1 lead.

The Cubs would cut the lead to one in the fifth as Scott Moore led off with a double, moved to third on a Marwin Gonzalez ground out, and scored when Coleman bounced out to second.

The Zephyrs got their second home run of the night in the sixth when Vinny Rottino hit a line drive homer off Coleman, extending his hitting streak to a season-best 11 games.

That was all Sampson (6-0) needed in becoming the first Zephyr to win his first six decisions since Ron Rightnowar won his first seven in 1994.

Sampson pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits. He had left each of his previous two starts with leads before the Zephyr bullpen faltered.

Cesar Valdez pitched a scoreless eighth to hold the lead for Jose Ceda, who shut down the Cubs in the ninth to earn his league-leading 20th save.

New Orleans tallied seven hits in the game, each coming from a different player.

The Zephyrs return to action Sunday afternoon for the final game before the All-Star break, in search of their first series sweep at Zephyr Field since May 2008. Adalberto Mendez (1-6) takes the mound for the Z's as he faces off against Alberto Cabrera (1-2).