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CHICAGO – The Cubs dropped Saturday's contest 5-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

How it happened: Chris Volstad continues to be the weakest link in the rotation, giving up five runs on four hits and three walks. Starlin Castro had three hits but nobody else was able to get into the act just one day after consistent offensive production netted a victory against a team that came into the game tied for the best record in the National League. Carlos Marmol, recently removed from his closer role, pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Ian Stewart knocked in Castro for Chicago's only run of the game in the ninth inning.

What it means: It doesn’t matter what look the Cubs present, they can’t seem to break through against left-handed pitching. With left-handed hitters David DeJesus, Bryan LaHair and Ian Stewart in the lineup, the Cubs did not score in seven innings against Dodgers lefty Chris Capuano. The Cubs started the day with just 13 runs against left-handers, the lowest total in the National League. To be fair, their 145 at-bats before Saturday were also the lowest in the NL and over 200 less than the league-leading New York Mets.

Outside the box: Volstad is still having issues with two outs, giving up two more runs in that situation Saturday. To make matters worse, those two runs came on a two-run hit from the Dodgers’ pitcher. Just making the pitch he needs has been an issue for Volstad. The tall right-hander entered with a .444 opponents’ batting average with runners in scoring position and a .429 opponents’ batting average with runners in scoring position and two outs.

Off beat: Despite not being scheduled to pitch in the series, former Cub Ted Lilly still managed to make his presence felt. The left-hander, who is having a solid season with the Dodgers, was ejected by home plate umpire Tim Timmons for arguing balls and strikes from the dugout. After a particularly low pitch to Bobby Abreu, Lilly barked his displeasure. Timmons tossed him with a casual flip of his hand as if he were brushing crumbs off the dinner table.

Up next: Cubs right-hander Matt Garza (2-1, 2.67 ERA) is scheduled to start against the Dodgers on Sunday but is suffering the effects of a flu-like virus. If he can’t pitch, Travis Wood will be added to the roster and will take the mound instead. The Dodgers will counter with right-hander Aaron Harang (1-2, 5.72) in the 1:20 p.m. start from Wrigley Field.

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs opened a three-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday with a 5-4 victory.


HOW IT HAPPENED: The Cubs took an early lead with two runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Alfonso Soriano and Starlin Castro. David DeJesus doubled in a pair in the fourth. Paul Maholm, who had yielded two runs in his last two games, gave up three hits through six innings. One of them was Jerry Hairston's live drive home run. Maholm took a hard one-hopper off his leg in the sixth. He stayed in the game before being lifted for pinch hitter Joe Mather, who homered. Soriano added an RBI hit in the seventh. Kerry Wood allowed two runs in the eighth.

WHAT IT MEANS: The Cubs are 7-5 in their last 12 games after a miserable 3-11 start. The team averages five runs a game in wins and 2.6 in losses. Mather‘s pinch homer was the first by a Cub in 2012. Maholm has won each of his last three starts.


OUTSIDE THE BOX: Closer Carlos Marmol has lost his closers job after blowing three of five save opportunities this spring. James Russell and Rafael Dolis will share the role for now, although Russell gave up a run and two hits in two-thirds of an inning. Dolis picked up the save. An MRI showed a displaced fracture of the upper rib cage for catcher Steve Cleveanger, who told ESPNChicago.com that the fracture should not detour his return to the team from a strained right oblique.

OFF BEAT: Dale Sveum earned his first ejection as Cubs manager in the ninth inning. He came out after A.J. Ellis was hit by a pitch, but Sveum argued a previous ball-and-strike call and was run.

UP NEXT:: RHP Matt Garza (2-1 2.67 ERA ) faces LHP Chris Capuano (2.73 3-0) in game two of the series.

LOS ANGELES -- Jeff Baker will get the start in right field for the Chicago Cubs against former teammate Ted Lilly and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. Here's the Cubs' lineup against the left-hander:

1. Starlin Castro, SS
2. Darwin Barney, 2B
3. Marlon Byrd, CF
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
5. Jeff Baker, RF
6. Geovany Soto, C
7. Alfonso Soriano, LF
8. Carlos Pena, 1B
9. Carlos Zambrano, P

LOS ANGELES -- A quick look at the Chicago Cubs' 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

The good: Geovany Soto's two-run double in the ninth inning snapped a Cubs’ 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and was the game-winning hit. In his best outing of 2011, Ryan Dempster pitched seven innings of six-hit, one-run baseball in a no-decision. After nearly hitting home runs on Sunday and Monday, Carlos Pena hit his first one as a Cub in the seventh inning off Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley.

