The big deal with Cubs' bullpen: Marshall, Guzman

SAVING THE DAY AGAIN | Marshall, Guzman key to Cubs' relief corps recovering from April

July 19, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Why all the fuss about Ted Lilly's achy knee and whether Sean Marshall might have to leave the Cubs' bullpen to help out the rotation for a start or two?

Because of this: While everybody has seemed obsessed with whether the hitters will make a run at San Diego for lowest-scoring lineup in the National League, the Cubs' bullpen has quietly gone from being a team weakness to a strength.

And a lot of that has to do with the stabilizing influence of Marshall joining the pen in early June, about the same time another stabilizing influence, Angel Guzman, took on a bigger, later-inning role.

The pen played a prominent role again Saturday night, with the five non-rookies taking turns over four nail-biting innings to close out a 6-5 win over Washington. The pen converted its sixth straight save opportunity and lowered the group ERA since the start of June to 2.78.

''Our bullpen did a heck of a job again,'' said manager Lou Piniella, who has used the veterans so heavily in three games since the break that he plans to use all rookies today: starter Kevin Hart and fresh relievers Jeff Samardzija and Jeff Stevens.

Piniella calls Marshall -- who as the only lefty reliever has done what Neal Cotts couldn't do early in the season -- a key to the pen functioning well. That point was underscored when Marshall entered a one-run game with two outs and runners at first and second in the bottom of the sixth. He got a quick grounder to strand two more runners, improving his major-league-best percentage of stranding inherited runners to 96 percent (24-for-25).

He has stranded 16 straight, hasn't given up a run since last month and lowered his season ERA as a reliever to 1.47, after Carlos Marmol eventually pitched out of Marshall's jam in the seventh.

Guzman, the bullpen's most consistent pitcher all season, has a 1.80 ERA since April, coinciding with the pen's improvement from an overall 5.37 in the opening month.

''I thought a while back that we could put together a workable bullpen that would function and help us win games, and it has,'' Piniella said. ''We've got a nice combination of options to go to. The secret is staying healthy and getting some innings from our starters.''

PEN LIGHT

ERA W-L Sv/Op K-BB IP

April 5.37 3-5 3/7 58-44 62.0

May 4.11 3-2 8/11 74-40 70.0

June 2.99 6-6 6/12 63-50 78.1

July 2.44 1-0 5/5 33-24 48.0

All 3.76 13-13 22/35 228-158 258.1