Rusin looks to slow reeling Dodgers
By Tony Rusch
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The Dodgers are looking to snag their 11th straight road win tonight against a Cubs team that dropped three of four games to the Brewers in the first series of the home stand. Despite a home loss to the Yankees last night, the Dodgers come into Wrigley Field scolding hot, tallying an impressive 27 wins from their last 34 games.
Standing in their way is Chicago's Rusin who got the nod to fill the vacant pitching slot leftover from the Scott Feldman trade. Since his promotion from Triple-A the Cubs' southpaw is 1-0 with an ERA of 2.93 and nine strikeouts. Rusin's most impressive showing was during his last start against San Francisco when he threw seven scoreless innings and kept the defending champs hitless until the fifth.
At this point it seems that Rusin has all but locked up a spot as a permanent member of the rotation now that Scott Feldman and Matt garza have left the picture. Tonight he'll need to somehow cattle-prod the Cubs offense into producing runs. Before yesterday's two-run blast Anthony Rizzo was just 7 for 29 at the plate and Starlin Castro, who is batting a disappointing .248, has been struggling to get things going during the meat of the season.
On the contrary, Hanley Ramirez comes into Thursday night's game batting a fear-inciting .433 in his last 21 road games, racking up 7 homers and a 37-game hit streak that ended Wednesday night at home against the Yankees.
If the loveable losers plan on notching a W tonight they'll need to keep Rusin going through at least six. Anything less than six innings leaves too much up to chance for a Cubs bullpen that was responsible for the three-game meltdown during the first three games of the Brewer's series. With the slumping Chicago bats Rusin will have to keep the Cubs in the game til late.
Game starts at 7:05 CST.
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