Round Rock, Texas - Sean Marshall struggled in his second rehab start and the
Iowa Cubs lost more ground in their battle for the Pacific Coast League's
American North title Thursday night.
Marshall, the Chicago Cubs' left-hander returning from a strained right
oblique muscle, gave up six earned runs in 5innings in a 6-1 loss to Round
Rock at Dell Diamond.
He gave up a home run, walked four and threw three wild pitches.
"Sean is still working to get back to where he was at," said Iowa
manager Mike Quade of Marshall, who is 5-8 with a 4.98 ERA this season in the
major leagues. "I expect if he's going to stay with us, we'll see better
from him."
Iowa, which lost its fifth straight including three to Round Rock, fell four
games behind Nashville in the standings with 18 games to play.
The Cubs (63-63) have now scored one or fewer runs in 20 of their 126 games.
"We couldn't get the big hit when we needed it," said Quade, whose
team lost to Round Rock for the 11th time in 15 tries. "We hit a lot of
balls hard but right at people.
"We swung the bats OK, it just didn't result in runs."
Felix Pie went 2-for-4 with his 54th RBI for Iowa.
