Harden feels 'great' after going 4 innings

MESA, Ariz. - Rich Harden stood face to face with one of the players the Cubs traded for him, and twice he struck out Eric Patterson.

Harden, who said he still was down about 7 pounds after a nasty bout with food poisoning, pitched 4 uneventful innings Wednesday for the Cubs' Class AA Iowa team against the top farm club of the Oakland Athletics, his former team.

Working quickly and throwing 63 pitches (42 strikes), Harden gave up 3 singles while striking out four and walking no one.

"It felt great," said Harden, who added that he took an IV Tuesday to help replenish fluids. "I felt pretty good. I've had it (food poisoning) before. It's always hard for me to gain it back.

"It's frustrating because I was feeling really good and strong. Now it's going to take probably a month-and-a-half, two months to put my weight back on. I felt really good.

"I think I'll be feeling better five days from now the further I get from this, once I get some strength back."

Harden had been set back initially because the Cubs were taking it easy on his troublesome right shoulder. He missed his last scheduled start because of the illness and has made only 2 Cactus League starts.

Still, the Cubs feel he will be able to pitch Monday against the Kansas City Royals and the following Saturday at Yankee Stadium in an exhibition game.

The Cubs also say Harden is on track to make his first regular-season start, April 10 at Milwaukee.

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who watched Wednesday's outing, said Harden will throw 80-85 pitches in his next start and will not reduce his pitch count in the tuneup against the Yankees.

"I was happy with it," Rothschild said. "I thought he threw the ball well. I thought it came out of his hand the way we wanted. I thought, delivery wise, for not having pitched that much and in awhile because he was sick last week, he had pretty good command."

The velocity on Harden's fastball, according to the Cubs, was in the low 90s (mph), but Rothschild said the changeup wasn't all the way back, but it "was pretty close."

The Cubs obtained Harden and reliever Chad Gaudin from Oakland last July for Patterson, outfielder Matt Murton and pitcher Sean Gallagher.