Cubs' Castro continues to impress

Starlin Castro is impressing just about everybody with the Cubs these days.

“What he does at 21, I'm still trying to do,” said center fielder Marlon Byrd.

Castro, the Cubs' all-star shortstop, was 2-for-5 with his fifth home run of the season in Sunday's 8-7 loss to the Reds at Wrigley Field.

He extended his hitting streak to eight games. During the streak, Castro is 18-for-37 (.486). He entered the day leading the National League in hits. He now has 150 hits and is on pace for 211 for the season.

Castro's defense also has looked better.

“There's no straight-line graph that takes you without some pitfalls,” said manager Mike Quade, who has gotten on Castro about careless play from time to time. “But he's made progress in a lot of areas. He's stealing a base here and there. I think he's been better at short. And he continues to swing the bat.

“A developing young player, you'd like to see get better, and he's done a real good job at this point.

“The thing I've been impressed with is he's gotten hot and probably has had less rest than anybody and continues to motor. There's still a lot of baseball left, so we'll keep an eye on him the rest of August and September.

“That's another thing you like to see. Not just a guy that's good, but he's grinding through a tough time of the year and still playing with energy and playing successful.”

The legend grows:Tony Campana started in left field Sunday and went 1-for-5, an RBI single in the Cubs' 3-run seventh inning. Aramis Ramirez came up and grounded to third base. Campana took out second baseman Paul Janish with a clean hard roll at the bag.For his effort, Campana got a standing ovation from the crowd, and several teammates greeted him at the top step of the dugout.#8220;There are definitions of certain players in the game,#8221; said hard-nosed center fielder Marlon Byrd. #8220;Campy's a gamer. He's one of those guys who's coming up here and learning and getting better. He plays the game the right way.#8220;That's the easy part. You don't have to ask him to hustle. You don't have to ask him to be in the right place at the right time. He knows how to play the game.#8221;All's Wells? Sort of:Starting pitcher Randy Wells fell behind 6-2 but was bailed out by his teammates, who took the lead in the seventh inning. Wells' record held at 3-4, and his ERA rose from 5.89 to 6.05 as he allowed 8 hits and 6 runs in 7 innings.Wells gave up homers to Drew Stubbs, Todd Frazier and Edgar Renteria.#8220;I knew kind of early it was going to be one of those days, wind blowing out, stuff like that,#8221; Wells said. #8220;All in all, I felt I made some pretty good pitches.#8220;Outside of the 3 home runs, it would have been a pretty good outing today. They got some balls in the air. That's the key to pitching in this ballpark on a day like today, just keeping the ball down. I wasn't able to do it there for a while.#8221;