But the deadline deal that brought left-handers Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow from Pittsburgh has paid early dividends.
Gorzelanny pitched the Cubs to a 6-3 victory Tuesday night over the Reds, throwing seven shutout innings before Sean Marshall allowed an inherited runner to score in the eighth.
“What a nice game Gorzelanny pitched,” manager Lou Piniella said. “Great way to break in here.”
The Cubs improved to 14-5 since the All-Star break and remained tied with the Cardinals atop the National League Central.
Gorzelanny, the 27-year-old Evergreen Park native who spent the last two months pitching for Pittsburgh’s Triple-A team in Indianapolis, looked like he was back to his 2007 form, when he won 14 games for the Pirates. He gave up only three hits over 7 1/3 innings — including a first-inning triple that Alfonso Soriano missed at the wall — and walked only one.
When he walked off the mound in the eighth, Gorzelanny received an ovation from the pro-Cubs crowd of 17,992.
“It was great,” he said. “It shows how big this team is, having more fans here than the home team. It’s definitely a different feeling, coming from where I came from. It was something I’ll remember for a while.”
There were probably more Chicago fans at Gorzelanny’s Cubs debut than on a typical night when he pitched at home in Pittsburgh.
“I can pretty much guarantee that one,” he said.
Kosuke Fukudome started the Cubs off with a first-inning home run off Johnny Cueto, his first leadoff homer in his major-league career. Fukudome is hitting .338 since replacing Alfonso Soriano as the leadoff hitter, looking more comfortable by the day.
Fukudome’s secret? He’s doing it Frank Sinatra-style: “My way.”
“Regardless of the result, I’m doing it the way I want to do it,” Fukudome said, joking he closed his eyes when he hit the homer.
The Cubs knocked out Cueto with a four-run sixth inning that featured Koyie Hill’s two-run double and run-scoring singles from Gorzelanny and Fukudome. Derrek Lee added a homer in the seventh, the 150th of his Cubs career, to give the Cubs a 6-0 lead.
Marshall gave up a run-scoring single to Joey Votto to spoil the shutout in the eighth, and Wladimir Balentien poked a two-run shot off Angel Guzman in the ninth.Gorzelanny will pitch either Sunday or Monday in Colorado, depending on how Piniella rearranges his rotation after Thursday’s off-day. While he has been promised only three starts until Ted Lilly returns, Gorzelanny isn’t worried about what happens next.
“I knew coming in what I came here to do, and Ted was going to be back soon,” he said. “I just want to do my job until then … and go from there.”
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Wed. at Reds, 6:10 p.m., CSN
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