Cubs fifth starter's spot remains a big headache
Cubs manager Mike Quade found himself doing a little multi-tasking Tuesday.
In addition to running a ballgame, he found himself playing the role of ego-massager and future planner.
Those future plans came to the fore after the Cubs dropped their third straight, 4-3, to the Colorado Rockies at breezy Wrigley Field.
First, there was that little matter of making sure young shortstop Starlin Castro was OK after his 3-error performance Monday night. Check.
“Give him some encouragement,” said Quade, whose team is 10-13. “He knows he didn't have a real good night, and we know he's not going to have a lot of nights like that. That's my approach. He's got a real good rapport with his infield people. And he's a confident kid. We all make mistakes. They got bunched up, and that's the tough thing. He'll be fine.”
A box still to be checked is what to do with the fifth spot in the starting rotation following a 4-inning performance by James Russell.
Making his third start since Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner went on the disabled list, Russell gave up solo home runs to Todd Helton in the first and fifth innings and a solo shot to Ty Wigginton in the fourth.
Russell has not made it past 4 innings in any of his 3 starts. Even though there isn't much to choose from, Quade and the Cubs must decide wither to give Russell another start Sunday in Arizona, or go with somebody from the minor leagues.
At Class AAA Iowa on Tuesday, Jay Jackson worked 6 innings, giving up 4 hits and 1 run in a 4-3 loss to Memphis.
“I don't know, I really don't know,” Quade said. “What I'm concerned about, honestly, is trying to salvage a game in this series tomorrow. You could do (reliever Jeff Samardzija). That's not really something I'm interested in doing. But if we need to do it, we'll do it. We'll keep looking at the people who are pitching at Triple-A and anybody who can give you length.”
Russell threw 82 pitches for his longest outing of the season, and he was charged with 4 runs. One thing Quade noticed was that Russell's mistakes tend to leave the park when he works as a starter.
“I wish I could give you an answer to that one because then I wouldn't do it anymore,” said Russell, who is 1-3 with an 8.31 ERA. “It's just hang with them, I guess.”
There are some other things Quade might want to address. One is a lack of power, especially with the wind blowing out.
Tuesday marked the third game this year the wind has blown out at Wrigley. Alfonso Soriano's ninth-inning solo homer was the Cubs' first in those conditions while the visitors have cranked out 8. Quade, though, said his hitters shouldn't change their approach at the plate based on the wind.
“If people start changing because of the weather and we're not hitting homers and we start back-legging stuff, that's not going to work,” he said.
Right now, nothing much is working.