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Cubs, Marlins Ready for NL Series Game 3

Posted on: Friday, 10 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Kerry Wood, already 2-0 in this postseason, will start for the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of the NL championship series Friday night against Florida's Mark Redman. Wood has excelled against the Marlins, going 4-0 lifetime. Redman faces the challenge of slowing down Sammy Sosa, Alex Gonzalez and the Cubs, who have hit seven homers and scored 20 runs.

Ivan Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera and the Marlins are swinging well, too, with 23 hits, including six homers.

While waiting for his chance to pitch, Wood has been hearing a lot of compliments. Especially the one about how he and Mark Prior are going to pitch their way to a World Series championship, the way Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did.

Only one problem, Wood said. It's not properly respectful - to Arizona's dynamic duo.

"In the past three or four weeks, I've heard enough of it," Wood said Thursday.

"I think it's a little unfair for those guys for people to be comparing us to them," he said. "Obviously, we haven't done what those guys have done throughout their careers for this game, so we have a long ways to go."

Maybe, but they've done a pretty good impression lately, posting all of the Cubs' wins in this postseason. They've also put the emphasis on the live arms still left in the NLCS.

Consider this: the eight pitchers scheduled to start for Chicago and Florida are all in their 20s. Average age for Wood, Prior, Carlos Zambrano and Matt Clement of the Cubs and Redman, Josh Beckett, Brad Penny and Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins: 25.

Quite a contrast to the graybeard rotations in the ALCS, where Boston and New York feature six starters in their 30s and two in their 40s. Average age for Roger Clemens, David Wells, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Tim Wakefield and John Burkett: 35.

"You look at the young pitchers in this series, to me that's the future of baseball," Marlins reliever Chad Fox said.

Added Cubs manager Dusty Baker: "There are a lot of good young pitchers out there, and there is going to be some great pitching here in the next decade."

Wood agreed about the young pitching talent in this series.

"But talent is one thing and knowing how to pitch is another thing," he said.

So far, Wood and Prior have shown both.

After forgetting to bring his glove, the 26-year-old Wood borrowed Prior's and won the decisive Game 5 of the division series at Atlanta.

Then the 23-year-old Prior came back and shut down the Marlins on Wednesday night in Game 2.

"When you have a guy go out and throw a gem the night before you pitch, you want to go out and do the same or better," Wood said.

Wood did a better job of packing for this trip, too.

"I got my glove," he said. "I brought two of them."

Florida's Mike Lowell, whose pinch-hit homer in the 11th inning won Game 1, estimated that of the 13 homers at Wrigley, only five would have sailed out of Pro Player. That could make for a busy three games for Juan Pierre in center and the other Florida outfielders.

"This park is more conducive to speed than our park is," Baker said. "And the Marlins have more speed than we have. They've got more speed than anybody in the world."

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