April 23, 2011 Daily Herald Pitching a concern for Cubs By: Bruce Miles You know it's a bad day when a relief pitcher throws 89 pitches. Or when your starting pitcher throws 51 in one inning. That's how it went for the Cubs on Friday in a malodorous 12-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field. There wasn't a whole lot of good to be found for the Cubs, who find themselves scrambling for both starting pitching and relief pitching. Casey Coleman, who generally has been creditable as a starter since coming up last year, could not get out of the third, when the Dodgers scored 6 runs. He ran his pitch count to 90. Jeff Stevens came in and tossed 89 pitches, walking 6 in 3 innings but earning praise from manager Mike Quade for at least eating innings and saving the pen. In the end, the Cubs found themselves a game below .500 again at 9-10. “Oh, man,” Quade said. “One of those things. I don't think I've seen Casey like that since he got here last year. He just looked completely out of sync from the get-go. I really don't have a clue why. He was missing down, and when you sit there and watch, that's kind of what we want. But obviously not that often.” Coleman will get a mulligan, said Quade, who will talk to the Cubs brass about possibly bringing up a pitcher from the minor leagues to start next Tuesday. That could be from among Jay Jackson, Thomas Diamond, Ramon Ortiz or Austin Bibens-Dirkx. The Cubs also may have to look to bullpen help from Iowa, where Scott Maine and John Gaub have done well. “I don't know; we're going to talk about that,” Quade said. “Jeff (Stevens) is going to be down for 2-3 days or whatever. We've got to be very careful tomorrow.” Coleman (1-1, 7.42 ERA) said he may have to develop a four-seam fastball to go along with his two- seamer to get some consistency of movement. In his 2 innings, he gave up 6 hits while walking four. “You've got to move on,” he said. “You've got to look at the video; I've already looked at it a little bit. There were some positives. I made some good pitches, like to Matt Kemp, (2 strikeouts) in big situations. There are going to be times where you're inconsistent, and that was definitely today.” After Friday, it's hard to believe the Cubs shared first place in the NL Central for a day this week. Before the game, Quade talked of staying there. “I'd love for us to separate ourselves from them in the right direction,” he said. “I believe that this is what the division is. Somebody's going to take the bull by the horns and play better than we have. I don't think .500's going to win this division. I look at our games against Milwaukee, against Houston. We'll see Cincy and St. Louis. It just seems like it could go any way. I guess time will tell.” -- Daily Herald Lilly recalls good times with Cubs and Dempster By: Bruce Miles Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster were fast friends during their years together with the Cubs. On Saturday, they’ll be opponents as Dempster’s Cubs take on Lilly’s Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field. Lilly sounded Friday like he couldn’t wait. “I couldn’t ask for a better situation,” said Lilly, a Cub from the beginning of the 2007 season through July 31 of last year, when the Cubs traded him to the Dodgers. “I can’t sit here and tell you how much respect I have for him for a person first and foremost in what I was able to learn from being around him about the way that he treated people, the way that he loved this opportunity to pitch in the major leagues, the way he would deal with adversity off the field and on the field.” Then Lilly caught himself. “I could kind of ... wow... without getting emotional, I don’t know how anyone could have created someone that was as unselfish as Ryan,” he said. Lilly and Dempster also were mainstays of a pitching staff that helped the Cubs to division titles in 2007 and 2008. The Cubs didn’t win a playoff game in either of those seasons, something Lilly said still sticks with him. However, he said the overall experience in Chicago is one he won’t forget, and for good reasons. “I have the fondest memories of my life living here in this city, Chicago, amongst the Midwestern people, the Midwestern way of life,” he said. “From a baseball perspective, we had a lot of fun. These are a great group of guys, quite a few special friends. “But there’s a little hole in that when I originally signed here, I had built up these dreams and aspirations of trying to be a member of the Cubs team that won the World Series. We fell short of that, so there’s a gap in the experience that way. I thought that was one of the responsibilities that (left fielder Alfonso) Soriano and myself had in coming over here, and some of the other guys. With that being said, I believe that we pushed ourselves. We continued to look for ways to get better, and we weren’t able to get it done. That would have been the ultimate, to win a World Series here. That was the dream.” -- Daily Herald Cashner, Wells progressing through rehab By: Bruce Miles Cubs pitchers Andrew Cashner and Randy Wells took the next steps Friday in their cautious injury rehabs. Both played light sessions of catch from up to 60 feet on the outfield grass. Cashner has been on the disabled list since April 8 with a strained right rotator cuff. Wells went on the DL the same day with a strained right forearm. Each pitcher threw about 35-40 tosses. “I threw the ball well, and everything feels good, no pain,” Cashner said. “I was excited for today. I got to throw the ball and be a part of the team again.” Because of the nature of the injuries, Wells is probably ahead of Cashner in terms of when each will return to the rotation, although the Cubs don’t have a timetable for either. “I’ve never been hurt before, so I’ve just got to take my time and try not to rush anything,” Wells said. The Cubs are trying to hold things together in the fourth and fifth spots of the rotation with Casey Coleman and James Russell. Coleman was hit for 6 runs in 2 innings Friday, and Russell has been ineffective in 2 starts. Cubs manager Mike Quade sid he had “no idea” who would pitch next Tuesday when Russell’s turn rolls around again. It seems Quade would like the Cubs to dip into the minor leagues but that he wouldn’t rule Russell out. “Not completely,” he said. “If we have another option, if we have somebody that’s ready, I would like to explore that. Everything’s on the table.” Innings eater: The numbers didn’t look pretty, but reliever Jeff Stevens helped save the Cubs bullpen Friday in their 12- 2 loss to the Dodgers. Coming on in the third inning, Stevens worked 3 innings, throwing 89 pitches and walking six. It was a career high innings for Stevens, who became the first Cubs reliever to throw at least that many pitches since Angel Guzman tossed 96 in 5 innings in 2006. “What a job by Jeff Stevens,” Mike Quade said. “Are you kidding me? We’ll see how the rest of this series goes, but those innings he gave us were incredible.” -- Cubs.com Coleman unravels in third as Cubs fall Right-hander waits out rain delay, allows six runs in final frame By: Carrie Muskat CHICAGO -- Casey Coleman had to wait 1 hour and 14 minutes for Friday's game to start. Unfortunately for the right-hander, his outing was shorter than the rain delay. Coleman gave up six runs on six hits in the third inning as the Dodgers roughed up the Cubs, 12-2. Juan Uribe hit a RBI single, a two-run homer and a sacrifice fly to back Chad Billingsley (2-1), who scattered seven hits over 6 1/3 innings. The weather wasn't the problem. During Coleman's bullpen session on Tuesday at Wrigley Field, he had to throw in much nastier conditions, trying to focus despite strong winds, heavy rain and cold. That night's game was postponed because of the inclement weather. Friday actually felt warm, he said. "I just didn't use [the elements] to my advantage like I should have," Coleman said. Making his third start in place of Randy Wells, who is on the disabled list with a strained right forearm, Coleman (1-1) gave up six runs on six hits and four walks over 2 2/3 innings. He needed 31 pitches to get through the first inning and only eight to retire the side in the second. Things went haywire in the third as the Dodgers sent 11 batters to the plate. With one out, Jamey Carroll doubled, Casey Blake singled and Andre Ethier hit a RBI single, extending his hit streak to 19 games. One out later, Uribe smacked a RBI single to make it 2-0.