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Monday, March 10, 2008
Dempster, Cubs rout Kansas City
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) -- Ryan Dempster helped his bid to become a starter Sunday by allowing one hit and one run over four innings as the Chicago Cubs beat Kansas City 13-1.
Dempster, who had 28 saves last season, walked two and struck out two.
''I felt like I was a pretty darn good starter before I got hurt,'' Dempster said. ''I believe in myself. I know what I did.''
Dempster had reconstructive elbow surgery in 2003 while with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cubs made him a closer in 2005. He won 39 games as a starter with the Reds and Florida Marlins from 2000-02 before the surgery.
Dempster is hoping to fill one of two vacancies in the Cubs' rotation.
''There's a lot of talk about it, but I don't concern myself with it,'' he said. ''I feel good stamina wise and arm wise. I threw a lot of good sinkers, kept the ball down around the knees.''
After retiring the first six Royals, Dempster ran into problems in the third. Mark Teahen walked to lead off the inning and scored on John Buck's double. Dempster hit Tony Pena Jr. with a pitch and walked Mark Grudzielanek to load the bases with one out, but worked out of the jam when Ross Gload grounded into a double play.
''The first couple of innings were real good and then I got in a little bit of a jam,'' Dempster said. ''It's nice to be familiar with those and come back. It was a little bit of a shaky inning, but it was nice to get a double play.''
Daryle Ward went 4-for-4, raising his average to .692, and drove in three runs, while Eric Patterson had three hits, including a two-run homer, to lead the Cubs' 21-hit outburst. Felix Pie and Micah Hoffpauir also had three hits for the Cubs, who had six players with multi-hit games.
The Cubs scored every inning but the second and broke the game wide open with a five-run third off Brett Tomko. Alex Cintron's three-run double was the big hit of the inning.
Tomko gave up six runs, five earned, on nine hits and one walk in 2 1/3 innings.
''I just chalk it up as one of those games,'' Tomko said. ''It's my second real start of the spring, so I'm not going to sit here and dissect too much.
''I got to two strikes great, but everything was up after that for the most part. I made some good pitches when I wanted to and I made some not-so-good pitches when I didn't want to.''
Notes: Royals RF Jose Guillen made his first appearance and went 0-for-3. ... Cubs RHP Kerry Wood worked a perfect fifth, striking out one. ...Royals OF Shane Costa was held out with a leg injury. ...The White Sox are hitting .313 and have scored in double figures seven times in 12 games.
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