What more can be said about Jason Marquis, the guy not only can pinch hit and pinch run, but he can pitch a little bit too. With the bullpen running on fumes after being gassed by skipper Lou Piniella over the first month of the season, Marquis gave the entire staff a huge lift Wednesday night, hurling a complete game shutout gem as the Cubs defeated the Pirates 1-0 at Wrigley.

Alfonso Soriano avoided an inevitable base-running blunder by stroking a lead-off home run in the first and Marquis made the one run hold up, walking none while striking out five, including Jason Bay to end the game, upping his record to 5-1 on the season.           

St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty called Cubs general manager Jim Hendry immediately after the game to see what it would take to reacquire Marquis, whom the Cardinals left off their playoff roster last year and showed no interest in resigning during the off-season. 

"Walt made a nice offer, but there was no way that I was going to trade Lou's favorite pinch hitter,” said Hendry. "I did offer him Ronny Cedeno and Cesar Izturis for a few cases of sunflower seeds and a couple bags of Diamond Dry, but that one got nixed pretty quickly."  

Number of the game: 10
Players used by Lou Piniella in Wednesday night’s game, about half the total used by the Cubs skipper in a normal nine-inning game. 

By Jeremy Barewin