Marshall makes his case for playoff roster spot

NEW YORK - With homefield advantage secured for the entire National League playoffs, the Cubs now turn their attention to putting together their roster for the division series.

One of the players in question, pitcher Sean Marshall, took the mound Tuesday night against the New York Mets. He worked 5 creditable innings as the Cubs fell 6-2.

The wild-card leading Mets crept within 1 games of the Phillies in the National League East. If the playoffs opened now, the Cubs would play the Mets.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella has given little indication of which "bubble" players would make it and which wouldn't.

"We're going to look at a few of these guys," he said. "Look, you all can do the numbers. There aren't that many spots available. There might be one spot pitching wise and one spot player-position wise.

"We have an idea of what we want to do, but we're going to take a look here over the next four or five days before we make up our minds."

One interesting situation is the final bullpen spot. If the Cubs carry only 11 pitchers, the choice may come down to one between veteran right-hander Bob Howry and rookie right-hander Jeff Samardzija.

Either way, Piniella said he'll go on recent performance.

"I don't know; I think we're going to have to go with people who are throwing well now," he said. "I think we'll lean more in that direction."

Samardzija has righted himself lately after getting into a funk with giving up walks and hits. Piniella has been hot and cold on Howry for much of the second half. On Tuesday, he talked up Samardzija.

"He's gotten better," Piniella said. "I think when his split-finger is working well, it really helps him out. He's been working on the side a lot with his split-finger pitch and getting on top. He gets in the habit of slinging the ball once in awhile instead of staying on top."

One pitcher who didn't help himself in Tuesday's game was righty Chad Gaudin, who relieved Marshall in the sixth. Gaudin committed a throwing error and was charged with all 4 runs in the Mets' sixth, when they broke a 2-2 tie.

"His location is not good," Piniella said of Gaudin. "He's been out awhile. We're going to keep pitching him and getting him work, but I don't see the good sink, and I certainly don't see the location."

Piniella talked of Marshall making the postseason roster as a middle reliever. Marshall was matching Mets lefty Johan Santana pitch for pitch until the fifth, when the Mets scored twice to tie the game at 2-2.

Marshall hit Nick Evans with a pitch before Santana hit a broken-bat single past Marshall. The ball looked to hit the bat again once it got past Marshall. Marshall struck out Jose Reyes, but he walked slumping Luis Castillo, and David Wright made him pay with a 2-run single.

"That one ball to Santana took some weird hops," Marshall said. "I've never seen anything like that. I can take some positives out of today's game. I haven't started in two weeks or so, and I felt like I was back where I was when I left off.

"They had that one play - that magic broken bat."

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