Making just his third Major League start, Marshall has looked both impressive and like a 23-year-old rookie that he is, during his first two starts. Before the game, manager Dusty Baker said that Marshall's demeanor on the mound was impressive for such a young kid.

"You can't tell from watching him if he's just made a good pitch or a bad one, and you like to see that."

Baker added that he thought Marshall's problem was a lack of stamina from lack of work he got during the spring, which seemed to result in one bad inning each time out. The hope was that he could go a bit longer without getting into trouble.

Unfortunately, in trouble is how Marshall started the game.

Staked to a one-run lead when center fielder Juan Pierre led off the game with a double and scored on second baseman Todd Walker's single, Marshall watched Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal send right fielder Jacque Jones to the warning track on his second pitch.

Marshall then walked center field Kenny Lofton and Jose Cruz Jr. back-to-back, but showing a little bit of the demeanor that Baker mentioned, he got second basemen Jeff Kent to fly out and struck out first baseman Olmedo Saenz.

The second inning was even more difficult, as Dodgers leftfielder Jason Repko followed catcher Sandy Alomar Jr.'s single with a home run to left-center.

At that point, with Chicago trailing, 2-1, it looked as if it was going to be a short evening for Marshall and a long evening for the Cubs. Marshall got opposing pitcher Brad Penny to ground out, but when he then immediately fell behind Furcal and walked him, you could sense the leash being shortened. When Loften looked at a called third strike to end the inning, Marshall had a chance to regroup.

"He was throwing the heck out of the ball," Baker said, "He was just having trouble finding the plate."

And regroup he did, as it seemed almost as if a different pitcher returned to the mound in the third, retiring the side on 10 pitches, with two flyouts and a second strike out of Saenz.

"The first two innings I didn't really get settled in," admitted Marshall, "but after that I felt pretty good out there and started commanding my pitches a little better and had some good results,"

In the fourth Marshall threw just 16 more pitches, 11 for strikes getting each batter to ground out, and the fifth was almost as easy, 14 pitches, three more outs. From the green rookie who struggled to get through the first two innings, to a pitcher who know what he was doing and retired 10 straight, the transformation had to be more than Baker and pitching coach Larry Rothschild could have hoped for.

"He did a great job of settling down," said catcher Michael Barrett, who had the best view of Marshall's stuff.

"He got a little more comfortable and he started to believe in the pitches he was throwing. He was believing more and got more confident as the game went on," Barrett added

Well, they could have hoped that Marshall could have gone longer, but the 86 pitches was the longest outing of Marshall's brief career. With Marshall in the shower, the Cubs bullpen, which has been impressive all season, immediately gave the Dodgers the lead as right-hander David Aardsma and left-hander Scott Eyre surrendered two runs on three walks and a pair of singles.

"Aardsma was throwing pretty good out there, he was just having trouble finding the plate," Baker said. "He almost got out of it, but Alomar managed that two-strike hit."

Fortunately for the Cubs, this was a night when the Dodgers bullpen would have their own problems. With two outs in the eighth, Neifi Perez singled and then Dodgers reliever Danys Baez was unable to find the handle on Jones' hit. Barrett followed up with a single, scoring Perez, and when outfielder Jason Repko threw the ball over the head of Alomar, Barrett was able to advance to second, scoring along with Jones on Ronny Cedeno's single.

From that point on, the game was in the secure hands of Scott Williamson and closer Ryan Dempster, who converted his club-record 23rd straight save.

Another strong pitching performance and a win. It would have been a perfect evening except for the potentially devastating play in the seventh inning, when Furcal, trying to beat out an bunt single, ran full-speed into first baseman Derrek Lee, who went tumbling to the ground, hurting his wrist in the process. X-rays taken at Dodger Stadium proved to be inconclusive, and club officials said that he would fly to Chicago where he will be re-evaluated tomorrow. At the moment it is being called a sprain.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.