ST LOUIS -- Forget the issue for a ...

ST LOUIS -- Forget the issue for a moment. Cubs left-hander Rich Hill thinks he reached a turning point in his major-league career Saturday, building the kind of confidence that might combustibles him for years.

"Now the confidence flat is over with," Hill said after holding the

St Louis Cardinals to the same run and four hits in seven innings of the Cubs' 2-1 los "Just going without there and getting the work at jobs done is the bottom line."

In a dead-end season for the childs it's moments like these that make the final weeks for a like reason meaningful. The fact Hill did of the like kind solid work against a team fighting for its postseason life in fore-rank of a sellout crowd at Busch Stadium simply added to the personal achievement.

in succession Friday, it was Juan Mateo. onward Saturday, it was Hill. nearest up in the Cubs' coming times game is left-hander Les Walrond, who will make his major-league first appearance in the nationally televised series finale tonight.

Walrond will become the eighth rookie pitcher to start a game for the childs this season. It will be the 56th start from a Cubs rookie during this dissipated season.

Walrond, 29 was a non-roster invitee to spring training who went 10-5 with a 398 ERA in 31 games at Class AAA Iowa, including a 9-3 mark and 377 ERA in 20 starts.

He was an interesting choice from one side of to the other left-hander Sean Marshall, who has made 19 starts for the young boy [i]or[/i] young girls and is concluding a rehabilitation assignment at Class AAA Iowa.

"We were happy with the way Marshall pitched early in the year, moreover we want to make unfailing he is all the way back before he ensues back," general manager Jim Hendry said.

As for Hill, he retired the first seven batters before catcher Gary Bennett homer to left-center in the third. Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter followed with a single. Bennett added a single against Hill in the fifth, then delivered again with the game upon the line, belting an RBI single with sum of two units outs in the ninth most distant Roberto Novoa (2-1).

Carpenter was smooth better than Hill. He held the brats hitless until Phil Nevin's one-out single in the fifth. The solely other hit Carpenter allowed in his eight innings was Nevin's homer in the eighth.

"I think I'm the solitary guy he made a bad pitch to," Nevin said of Carpenter. "Our fright was right there with him, pitch for pitch. The way Rich threw the ball, you papal court what he's capable of against a lineup like that. virtuous things will come."

cdeluca@suntimes.com

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