Apr. 16, 1963 - The Chicago Cubs have posted notice to National League rivals that their pitching staff means business this season. The campaign is only one week old, but in five games Cub pitchers have a collective 1.20 earned-run average against a couple of power-laden teams which finished in a tie for the pennant last fall — San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bob Kennedy, designated “head coach” by owner Phil Wrigley of the managerless Cubs, believes part of the team’s pitching success resulted from the spring training program. “We weren’t interested in getting anyone to go nine innings,” said Kennedy Sunday after the Cubs had posted a 3-1 victory over San Francisco behind right-hander Larry Jackson (pictured). “We were out to give our pitchers work. One game, we had a starter go five, and then we used four other pitchers to finish up. The object was to send them to the mound. When a starter went seven, we figured he could also go nine, so we gave a couple other guys a chance to work.” It seems to have paid off. Although the Cubbies have but two victories to show in their first five games, their pitching has been sensational. “Looks,” said Kennedy, “we’ve been facing some pretty good pitching ourselves. Drysdale, Koufax, Podres, Sanford, Marichal — these guys were among the best in the league last year. We’re not going to run into that kind of pitching every day. We’ll win our share of games.” Kennedy’s rotation has been Jackson, Bob Buhl, Dick Ellsworth, and Glen Hobbie.
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