The bad: With another 0-for-4 evening, Starlin Castro is 0-for-12 against the Dodgers in the first three games of this series and 4-for-24 on the road trip. Do you think he needs a day off?

Beyond the box score: Right-handers Andrew Cashner and Randy Wells both will throw off the mound for the second time in three days on Wednesday morning.

Up next: Carlos Zambrano (3-1) opposes former Cub Ted Lilly (2-2) in the series and road trip finale.

LOS ANGELES -- A quick look at the Chicago Cubs' 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.

The good: Alfonso Soriano hit his major league high 11th home run. Feisty Reed Johnson had two more hits in four at-bats.

The bad: Left-handed starter James Russell couldn't get out of the fifth inning, dropping his fourth straight start.

Beyond the box score: Todd Wellemeyer will start at Triple-A Iowa on Thursday and veteran Doug Davis will start for Single-A Daytona on Wednesday. Andrew Cashner and Randy Wells threw off the mound for the first time since April 4 and 5.

Up next: Ryan Dempster (1-3) faces Chad Billingsley (2-1)

Quote of the night: Comedian Jeff Garlin on his beloved Cubs team after Monday's loss. "This year's team is a big bowl of nothing."

Let's take a quick look at the Cubs loss to the Dodgers on Sunday.

The good: The top of the Cubs' order continued to get the job done as Kosuke Fukudome and Darwin Barney combined to go 4-for-10 with two runs scored and one knocked in.

The bad: Carlos Zambrano failed to follow up his stellar outing from last Monday, lasting only five innings while giving up eight hits and six runs. Zambrano was roughed up early, as the first five batters of the game all reached base and came around to score in a five-run first inning for the Dodgers. Starlin Castro struggled in the three hole, going 0-for-4 and made an error in the field.

Outside the box: After back to back quality starts by Carlos Zambrano and Matt Garza, Cubs starting pitchers have resumed their struggling ways over the last 4 games, combining for 17.1 IP, 30 hits, and 23 earned runs.

Coming up next: The Colorado Rockies come to Wrigley to start a three game set. Matt Garza (0-2, 4.74 ERA) takes on Esmil Rogers (2-1, 6.75) in a 7:05 start.

Ryan Dempster’s early-season struggles (1-2 , 7.63 ERA) continued as he failed to get out of the sixth inning Saturday when he faced his old friend Ted Lilly and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Luckily for Dempster and the Cubs, Lilly was equally bad (4 1/3 IP, 11 H, 5 ER), as the Cubs came back for a 10-8 victory. Dempster was solid early but fell apart in the sixth, ultimately going 5 2/3 innings while giving up seven earned on nine hits and three walks. He also allowed three home runs, bringing his season total to eight. (He is allowing an astounding 2.35 homers per nine innings pitched.)

Manager Mike Quade was quick to explain Dempster’s struggles.

“He’s just not executing his pitches, I think it’s that simple,” Quade said of his Opening Day starter, “That slider that’s so good to him, he’s just not executing it on a regular basis. He’s done it for too many years and you believe he’s gonna get himself back in-sync.”

Dempster agreed his problems stem from execution and the opposition taking advantage of his bad location. Dempster acknowledged that his slider has often been working early in games this season, but after a few innings, he seems to lose his feel for his go-to pitch. Dempster, who is very close to his former teammate Lilly, caught himself before he could finish a thought about wishing both he and Lilly pitched better.

“I don’t wish [Lilly] had better results,” Dempster said of his former jogging partner, “But I wish I had better results. It was good to go out there and compete, I wish I could have done a better job, but at the end of the day we won the game and that’s all that matters.”

Quade was faced with a tough decision in the bottom of the fifth with the Cubs clinging to a 5-4 lead. Dempster, who had just given up two home runs in the top of the inning, came up with two outs and the bases loaded. Quade didn’t hesitate to let the pitcher bat for himself, knowing his bullpen had been overworked the last two games -- Casey Coleman and James Russell, the starters for the two previous games, lasted only a combined 6 2/3 innings.

