Veteran right-hander Ryan Dempster aims to snap a month- plus victory drought today when his Chicago Cubs host the Houston Astros in the finale of their three-game weekend series at Wrigley Field.
Dempster, a 34-year-old native of British Columbia, was 10-8 on the season after a 4-3 defeat of Washington on Aug. 11 that was his third victory in as many decisions.
He pitched seven strong innings against the Astros while recording a no- decision in a 6-5 Houston win five days later and is 0-4 in five starts since, including a 2-1 loss at Cincinnati on Sept. 13.
A winner in 112 of 226 big-league decisions, Dempster has allowed three runs or less in five of six starts since the last victory and in nine of his last 10 outings overall - in which the Cubs are 4-6.
He is 6-11 with 16 saves in his career against Houston.
On Saturday, Rodrigo Lopez pitched six strong innings and Sean Marshall got out of trouble in the final frame as the Cubs nipped the Astros by a run for the second straight day to hand Houston its 100th loss for the first time in franchise history.
Bryan LaHair smacked a solo homer in the fourth inning and the Cubs held on in a battle of poor situational hitting. The teams combined to go 0-for-22 with men in scoring position and left 22 men on base. Houston was hitless in 14 tries with RISP and stranded 13 in its third consecutive defeat.
The Cubs became just the third franchise in major league history to win at least 4,000 regular-season contests in one ballpark, joining the Red Sox and Yankees.
Lopez (6-6) allowed four hits and an unearned run while fanning seven to win his second straight start.
Today, Houston starts right-hander Brett Myers, a 14-game winner last season who's won two straight in September after starting 3-13.
The Jacksonville, Fla. native defeated his old team, the Philadelphia Phillies, with eight innings of one-run ball in his last start on Sept. 12, walking one and striking out four.
One start earlier, he'd gone 7 2/3 innings and allowed a run on four hits in a 4-1 at Pittsburgh.
Previously, he'd not won since June 17, a stretch of 14 appearances in which he was 0-7 and the Astros were 4-10.
Myers allowed four runs in seven innings against the Cubs in their last meeting on Aug. 16 and is 12-3 with a save against them in 20 games.
Chicago, which completed a three-game home sweep of Houston earlier in the year, has never beaten the Astros six straight times at Wrigley in a single season.
