Marquis expected to be on Cubs' playoff roster
PHOENIX -- A Cubs source said late Monday that pitcher Jason Marquis will not be left off the team's playoff roster when the team opens the National League division series Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The source also said that no decision has been made on a starter for a possible fourth game, if the series goes that far.
Carlos Zambrano will start Game 1, followed by Ted Lilly in Game 2. When the series shifts to Wrigley Field on Saturday, lefty Rich Hill will start for the Cubs.
Game 4 would be Sunday, if necessary. If the Cubs decide on a three-man rotation, that means Zambrano would come back on three days' rest to pitch Sunday. The Cubs tried to pitch Zambrano on three days' rest Sept. 18, but he lost 5-2 to the Reds at Wrigley Field, lasting 5½ innings and giving up 7 hits and 4 runs.
Lilly did better the next night on three days' rest, working 7 innings and beating the Reds 3-2.
Marquis, who did not pitch in the postseason last year with the St. Louis Cardinals, went 12-9 with a 4.60 ERA for the Cubs this year.
The late show: Cubs fans in Chicago and in the Eastern time zone have to be fuming over the start of the National League division series games in Arizona.
Major League Baseball and TBS have determined those games will start at 9 p.m. CDT, which is 10 EDT.
Saturday's game at Wrigley Field is set for 5 p.m. If Game 4 is needed, it would begin at noon Sunday.
The Cubs will work out today at Chase Field beginning at 5 p.m.
True grit: If there's one thing Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild likes about his pitchers, it's their toughness.
And at playoff time, with arms aching, that toughness could help get the Cubs through more than one round.
"I think the staff as a whole, their grittiness," Rothschild said. "I like that. I like that characteristic in players and especially in pitchers. I think they've battled each and every day. As a coach, that's a nice thing to have."
The Cubs have gotten a big boost from their bullpen in the second half. The call-up in May of Carlos Marmol helped, as did the resurgence of lefty Scott Eyre.
"I think Marmol helped a lot," Rothschild said. "Bob Howry got his arm strength after the first month or so, which has been his history a little bit. I wasn't really concerned because I knew that was his history.
"I think Demp (closer Ryan Dempster) really kept it together early in the season. Until he pulled the oblique (in late June), he was really throwing well.
"Scott Eyre, in the second half, everything came together for him. He started throwing the ball the way we saw in the first half of last year. There were days when we were in the stretch of 24 games in 23 days or 20 games in a row where you go through some rough starts, which everybody does, but every day, those guys would come up to me and tell me they were ready to go, every one of them.
"If I walk by them, they'd say, 'I'm OK.' So sometimes I didn't walk by them."