It’s been an event filled few days for the Cubs. After losing two-out-of-three to the Pirates, the Cubs came roaring back to sweep the Rockies in a two game series at Wrigley Field. The Cubs got good pitching performances from Randy Wells and Carlos Silva in the two victories. Shawn Marshall also looked good in relief.
The first game of the series was won in extra innings when Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run walk off home run off Rockies pitcher Matt Belisle. The homerun was just Ramirez’ fourth of the year.
In the second game of the series, Ryan Theriot and Starlin Castro each had two RBI to help lead the Cubs to victory. Tyler Colvin got the start in left field and went 3-4 with an RBI.
Following the second game of the series, Lou Piniella announced that he was going to move Zambrano back to the rotation. Actually, that’s not exactly what he said. What he said was that he was going to move Z out of the 8th inning set-up role and stretch him out for longer appearances. He was rather vague on whether or not this meant that Z would return to the starting rotation. I think he will, but Piniella would not just come out and say that.
I know there are people who are still critical of trying Z in the set-up role, but I think it was worth a try. The starting rotation has not suffered (which doesn’t say a lot for Zambrano) and the bullpen kind of stablized with Z out there. Unfortunately, I don’t think the experiement worked as well as Piniella had hoped. Z did okay, but he wasn’t the difference maker that the Cubs needed. He also continued to pitch the same way he had as a starter, meaning he didn’t really let loose of the fast ball. He paced himself too much and I think that hurt him.
It will be interesting to see who gets knocked out of the starting rotation to accomodate Z’s return. Carlos Silva should be sent to the pen just because he’s right handed and he is experienced. However, he’s won five games for the Cubs this year and he doesn’t deserve a demotion. Tom Gorzelanny, on the other hand, has pitched well, but has a record of 2-4, despite a respectable 3.04 ERA. If he wasn’t left handed, it would be a lot easier to predict his demotion to the bullpen. However, the Cubs already have three lefties in the pen, so I’m afraid adding Gorzelanny would be overkill.
Another option is that the Cubs could trade Gorzelanny away. It may be too early for that, but Gorzelanny has not hurt himself this year. He has been solid and would be a good #4 or #5 starter on a lot of teams.
Time will tell. For now, the Cubs head to Philadelphia for a two game series tonight and tomorrow before heading to Texas to start interleague play with the Rangers over the weekend. Tom Gorzelanny gets the start tonight against the Phillies 87-year old pitcher Jamie Moyer. The outcome of Gorzelanny’s performance tonight could determine his fate for the remainder of the year…or at least the near future.
