Frank Castillo will try to bury fears about his right shoulder Tuesday afternoon.
The Cubs` rookie right-hander faces the Los Angeles Dodgers in Wrigley Field after two weeks on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. Castillo was given the start after he experienced no pain in throwing sessions on the sidelines.
The start comes as a relief to Castillo, who said he was beginning to have doubts about his arm.
”I wasn`t sure it was going to heal,” he said. ”I was getting worried after the 10th day (on the disabled list). But once I threw on the sidelines, I felt fine.”
Castillo makes his first career appearance against the Dodgers, who held onto their one-game lead over Atlanta Monday. He`s 4-2 with a 3.48 earned-run average and is tied for the club lead with three complete games.
Manager Jim Essian said he`ll keep an eye on Castillo but won`t limit his pitches. ”Frank usually doesn`t throw that many pitches anyway,” Essian said.
Meanwhile, injured closer Dave Smith said he expects to be activated Sept. 1, when rosters expand to 40 men.
Harkey still rehabbing: Mike Harkey continues his rehabilitation from May shoulder surgery, but Essian said he doubts the pitcher will be back this season.
”It`s possible, but I don`t think it`s necessary,” Essian said.
”There`s a lot of work to go.”
No argument: Doug Dascenzo didn`t quarrel with the official scorer`s decision to give him an error on a dropped fly Sunday afternoon, snapping Dascenzo`s league-record errorless streak at 242 games. It was the first error in Dascenzo`s career, and it ended the third-longest errorless streak in major league history. Don Demeter owns the major league record of 266 games, and Brian Downing is second with 244 games, all of them in the American League.
”It was definitely an error,” Dascenzo said. ”At first it looked like the ball was coming to me in left-center, but then the wind blew it away from me.”
The West rests: The Cubs on Tuesday finish the season home series with the West. Going into Monday night they were 37-26 against the West in Wrigley Field-but only 1-3 against the Dodgers.