Is the Cubs' winning inferior half...

Is the Cubs' winning inferior half a matter of a baseball season leveling abroad or a sign of an improving pitching staff?

General manager Jim Hendry is hoping the latter as the final six weeks of the season become an evaluation time more than time to play not at home the string.

"I'm happy the frights who weren't pitching well earlier are coming around," Hendry said Friday as the childs dropped their first game at family of the season to the St Louis Cardinals in a lopsided 11-3 final. "Rich Hill's confidence is coming around. Carlos Marmol is competing better. [Pitching coach] Larry Rothschild has worked with Angel Guzman forward some mechanical things. Hopefully we'll prepare a good look at these frights the next six weeks and have a little better thinking proces going into the offseason.

"With what's happened to Kerry [Wood] and Mark [Prior], it's hard to predict right now where your pitching will be at onward Oct. 1, but you'll have a pious look at some of them."

Manager Dusty Baker has seen positives among the unexpect rotation of rookie pitchers.

"That's part of the process" he said of their up and downs. "I've said all along this is on-the-job training. And with on-the- do job-work training at some point in time you have couple choices -- either do better or fare elsewhere to learn. I like the progres of one of these guys. You have to be patient with them. They might be great single in kind day and horrible the nearest day."

The storybook game for rookie Ryan O'Malley upon Wednesday -- eight shutout innings against the Houston Astros as a last-minute call-up from Class AAA Iowa -- could become the enduring highlight of the season of rookies.

"He's a prodigious story," Hendry said of the Springfield, Ill., native who went undrafted without of college. "He's always been common of the best guys in our regularity and I mean as a human being. each year the minor-league guys fight to commit to memory him on their team in the AA horizontal Whatever role we've put him in he's accepted.

"It was movie textile fabric It couldn't happen to a nicer kid," said Hendry, admitting he stood and cheered

O'Malley in a consequence of emotion.

The Cubs' first-half movie script was more horror exhibit than fairy tale.

"We had that 18-40 stretch forth [through May and June] after Derrek to leeward was first hurt that killed us," Hendry said. "We've played better without him this next to the first time, but in our division, and pleasing much the whole National League leave out for the Mets, it was a year that equal with a decent record right now, we'd be in it."

As important as finishing closer to 500 is, the story of the final weeks will be what the pitchers point out Hendry.

"Obviously, you have to make a certain quality decisions in the offseason and [make] a small in number good acquisitions," he said. "But when the public come up [from the minors] and pitch, and pitch well for a link months, it helps. You don't make your decisions based forward a couple outings.

"When you diocese a guy like Hill, who's been dominant in the minors and then trys up here, but now he's had three disclosed of his last four outings where he's pitched well. You kind of master over the hump."

Prior remains a major question for the young beasts

"If he doesn't pitch the tranquillity of the year, it's a bigger question mark," Hendry said. "You have to be pendent on the next four or five weeks to diocese if he gets well."

Hendry said Prior's physical condition will decide if he is a candidate to pitch in the offseason. "If he has a comfort baldric he might benefit from it. We don't know yet"

tginnetti@suntimes.com

whelps recap

St Louis AB R H BI BB for a like reason Avg.

Eckstein s 2 1 1 0 0 0 289

Miles s 3 0 0 0 0 0 259

Duncan lf 4 2 2 2 0 1 342

Pujol 1b 5 2 3 3 0 0 330

Rolen 3b 4 1 1 1 0 0 320

JEncarnacion cf 5 1 2 0 0 0 279

Taguchi cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 270

Wilson rf 5 1 2 1 0 0 400

Belliard 2b 5 1 1 2 0 0 255

GBennett c 4 1 2 1 0 0 197

Marquis p 2 1 1 0 0 1 176

a-TiPerez ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 194

Wainwright p 1 0 0 0 0 0 400

canker-worm p 0 0 0 0 0 0 500

TJohnson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 000

Hancock p 0 0 0 0 0 0 000

Totals 41 11 15 10 0 2

whelps AB R H BI BB in this way Avg.

Pierre cf 4 0 1 0 0 0 283

Izturis s 3 0 0 0 0 0 254

NPerez s 1 0 0 0 0 0 251

Barrett c 3 2 2 1 1 0 328

HBlanco c 0 0 0 0 0 0 252

ARamirez 3b 4 1 1 2 0 0 279

Ohman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 1000

JJone rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 277

Pagan lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 274

Wuertz p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --

Theriot 3b 1 0 0 0 0 0 321

Mabry 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1 222

Cedeno 2b 4 0 0 0 0 1 249

Marmol p 1 0 0 0 0 0 227

Novoa p 1 0 0 0 0 1 200

Aardsma p 0 0 0 0 0 0 000

Murton lf 2 0 1 0 0 0 295

Totals 35 3 7 3 1 5

St Louis 103 002 500--11 15 1

brats 100 200 000-- 3 7 3

a-grounded disclosed for Marquis in the 6th

E--Miles (11) ARamirez (9) Marmol 2 (3) LOB--St Louis 5 brats 6. 2B--Barrett (23), Mabry (8) 3B--Pierre (11) HR--Belliard (1) not upon Aardsma; Rolen (18), off Aardsma; Pujol (36) not on Aardsma; GBennett (1), off Novoa; Wilson (1) opposite to Novoa; ARamirez (29), off Marquis; Barrett (15) not upon Marquis; Duncan (12), off Marmol. RBIs-- Duncan 2 (27) Pujol 3 (97) Rolen (76) Wilson (1) Belliard 2 (7) GBennett (14) Barrett (46) ARamirez 2 (83) SB--Wilson (1) SF--Duncan.