Five for Five

I swear, I should just re-post the same thing every five days.

Five of the Cubs’ eight losses have now been followed up by Greg Maddux wins. He allowed two runs over six innings, and saved himself further damage by inducing two inning-ending double plays. Bobby Howry, Scott Eyre and Scott Williamson threw a hitless, scoreless inning apiece to back him up.

Maddux continues to lead the majors in both wins (5) and ERA (1.35). He looks to be shaping up as one of those great pitchers like Ryan, Clemens, Johnson and Niekro who finds another gear late in his career, and he’s just the rudder the Cubs’ young pitching staff needs.

Meanwhile the first six Cubs in the lineup either scored runs, drove in runs or both. The kids came through again as Matt Murton came through with the go-ahead RBI to put the Cubs on the board and Ronny Cedeno collected three more hits, including a two-run homer in the fifth to answer two Brewer runs in the top half.

Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones’ batting averages continue to creep back toward reality. Ramirez reached twice on a walk and a double, and on a 3-for-4 day Jones drove in Murton for the Cubs’ second run and tacked on a solo homer in the eighth to cap the score at 6-2.

So where are the Cubs with an eighth of the season by the boards?

Obviously the loss of Derrek Lee is huge, but a lot of other factors are working out. Like the Who said, the kids are alright. Murton and Cedeno are hitting like real major leaguers, and have both shown skills afield, though sometimes Cedeno needs to rein in his arm a bit trying to make bang-bang plays.

The new guys, Jones and Juan Pierre, are off to slow starts, but Pierre leads the team in steals and runs scored by a wide margin despite a .264 average and an OBP under .300, and Jones’ big day today pushed his slugging average up to .500 now that he finally appears to be safely on the happy side of the Mendoza line at .231.

As for the revamped bullpen, the guys who look to stick around, save for an appearance here and there, are getting the job done. At the tail end of the pen, Eyre, Howry and Ryan Dempster have been all but lights-out all April.

Some of the youngsters on the staff have struggled, but Sean Marshall emerged winning two of his first four major league starts, outpitching Dontrelle Willis his last time out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Glendon Rusch, second in the league in homers allowed, loses his job to Marshall as the rotation’s token lefty once the rotation starts returning to full strength.

As a whole, the Cubs’ staff has allowed the fewest hits in the majors and are one of only three teams without a blown save. Walks are still a concern, fourth-worst in the league, but the low number of hits keep them third in team ERA behind the Mets and Cardinals.

I don’t trust the NL Central will get through 162 games with five teams above .500, but getting off to a 13-8 start with three starters on the shelf and the first week without Lee, there’s a lot of promise here. With 16 of the Cubs’ next 19 games and 22 of 28 coming against teams below .500, the Cubs have a good chance to nail down some wins while waiting for Wood and Prior to come back, hopefully before the longest road trip of the year through the three teams currently ahead of them in early June.