Cubs’ Marmol back to his old self

Cubs manager Mike Quade wasn’t sure he was going to turn to Carlos Marmol in a save situation Friday.

But as the ninth inning arrived, so did Marmol.

The resurgent closer made it interesting, hitting a batter and walking another, but he got out of the trouble to preserve the Cubs’ 4-3 victory over the Reds.

It was Marmol’s 24th save of the season, his third in three days and fifth in six days.

“I feel strong right now,” said Marmol, who told Quade he could go. “I wanted to show the fans I could do my job.”

Marmol suffered through a miserable slump last month, when he briefly lost his job. But after working with pitching coach Mark Riggins on mechanics and looking at tapes, he seems to be back.

“Still, he can be even better,” Quade said. “The quality of the breaking ball is back, but I’ve seen him even more devastating. He’s pounding the zone.

“Good for him. You guys know. I talked to him before the game, and he wanted in. He’s gone through his struggles. He’s been pitching well, and I think he had something to prove here at home.”

The grass is greener:

The outfield grass at Wrigley Field was understandably stressed from the two Paul McCartney concerts earlier this week.

But stadium operations chief Carl Rice credited groundskeeper Roger Baird for making the conditions as good as possible.

“It held up very well,” Rice said. “The only resodding we had to do was in the right-field corner.”

Castro keeps rolling:

Shortstop Starlin Castro was 3-for-4 with 2 runs and a walk. He raised his batting average to .312. Castro has scored a run in a career-best seven straight games.

He also has a six-game hitting streak, during which he has gone 14-for-27 (.519). Castro has 42 multihit games. That’s the most for a Cubs shortstop since Ryan Theriot had 51 in 2009. The Cubs’ record for multihit games by a Cubs shortstop is 58, set by Theriot in 2008.