Sandberg's Iowa team faces must-win scenario today

It's going down to the last day of the season for Ryne Sandberg and his Iowa Cubs.

The Cubs' top farm team lost 8-7 to Memphis in 15 innings Sunday and now leads Memphis by 1 game in the Pacific Coast League's American Northern Division.

Because Memphis holds the tiebreaker, Iowa must win Monday afternoon to make the playoffs.

Hall of Famer Sandberg, who manages Iowa, was ejected from the game in the first inning after arguing a call at second base. After he went back to the third-base coaching box, reports say umpire Barry Larson walked toward Sandberg and said something. That led to an argument, and Sandberg was ejected.

Cubs manager Mike Quade, who is competing with Sandberg to lead the Cubs after this year, saluted Sandberg for having success in Class AAA, where players can come and go for the entire season. Quade, a former minor-league manager, said winning in the minors is always a good thing.

"It's extremely beneficial, and good for them and the Double-A part of it," said Quade, noting the success of the Cubs' Class AA Tennessee club. "I was fortunate enough to have been with some organizations that had really good young talent over the years that won a lot at every level. It absolutely matters.

"There's always a fallback position, that we're here for development and development first. I would argue, let's go 51-49 on the percentages. Fifty-one development and 49 (winning), just because it's very difficult to develop a winning player day in and day out when you're losing."

Silva eager to pitch: Rookie Casey Coleman will pitch Monday's afternoon game against the Houston Astros, and Carlos Silva will come off the disabled list to pitch Tuesday night.

Silva sounded eager.

"I feel very good; I feel great," he said. "My arm, my velocity, I feel really good."

Silva will be coming back from treatment to correct an irregular heartbeat. He came out of his Aug. 1 start at Colorado in the first inning after experiencing a rapid heartbeat.

"(The doctor) said I should feel a lot better than before and I should feel like a new guy," said Silva, who is 10-5 with a 3.92 ERA. "That's what I want to do, is finish strong. What happened before is already gone - the bad things, the good things. Right now, the only thing I'm looking for is to finish strong and have a positive mind for next year. It's like when you get hurt, you want to pitch one more game before the season ends because you want to be positive and feel healthy."

Ramirez exits early: Third baseman Aramis Ramirez left Sunday's game in the ninth inning with what Mike Quade described as a right quadriceps injury. Quade said the Cubs will look at Ramirez Monday to see if he can go against the Astros.