Cubs’ big three to carry the load

With Nos. 4 and 5 starting pitchers Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner out with injuries, expect the Cubs’ big three of Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Matt Garza to go every fifth day, even with off-days in the schedule.

The Cubs are off Thursday before opening a three-game series at Milwaukee Friday night. Zambrano and Garza will pitch the first two games followed by Casey Coleman, who will be called up from Class AAA Iowa.

Dempster will come back next Monday at Houston on his regular turn. As far as the Cubs losing 40 percent of their rotation, Dempster says they’ll have to deal with it.

“It just (stinks) to lose both those guys, especially as well as both are throwing the ball right now,” Dempster said after falling to 0-2 Wednesday as the Cubs lost 6-4 to the Arizona Diamondbacks. “So hopefully, it won’t be a long time for either one of them. We have some off-days here. I’m going to try and do my best to go out there and pitch every fifth day.”

Stats and stuff:The Cubs are the only team in baseball without a stolen base. They are 0-for-1, with Darwin Barney having been thrown out on Opening Day. Until Wednesday, shortstop Starlin Castro had not swung and missed at a pitch. He finally failed to make contact against D#146;Backs starting pitcher Armando Galarraga. Left fielder Alfonso Soriano has 3 home runs to lead the team. However, all 3 have com leading off innings. Soriano was up as the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Wednesday, but he struck out with two runners in scoring position and two outs.This and that:D#146;Backs center fielder Chris Young made three running catches, robbing Kosuke Fukudome and Starlin Castro in the first inning and Tyler Colvin at the wall in the fourth... Marlon Byrd went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to four games. Byrd is 8-for-26 (. 308) so far... Fukudome led off and went 2-for-3 with a walk. He has a .357 batting average and a .526 on-base percentage.