Cubs' rookie Wells closes out season in style

Posted October 02, 2009 11:00 pm

By Bruce Miles

Randy Wells has gone from a question mark in spring training to one of the answers to next year's starting rotation for the Cubs.

And it's all because of what he's done in between.

Wells capped off a Rookie of the Year-caliber season Saturday by pitching 7 innings of 3-hit ball in a 5-0 shutout of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The 27-year-old right-hander ran his record to 12-10 with a 3.05 ERA in his final start of the season. His victory total ties him for the team lead with Ted Lilly, with Ryan Dempster (11-8) hoping to join them in today's season finale.

"We brought him up last September, and we put him in the bullpen, and we liked what we saw," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team improved to 83-77. "And then when I found out he had been pitching with a stress fracture (arm), which is what he had, it was even more impressive.

"So this spring, we gave him a particularly good look. He didn't fit into the rotation, so he was sent down, but when we needed a pitcher, there he was. I remember the first game he pitched in Milwaukee (May 8). We found ourselves a pitcher who's going to be in this rotation for a while."

As confident as he was of his own ability, not even Wells could have imagined this scenario.

"No," said the former catcher. "Having the kind of career that I've had, I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues and the change in positions and all kinds of stuff and just wondering if you were ever going to be called up, I'm just happy to be a part of it.

"You never really want to think like that as a baseball player, but you want to try to do as good as you can and contribute as much as you can. To be honest with you, going back to '06 and my first big-league spring training, when you start feeling like that, you can be a part of something special, it's really rewarding and gratifying for me today to be sitting here in front of you guys and being able to talk about what happened this year and what's to come."

Wells was able to bounce back from a poor start last Sunday at San Francisco and dominate the D'backs with 10 strikeouts.

He struck out five of six batters in the second and third innings and never was in trouble.

"I was just telling myself last night, 'Forget all the stuff that's happened lately. Forget the negatives. Let's try to end on a positive,' " he said. "I just kind of sat around my room and thought about some things and some things that I tried to do today. In bullpen, I warmed up pretty good and was able to take it into the game."

Wells had his slider going from the get-go in the bullpen, and that contributed to the strikeouts and to six outs on the ground.

"He knows how to work his pitches," said catcher Geovany Soto, who doubled home a run in the Cubs' 3-run fourth and singled home another in the 2-run sixth. "For me, I see him progressing every single time, every outing. He understands. He gets it."

The Cubs also got a 2-run triple in the fourth from Reed Johnson, who scored 2 runs.

"It's a good win for us," Piniella said. "You never get tired of winning, whether it's the first day of the season or the next-to-last day."

Bruce Miles' game tracker Still job. 1: Randy Wells turned in the Cubs' 94th quality start of the season by working 7 innings of shutout ball. The Cubs are 61-33 in quality-start games, with the starters sporting an ERA of 1.96 in those starts. Doubling his pleasure: Kosuke Fukudome hit his team-high 38th double in the seventh inning. Fukudome enters the season finale with an OBP of .375 and a slugging percentage of .421 for an OPS of .796. His OPS last year was .738. Shake and Baker: Jeff Baker went 1-for-2 with a double and 2 walks. He's 61-for-199 (.307) since coming to the Cubs from Colorado in July 2 trade. Promising: Rookie reliever Esmailin Caridad extended his scoreless-innings streak to 11 with a perfect eighth.

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