He needs to get acquainted with his new home city.
So a few of Rich Harden’s fellow pitchers, such as Sean Marshall and Neal Cotts, took the new Cub in town out for a nice dinner Friday night on Rush Street.
He needs to get acquainted with his new home park, his new home fans.
So he made sure his Cubs debut was a memorable one, striking out 10 of the 24 San Francisco Giants he faced Saturday and earning a standing ovation from the 41,555 fans who enjoyed their first taste of Harden hardball.
“You know how I felt?” he confided in a Wrigley Field tunnel afterward. “I felt like I was back pitching in the majors for the first time.”
Most of all, Rich Harden needs to get acquainted with his new home team.
And what a way to start.
A perfect introduction to life as a Cub came in an 11-inning screwball comedy that his side won 8-7.
You see, when the talented Mr. Harden left the game in the sixth inning, the score on that big green board above the ivy was Cubs 7, Giants 0.
A lot of guys in that situation would assume you would end up being the winning pitcher.
Particularly when your new team is 20 games above .500 and owns the best record in baseball.
Particularly when your new team has not been out of first place since May 10.
Particularly when your new team has played 48 games at Wrigley Field and has won 37 of them.
“I woke up and couldn’t wait to get here and get my uniform on,” said Harden, whose history as a Cub dates back to Tuesday.
It rained much of the morning. But by noon, when the highly regarded 26-year-old right-hander took the mound, Chicago was ready for him and he for Chicago.
He breezed through five innings. An Aaron Rowand double just barely eluded the web of Jim Edmonds’ glove. A Jose Castillo single was a dribbler that didn’t go 50 feet.
He struck out the side in the fourth, playing catch with All-Star catcher Geovany Soto with a series of fastballs clocked in the mid-90s.
In the fifth, the Giants scratched out a couple of harmless hits. No big deal.
Lou Piniella’s All-Star Band was rocking and rolling by then. Edmonds had homered and doubled, Mark DeRosa and Ryan Theriot were constantly on base and there was no good reason for Harden to task his arm much longer.
So, after he blew strike three by John Bowker in the sixth with a couple of Giants on base, Piniella came out to give Harden the rest of the day off.
Everybody had already seen what the Cubs wanted to see. Harden looked as good as advertised. Not a glitch on any pitch. Not a hint of any arm pain of old.
He looked as sharp as he did in Japan in the 2008 season opener in March, when he pitched the Oakland A’s to a 5-1 victory over the Red Sox.
He looked as sharp as Cubs fans fantasize about him looking in October, when — hey, who knows? — he could see the Red Sox again.
On an ordinary July 12, Wrigleyville treated the new Cub as if he had just won the World Series.
“That was a pretty cool feeling,” Harden said. “I’ve never really had anything like that pitching in Oakland.”
Unfortunately, because the Cubs sometimes are still the Cubs, he had not won at all.
They squandered his seven-run lead in the last two innings, new teammate Carlos Marmol experiencing a spectacular flameout.
Harden wasn’t unhappy with what happened.
“The important thing is, the team won,” he said.
His new team sacrificed four good men to get him. Sean Gallagher gave up only two hits and Matt Murton made two outstanding defensive plays Friday night in their debuts as Oakland A’s.
Harden enjoyed being an A.
But now he wears a big C. And he already can see what a funny thing that can be.
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mikedowney@tribune.com
