Marquis finds win column elusive after abundant times in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- It seems like there's no in-between for Jason Marquis, the St. Louis Cardinals' struggling starter.

Last year he won 11 in a row en route to a career-best 15-win season. This season he started out 5-1, and was 8-3 on June 10 after a dominating eight-inning performance against the Yankees.

It's all evening out now. Entering Tuesday night's start at Pittsburgh, the right-hander has won only one of 12 starts. He's 1-9 with a 5.57 ERA since that long-ago victory over the Yankees.

"It seems like it's just snowballing," Marquis said. "It's like last year, when I had that streak when I didn't lose games, it snowballed into a good streak.

"Now it's the opposite, and that's the ups and downs of baseball."

This is his second professional low, along with being demoted to the minors by the Braves in 2002. Conceivably, it could cost him a spot in the postseason rotation along with hitting him in arbitration after the season.

The Cardinals haven't lost faith. Manager Tony La Russa said Marquis, the only member of the starting five who doesn't have a double-digit victory total, deserves a lot better.

"He's in one of those stretches when he just can't get a good result," La Russa said. "But he's got enough starts left that he can end up with a very respectable win total."

Lately, the only thing Marquis has to lean on is his hitting prowess. An infield hit and an RBI double in his first two at-bats in his last start Thursday gave him six hits in a row, three of them pinch-hits.

He leads pitchers with 25 hits, four more than the rest of the starting staff combined, and has a robust .373 average.

"I take pride in what I do and hitting is part of that," Marquis said. "I work hard on it every day and it's something that possibly can help you win ballgames."

Lately, Marquis has suffered from so-so performances combined with a lack of support. He was charged with six runs in 7 2-3 innings Thursday, but only after reliever Julian Tavarez allowed two inherited runners to score in a 9-2 loss.

In three of the previous four starts the Cardinals scored only one run for him, and two of those outings he pitched well enough to win. During the slump he's worked eight innings twice, 7 2-3 innings once and seven innings another time so it's far short of a disaster.

La Russa noted Marquis could have escaped the eighth unscathed in his last outing, claiming he could have gotten a called third strike on Tony Clark for a 1-2-3 inning. Clark ended up doubling to start a five-run rally as the Diamondbacks batted around and busted open a 3-2 game.

"He made a hellacious pitch to Clark that had a chance to be the end of the inning," La Russa said. "He pitches like that in every game, he'll win a lot of games.

"I hope he takes that game out there every day."

Marquis said there's nothing to do but keep pitching his way out of the slump.

"Every time I step out there I'm going to give my best effort and try to keep my team in the game," he said. "If it happens I get the 'W,' so be it. If not, I'm satisfied with the way I'm throwing the ball lately."