After struggling during the first two months of the season, the Chicago Cubs believe that Chris Volstad is ready to return to the rotation. ESPNChicago reports he is scheduled to start on Tuesday:
Chris Volstad is on his way back and will take the mound Tuesday for the Cubs in Atlanta.
The tall right-hander had been cut down to size early in the season when he began the year 0-6 and the Cubs had lost each one of his eight starts. He was finally sent down to Triple-A Iowa, where he delivered mixed results.
His 4.44 ERA at Iowa was better than his 7.46 mark with the Cubs, but he has gone just 2-3 at Triple-A. He has pitched better of late, though, and Tuesday is his regularly-scheduled day to pitch.
Volstad will need to continue to work on his mental ability according to Cubs manager Dave Sveum, who commented on Volstad's tendency to struggle and have a meltdown inning:
"Who knows what it is; that’s always the million-dollar question," Sveum said, "It’s been mainly getting through an inning when a little trouble comes up. That’s what he had trouble doing. He had as many shutout innings as anybody, he just couldn’t reduce some of those (big) innings to one run. It was always multiple-run innings."
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