“If you’ve got the wind blowing in maybe it’s a different deal, but it just looked like there was so much baseball left to play,” Quade said, correctly predicting that neither offense had shut down for the day, “I can’t be going to the bullpen in the sixth inning ever day.”

Of course, Quade ended up having to go to the bullpen earlier than he wanted, as Dempster found himself in trouble once again in the top of the sixth. However, the Cubs bats were up for the task and helped their teammate out.

“You feel like you let the team down, but they go out and score five and it makes you feel better. It’s almost like the guys took care of me today,” Dempster said after he blew a 5-1 lead, “I’m just going to work hard and push through this, I’ve been there before and I’ll be there again.”

Notes

• A couple of odd plays took place early in the game. In the top of the first with men on first and second and one down, center fielder Matt Kemp lined softly to shortstop Starlin Castro. Castro seemed to have an easy double play set up, as the runners were going on contact, but instead of doubling Aaron Miles off second base, Castro intentionally dropped the ball and tried to turn a 6-4-3 double play. Umpire Bill Welke correctly ruled that Castro’s drop was intentional, Kemp was ruled out on the infield fly rule and both runners returned to their bases.

In the fourth inning, Darwin Barney looked to be picked off first base, but while running back to first base during the run down, Barney had to step around first baseman James Loney, who did not have the ball. Barney reached first base safely, but it seemed as though he had run out of the baseline in doing so. However, since Loney did not have the ball at the time, he was charged with an obstruction error and Barney was awarded second base.

• The Cubs were unusually aggressive on the base paths, stealing more bases in today’s game (3) than they had all season (2). But that doesn’t mean Cubs’ fans should expect the speedy trend to continue. Quade attributed the changed approach to the fact that they realized Lilly has a slow delivery and wanted to take advantage of it.

Here’s a quick look at the Cubs’ blowout loss to the Dodgers on Friday.

The good: Right-fielder Kosuke Fukudome contributed three singles and a walk as the Cubs’ leadoff man for the second consecutive game. Right-hander Jeff Stevens threw 90 pitches in relief, saving Cubs manager Quade from having to use more than the four pitchers he used on Friday.

The bad: Right-hander Casey Coleman had his worst start of the season, allowing six runs in the third inning. The Cubs gave up a season-high 12 runs.

Outside the box: Quade was upset at Dodgers’ catcher A.J. Ellis was running on either an attempted steal or a hit and run with the Dodgers holding a commanding seven-run lead in the fifth inning. One Cub player said, “things like that are always remembered down the road.”

Next: Former Cubs left-hander Ted Lilly (1-2) pitches against former teammate Ryan Dempster (1-2) for a 12:05 start.

There may be trouble down the line between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

Following Friday's 12-2 loss, the Cubs were incensed about the Dodgers running catcher A.J. Ellis with their pitcher up and one out in the fifth inning. Ellis was thrown out at second base. At that time, Los Angeles had an 8-1 lead.

Read the full story.

Here's a quick look at the Cubs' Cactus League loss on Tuesday.

The good: Ryan Dempster continued his strong spring with six solid innings against the Dodgers. Infielder Jeff Baker’s homer tied the game in the ninth inning. Struggling second baseman Blake DeWitt finally had a positive development. His triple to centerfield broke a long, unproductive slump.

The bad: The Cubs’ offense only managed four singles aside from DeWitt’s triple and Baker’s home run. Right-hander Jeff Samardzija, stellar in his previous outing, took the loss after allowing a run in the bottom of the 10th.

Outside the box: Cubs GM Jim Hendry and Mike Quade will sit down for a second consecutive day of roster meetings on Wednesday. A roster pair down could come Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.

Up next: Right-hander Carlos Silva will make his case for the fifth starter spot. He will oppose Oakland lefty Gio Gonzalez in Mesa.

DENVER -- On a night when Carlos Zambrano returned to the mound for the first time since June 25, the focus wasn't on the star-crossed Cubs pitcher but more on whether his team would be impacted to the point of distraction by the trades of Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot earlier in the day.

"You always want to be the team adding and have a shot," first baseman Derrek Lee said. "But it hasn't worked out for us this year. This year is something none of us could have expected to be in. All of us thought we would be contending for a playoff spot."

Although the Cubs fought back to tie the game in the eighth inning on Lee's three-run homer, Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez put another exclamation point on a loss for the Cubs with a 462-foot walk-off homer off Sean Marshall to complete a cycle and a 6-5 victory.

