This is last thing Cubs need

The Cubs' pitching plans went from “iffy” to “uh-oh” Thursday night.

Ryan Dempster suffered through the shortest start of his career as the Arizona Diamondbacks chased him after one-third of an inning in a 7-run first.

The Cubs lost 11-2 and fell to 10-14 on the season.

Manager Mike Quade sounded unintentionally prophetic when addressing reporters before the game at Chase Field. Already down two starting pitchers, Quade said that Wednesday's rainout in Chicago would push Casey Coleman to Sunday and that plans for Monday in Los Angeles were still up in the air.

“Coleman would be available tonight in a situation I really don't want to see,” Quade said. “We'll plan to throw him Sunday. If something like what I don't want to see (happens), we might have to move him to Monday and find a spot. We're looking for a start Monday in L.A., and we still don't have an idea what we're going to do there.”

Quade and the Cubs got the situation they didn't want to see in what should have been a very disturbing first inning.

Dempster, the opening-day starter, faced 10 of the 12 batters the D'backs sent to the plate in the inning.

He gave up 4 hits, including a grand slam to Stephen Drew. He also walked four and hit a batter. None of Dempster's 6 starts this season has been a quality start, and his ERA stands at a bloated 9.58.

In 31 innings pitched, Dempster has given up 42 hits, 16 walks and 9 home runs.

Speculation on Dempster's woes has centered on his age (34 next week) or even whether he's injured, which doesn't appear to be the case. Both he and Quade said the problem has centered on Dempster not executing his pitches, particularly his slider.

“No one's trying harder to figure it out than him,” Quade said. “He's just not making the quality pitches that he makes when he's succeeding. His velocity is OK. There are certain signs you look at, and I think everything's fine. But I just think that his slider is his bread and butter, and he hasn't had the quality slider that's he's accustomed to. Whether that's mechanical, whatever that is, we hope to see it tonight.”

That wasn't the case. Dempster threw 40 pitches, only 18 for strikes, in his short outing. His previous shortest outing came Oct. 5, 2001, when he lasted just two-thirds of an inning at Atlanta while he was with Florida.

Quade trotted out the same starting eight he had planned to use Wednesday. That meant Jeff Baker batting third and playing second base. Koyie Hill started behind the plate in place of Geovany Soto, and Hill homered leading off the third inning against starter Barry Enright.

“I got in here early today, and I thought about it and thought about it,” Quade said. “It's not bad for ‘Sote' to have a couple days off. Colvin hasn't played for a week as far as starting. There are just a lot of reasons. I went through five different lineups, and I kept coming back to, ‘You know what? I'm playing these guys.'”