Enough to drive a man to drink

A major-league baseball season is six months of major-league brushfires.

Saturday afternoon the Cubs appeared to have put out one with last week's acquisition of starting pitcher Rich Harden.

About an hour later, it appeared another was burning when reliever Carlos Marmol's customary consistency hadn't quite returned.

"Sorry I'm late," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said entering a postgame press conference. "I had to have a nice cold beer before I came in."

Harden didn't drive Piniella to drink during his tastes-better, albeit brief Cubs debut. But Marmol was less filling during his one frightening inning.

"Harden pitched really, really well," Piniella said, "and the game got away from us in the eighth and ninth innings."

Not totally, considering the Cubs beat the Giants 8-7 in 11 after blowing a 7-0 lead.

The conclusion would have to be that Piniella's mug was half full rather than half empty.

With only today's game remaining before the all-star break, Harden provided comfort to the team with the National League's best record at 57-37.

Less than a week after being acquired from Oakland, Harden pitched 5 scoreless innings. He yielded 5 hits and struck out 10. The Cubs needed that, and not just because Harden looked like the top-of-the-rotation starter they traded to get.

You see-see, C.C. Sabathia, the pitcher second-place Milwaukee acquired a day before the Cubs acquired Harden, set the pace for the rest of the race by winning his first Brewers outing.

Meanwhile, Sean Gallagher, one of the players the Cubs exchanged for Harden, won his first start for the A's by giving up 2 runs and 7 hits in 7 innings.

Early returns wouldn't have been encouraging by comparison if the Giants ripped the Cubs' new guy.

"Harden pitched really, really well," Piniella said.

Then Harden left the mound leaving everybody wanting more. But the Cubs simply didn't acquire a pitcher destined to regularly go deep into games.

In Harden's 13 starts with Oakland this season, he went 8 innings once, 7 innings twice and fewer his other 11 games.

"I like to go a little deeper," Harden said, "but I threw a lot of pitches."

As usual, then, the game was left to the Cubs' bullpen and it wasn't up to the assignment. At least not until Sean Marshall won it with 2 spotless innings.

Marmol extended the game by blowing all of a 5-run lead when the Giants abused him for 5 hits and a walk in the ninth inning.

"There's no concern," Piniella said. "I think he's been on the way back."

Marmol did pitch well in his previous three appearances after being shaky for a couple of weeks.

"We wouldn't be anywhere near where we are without his contributions," Piniella said.

So with Harden filling the need for another quality starter, the Cubs' next need is getting Marmol back to being the shutdown reliever he was earlier in the season.

"We'll give him a nice rest and see what happens," Piniella said of the all-star break.

Then, hopefully for the Cubs, they can concentrate on the next brushfire sure to make Piniella thirsty.

mimrem@dailyherald.com