"It's been a rough year," Lee said. "No question about it, it has been a rough season so far. That's what happens when you have a rough four months. The organization has to make a decision which direction we want to go."

It appears general manager Jim Hendry already made that decision when he tried to trade Lee earlier in the week to the Los Angeles Angels and then followed that up by trading Lilly and Theriot to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. Look for Hendry to continue to try to deal other players off his team over the next month through the waiver process.

DENVER -- The aftershock of the trade that sent Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to the Los Angeles Dodgers could be felt in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse on Saturday afternoon. Even stand-up guys such as Ryan Dempster wouldn't talk to the media about the team's failed season that led to the veterans getting moved at the trading deadline.

I asked Lilly before he departed for the West Coast for his perspective on what happened to the Cubs this season.

"We as players didn't perform," Lilly said. "I felt like the front office and the organization put the players on the field. We had talent to win. You take into consideration that the game is challenging and there is some competition out there. On top of that, we didn't perform to our potential. I'm certainly of the mindset that it's up the players to get it done on the field, and we weren't able to do that."

Theriot, who has spent his entire career in the Cubs organization, wouldn't use the excuse that moving to second base when Starlin Castro was promoted to play shortstop in early May has affected his game.

"I don't think it was the move but how the season played out," Theriot said. "The Cubs are a proud organization, one that sets themselves up to win. Nobody was happy with what was happening [with their season]. But going from short to second I don't think had too much bearing on it."

Theriot was asked to chime in on what he felt had happened to a once promising season for the Cubs.

"I don't know. We didn't win games," Theriot said. "As you know, we lost a lot of close games. With the young guys that came up, they did a wonderful job. It's always tough when you have a group of young guys. We went through that in 2006, and I think you saw what happened in '07 and '08 [division titles]. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Guys are getting a ton of experience with Starlin, [Andrew Cashner] and Tyler [Colvin], they are going to be primed for the big time the next couple of years."

The building blocks continue for the Cubs. Expect more promotions from Triple-A Iowa the rest of the season. Right-handed pitcher Thomas Diamond makes his debut in the rotation on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Blake DeWitt said he had no idea what was going on when traveling secretary Scott Akasaki called him out of the indoor batting cage at AT&T Park on Saturday morning, walked him up the stairs to the visiting clubhouse, took him into manager Joe Torre's office and closed the door.

Read the entire story.

The Chicago Cubs are in a waiting mode, waiting to jump on any deal that makes sense to them with the non-waiver trading deadline approaching at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had the most interest in left-handed pitcher Ted Lilly, and they’ve been pursuing him for over three weeks. The Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti and Cubs GM Jim Hendry had their first discussions about Lilly on July 9 in Hendry’s box at Dodgers Stadium. Since that time, the Dodgers have looked for money in order to acquire the Cubs pitcher.

The Dodgers have financial constraints due to the imminent divorce between the owners of the team, Frank and Jamie McCourt.

Although the Dodgers made a deal for Kansas City’s Scott Podsednik on Saturday, Podsednik’s pro-rated salary was less than $750,000.

Lilly still has $4.3 million left on his contract, which the Cubs expect any team they trade with to take in total.

Second baseman Ryan Theriot’s name has been a part of discussions, but he’s still owed over $1 million in 2010. The Dodgers would be lucky to find enough money and prospects in order to just obtain Lilly.

The New York Yankees have had interest lately in Lilly, as well. General manager Brian Cashman is known to get in on deals quickly, kick the tires and either make the deal or get out.

Arizona has shown interest in Theriot at either second base or eventually playing shortstop. If Arizona eventually trades starter Steven Drew, Theriot could be their everyday guy.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have let teams know that second baseman Kelly Johnson is available. It’s unknown if the Cubs have interest in Johnson, who’s a top-of-the-order left-handed hitter. But they most likely do.

Hendry will not trade either Lilly or Theriot, unless they get the deal they want back. The Cubs are not in the position where they must move their players.

Hendry could just as easily past the non-waiver trading deadline, and deal Lilly or Therior through waivers after Aug. 1.

Although other teams can block trades during that period, Hendry may be in a stronger position to make a trade when other teams start losing their pitchers and position players through injuries.

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Joe Torre says he's not ruling anything out, but he doesn't anticipate managing anywhere else, including Chicago.

Read the entire story.