Surprising moves by Quade in Cubs win

One of the quickest ways to take pressure off a bullpen is to get some offense.

The Cubs gave their busy relievers some much-needed exhaling room Monday with 2 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to turn a 2-1 game into a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The game was witnessed by an announced crowd of 26,292, the smallest official gathering at Wrigley Field since 20,032 came to the ballpark on Sept. 26, 2002.

Far fewer than that were in the house Monday — maybe 10,000 or so — and they got to witness some dizzying managerial machinations by Cubs skipper Mike Quade.

Maybe it was because of the victory or because Quade has enough self-confidence that he was the one who used the term “overmanaging” in the postgame media session.

Either way, the Cubs got a much-needed victory over a team they need to beat, running their April record to 2-2.

“We’ll take all the breathing room we can get every day,” Quade said. “Yeah, those add-on runs were huge… Three’s better than 1.”

Those add-on runs and some rapid-fire work by five relievers saved the game for starter Randy Wells, who turned in a quality effort with 6 innings.

Now, about that rapid-fire relief work.

Quade pulled Wells in favor of lefty Sean Marshall in the seventh, after Wells totaled 99 pitches. Marshall is not normally a left-handed one-out guy, and Quade raised some eyebrows after he then yanked Marshall after he retired Gerardo Parra.

In came righty Marcos Mateo, who gave up a hit and got an out. Quade then brought in lefty John Grabow, who finished the seventh by getting the tough Kelly Johnson to ground out.

Things looked a little more normal after that, with Kerry Wood working the eighth and Carlos Marmol rebounding from Sunday’s blown save to pitch a scoreless ninth and get his second save. Wood and Marmol each worked a third straight day, and Quade said each was “emphatic” about pitching.

Quade explained his use of Marshall.

“I didn’t know what they’d do with Parra and wanted (Marshall) to face him to start the thing,” Quade began. “We’re trying to figure out, ‘Is (pinch hitter Stephen) Drew available? Is he not?’ Looking at his situation and numbers. I also wanted to get Mateo involved. He had a great spring, and we’re going to count on him like everybody else.

“I kind of felt if I was committed to Woody and Marm today, I get those other guys involved — overmanaging in the seventh by running guys in and out of there — and then everybody should be on their toes and sharp tomorrow. It kind of worked out, and Grabow’s done a really nice job getting Kelly Johnson out.”

The offense kicked in with an RBI double from Geovany Soto and a run-scoring single by Alfonso Soriano in the eighth. Soriano belted his second homer of the season leading off the third.

All of that enabled Wells, the Cubs’ best pitcher in spring training, to become the first starter to earn a victory this season. Wells did it by keeping the ball down, even surviving 4 walks clustered in the fourth and fifth innings. The only run he allowed came when Willie Bloomquist led off the game with a homer.

“Obviously, I was a little sloppy,” Wells said. “I was able to make pitches when I needed to and got away with a couple. All in all, I felt pretty good and came away with a win.”

Ÿ Join the discussion on Mike Quade’s in-game strategy on our baseball blog, Chicago’s Inside Pitch, at dailyherald.com. Follow Bruce Miles on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.