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The Cubs have one of the best teams in baseball, but if you have any idea what's going on with them now, you're a genius.
Carlos Zambrano doesn't seem to have a dead arm any longer, having had arm-to-arm resuscitation, or whatever the procedure is for the malady. His fastball was clocked at 96 m.p.h. Tuesday night. But he left after five innings and 86 pitches.
His replacement, Bob Howry, proceeded to give up four runs in the sixth.
The Cubs, who came into the game with a three-game losing streak, battled back, with Jim Edmonds breaking out of a slump with a game-tying home run in the seventh inning.
Those are the known knowns.
The known unknown, as Donald Rumsfeld might put it, is that Rich Harden will be resting for a while (glass half-full) or will miss a start or two (half-empty). For now, a laying-on of hands for his right shoulder and a communal faith healing for jittery Cubs fans might be in order.
The Cubs have backed up Harden's next start to Sept. 10 or Sept. 11 in St. Louis, which sounds like a long time between appearances because it is. You can build an ark in the time Harden will have been out.
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said Tuesday that the club had planned on giving Harden a rest at some point ever since they traded for him July 8. Now's the time, Hendry said.
But with Harden's lengthy history of shoulder injuries and manager Lou Piniella's cryptic responses to questions about Harden's situation, you couldn't help but wonder if his star's right arm actually was dangling by a tendon.
"He needed the time, obviously," Piniella said. "If he could pitch, we would have kept him in the rotation."
Hmmmm. That doesn't sound like a scheduled rest, does it?
The bigger questions are whether Piniella has been overworking his starters and how he plans to use them in the coming weeks. Harden has thrown 131 innings this season, which is a lot for him at this point. He threw 100 pitches in his last start Friday against Philadelphia, and his velocity was noticeably down. He threw 109 pitches the start before that.
And that's the concern: How do you handle a pitcher who has been on the disabled list six times in the past three seasons?
Especially when your club is about 0-for-a-century when it comes to World Series titles?
As good as Ryan Dempster has been this year, he's a starter for the first time since 2003. He's on pace for 200-plus innings. Zambrano, who had the Lazarus thing going Tuesday, did not pitch well in August. The Cubs blamed it on a dead arm. He had a stint on the DL with a strained shoulder in June.
If their pitching falls apart, Piniella will get the same scrutiny for his touch with the staff as Dusty Baker received. And it will be fair.
For all Harden's talent, he's a delicate problem for any manager. Since coming to the Cubs, he's 4-1 with a 1.50 earned-run average. The natural urge is to pitch him and pitch him often. A manager has to suppress the urge. The next month will tell if Piniella did.
"You want him still going after Oct. 1," Hendry said. "He hasn't been there before."
Earlier this season, Harden spent a month on the disabled list with a strained right shoulder.
If you're a Cubs fan, you will be down to your cuticles fairly soon.
But there was some good news Tuesday. After being given an extra two days of rest, Zambrano looked strong. The Cubs probably would have liked more than five innings from him, but they weren't complaining. Alfonso Soriano's first-inning home run ensured that the Cubs' streak of 27 singles would end. When Aramis Ramirez doubled later in the inning, it almost seemed like showing off.
And the Cubs battled back after Howry's struggles.
Things were looking up. Or were they? Kosuke Fukudome wasn't in the starting lineup, with Piniella trying to find ways to get his slumping right fielder hitting again. Piniella figures rest might help.
Rest is a big theme these days.
The Cubs have been in a mini-slump. It's a long season, as Piniella is wont to say about two or three times a day. Better a slump now than in October. But getting to October is the only goal that matters right now, and the Cubs' lead over the Brewers is not so overwhelming that the cruise control button can be pushed.
But neither should the panic button, even though it's probably worn out by now.
"We're still in first place, last time I checked," shortstop Ryan Theriot said.
And Harden? What about him? He says he's fine.
"He needed the time," Piniella said. "We'll just leave it at that."
Oh, boy.
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com ... umn?page=2 |
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