New pitcher, same result for Cubs
MILWAUKEE — Rebuilding jobs usually take a lot of time, but the Cubs are retooling their starting pitching rotation on the fly.
The trading deadline claimed Ryan Dempster and Paul Maholm. An elbow injury has shelved Matt Garza for the season as the Cubs transferred him to the 60-day disabled list before Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
“Obviously, it’s completely different than Opening Day,” manager Dale Sveum said.
It’s all that and more. When left-hander Chris Rusin took the mound Tuesday night, he became the 11th different pitcher to start a game for the Cubs this year.
Rusin acquitted himself well, working 5 innings of 1-hit, 1-run ball in taking the loss. He was perfect through the first 3 innings but he gave up a hit, a walk and hit two batters as the Brewers went ahead 1-0 in the fourth.
Even though there figures to be plenty of growing pains along the way — the Cubs (47-75) are now on pace again for 100 losses — the flip side is that there are open auditions for spots in next year’s rotation.
No doubt the Cubs will try to obtain some veteran pitching in the off-season, but pitchers such as Rusin, Brooks Raley and Justin Germano are making their bids to join a healthy Garza, Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood and perhaps the still-winless Chris Volstad to be in the mix for 2013.
“When we made the trades and with Garza going down, at least we had a couple guys that we wanted to take a look at sometime anyway,” Sveum said. “Now, we get a decent look at all of them to finish out the season.
“You go into the winter knowing you have Samardzija and you have Garza. From there, it’s going to be what we do with our evaluation and what we think and how spring training pans out. I’m sure there’ll be a battle in spring training like there is every year for spots.”
The 25-year-old Rusin made a good impression even though it’s unknown when his next start will be.
“I felt good,” he said. “I was a little wild in the (fourth) inning, but I was able get a groundball and get out of the jam. We didn’t get the win, so overall, it’s a bad day.
“It’s always a good opportunity to get out there and do as good as you can and take advantage of it. I felt I did all right, but we didn’t get the win.”
Garza knows what the situation is, given all the changes.
“It’ll be younger, you can tell that right now,” he said. “There will be lot less experience. If you’re going to do the full rebuild, you’re going to have a year or two like that. Right now we’re going through some aches and pains — growing pains — but we’ll be fine.”
It’ll then be up to Garza and Samardzija to be the leaders of the staff.
“Definitely, why not?” Garza said “Somebody’s got to do it. Why not us? We like taking the ball every fifth day. This shows we want it. There are going to be three other guys who want it just the same.”
bmiles@dailyherald.com