Cubs triumph in rain-soaked marathon
Chris Volstad ended a 24-start winless streak Sunday, allowing three hits in 6 2-3 strong innings for his first victory in 13 months as the Chicago Cubs beat the Colorado Rockies 5-0 in a game shortened to eight innings by rain.
Volstad (1-9), acquired from Miami for Carlos Zambrano, earned his first win since he beat Houston while pitching for the Marlins on July 10, 2011. The major league record for consecutive winless starts is 28, shared by Jo-Jo Reyes, Matt Keough and Cliff Curtis.
Volstad was taken out to an ovation in the seventh after former Cub Tyler Colvin doubled with two outs and Chris Nelson walked. Manny Corpas then retired Jonathan Herrera on a fielder’s choice grounder to end the threat.
Volstad struck out three and walked three in a 101-pitch effort. Shawn Camp pitched the eighth for his second save in five chances, completing a four-hitter.
The start of the game was delayed 2 hours, 23 minutes by rain. With Chicago leading 5-0, there was another delay after the eighth inning and the game was called 30 minutes later.
Starlin Castro scored three times and Darwin Barney had two RBIs as the Cubs took two of three from the Rockies.
Colorado right-hander Jhoulys Chacin (1-4), making just his second start since returning from the disabled list, gave up a run and five hits in five innings.
The 6-foot-8 Volstad, who was 0-14 during the winless streak, has received little run support this season. During his previous 13 starts, the Cubs had scored one or fewer runs eight times and he hadn’t received more than three runs in any of those outings.
The Cubs got him an early run Sunday when Castro doubled in the second, went to third on a fly ball and scored when Barney beat out a potential double-play grounder.
Castro walked in the sixth, moved up on two grounders and scored on Barney’s flare single to right-center.
The Cubs then tacked on three more runs in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Joe Mather had a bases-loaded sacrifice fly, Brett Jackson raced home on a Will Harris wild pitch and David DeJesus tacked on an RBI single.