Two straight strong outings for Cubs' Maholm
The Cubs said from the beginning of spring training their starting rotation would be a strength.
A couple of blown saves by the bullpen right off the bat held the starters' record to 4-8 with a 4.34 ERA heading into Friday night's game at Philadelphia.
While Cubs starting pitchers have had few dominant outings, they've been pretty good overall.
Lefty Paul Maholm continued that trend Friday night with a 5-1 victory over Roy Halladay and the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Maholm turned in 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and 1 run, a homer to Ty Wigginton in the seventh inning, to finish his night.
The victory was the second in a row for Maholm, who improved to 2-2 with a 6.20 ERA. Halladay, one of the toughest pitchers in the game, is 1-5 against the Cubs.
“Paulie was once again commanding his fastball,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum told reporters. “Sometimes he loses sight that he's really a sinkerball pitcher, but that's what he is, and he used it. I think the big thing too was when he needed his curveball, he had it.”
“It was just keeping the ball down, mixing speeds, staying away and coming in when I had to,” Maholm said.
The starting rotation will get a tweak or two beginning next week. Manager Dale Sveum told reporters before the game that Chris Volstad will start Monday's series finale against the Phillies in place of Jeff Samardzija, who gets pushed back one more day to Tuesday's opener at Cincinnati.
Samardzija has pitched well overall, with 2 solid starts at home, but he is entering his first full season as a big-league starter, and the Cubs want to watch his workload.
“Anytime we can use that to our advantage, (the Cubs will),” Sveum said, “And see if we can monitor the pitch counts and the innings. It's just going to benefit him in the long run.”
No. 1 starter Ryan Dempster ran and threw a bullpen session Friday, and it appears he will be ready to come off the disabled list Thursday and start the series finale at Cincinnati. Dempster is on the disabled list with a right-quadriceps strain.
The Cubs' offense took awhile to get going against Halladay, who was perfect through the first three innings. Speedy Tony Campana bunted for the Cubs' first hit in the fourth, stole second base and scored on Starlin Castro's single.
“It was a tie game, just trying to get on base,” Campana said. “I got a decent one down and was able to get underneath the first baseman. When I first bunted it, I didn't know if it would be far enough away or not, but I was able to sneak in there.”
Alfonso Soriano had an RBI single in the sixth, followed by a run-scoring double by slumping Ian Stewart (.179). The Cubs got 2 more in the ninth, and reliever Rafael Dolis earned his first career save by working the final two innings.
bmiles@dailyherald.com