Cubs fall despite early rally
The Cubs are through one calendar month of the 2012 season.
Nobody expected them to be good, and they aren't, not with a record of 8-15 after Monday night's 6-4 loss to the Phillies in the series finale at Citizens Bank Park.
The Cubs rallied from a 4-0 first-inning deficit to tie the game in the eighth inning, with the big blow being a 2-run homer by Bryan LaHair, his fifth of the season.
But another bullpen blowup led to defeat. Reliever Scott Maine hit Juan Pierre with a pitch with one out. After Maine got the next hitter, Rafael Dolis came on and gave up a single to Jimmy Rollins and a 2-run double to Placido Polanco.
Let's rewind to the first inning to get a better idea of what's going on with the Cubs.
Starter Chris Volstad gave up 4 runs in the first as the Phillies batted around. Volstad's record held at 0-3, and his ERA dropped a tad, to 6.11.
The trend developing is that whenever the Cubs get a quality start — at least 6 innings with 3 or fewer runs allowed — they have a chance to win. When they don't get a quality start, as was the case Monday, they don't win.
The Cubs have 12 quality starts. They're 7-5 in those games, and the starters have an ERA of 1.42.
Cubs starters have turned in 11 non-quality starts, with Volstad authoring 4. In games where the Cubs don't get a quality start, they're 1-10, and the starters have an ERA of 8.60.
With a team that doesn't hit much, getting quality work from the starters is a must. Volstad has not won since last July 10, when he was with the Marlins. On Monday, he threw 30 of his 84 pitches in the first inning. He wound up pitching 6 innings, giving up 8 hits and 4 runs.
“I was happy with the last five innings,” he told reporters. “I felt I put the team in a hole in the first, but then kept us in the game.”
Manager Dale Sveum took what he could from the situation.
“After being down 4-0, Volstad pitched his butt off,” Sveum said. “It was nice to see us come back.”
LaHair, about whom there were many doubts coming out of spring training, was key to that comeback.
“It's good to get off to a good start,” said LaHair, a minor-leaguer much of his career. “I'm just trying to be consistent with every at-bat.”
The Cubs will get pitchers back from the disabled list later this week. Opening-day starter Ryan Dempster threw a bullpen session Monday and is scheduled to start Thursday at Cincinnati. He has been out with a right-quadriceps strain.
Reliever Kerry Wood threw a simulated game. Wood, who has battled right-shoulder “fatigue,” told reporters he felt fine. He could come off the DL Thursday or Friday, but instead of Wood immediately regaining his customary eighth-inning role, Sveum indicated to reporters Wood could begin as a seventh-inning man to ease his way back into regular work.