Not quite this time

Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

The upcoming scheduled starts for the Cubs' Greg Maddux, who has 299 career victories:

Saturday...at San Francisco

Aug. 13...vs. Los Angeles

Aug. 19...at Milwaukee

Aug. 24...vs. Milwaukee

Aug. 29...vs. Houston

CHICAGO -- Greg Maddux didn't collect the 300th victory of his career Sunday afternoon, but the Cubs did beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3, at Wrigley Field.

That's all that mattered to Maddux.

"I'm just glad we won," he said.

Which didn't surprise Maddux's teammates.

"Yeah, he was just trying to put a good performance together," said fellow Chicago starter Mark Prior. "Obviously, his next win will be his 300th and Nomar (Garciaparra) is here, but the underlying theme is that we need to start winning some ball games.

"That was the most important thing, and he gave us a chance to win a game today."

Maddux's next scheduled attempt at No. 300 arrives Saturday afternoon against the Giants in San Francisco. Last summer, after Roger Clemens won the 299th game of his career, he needed four starts to finally secure his 300th victory.

Cubs starter Matt Clement said he doesn't foresee Maddux's quest for 300 becoming an issue for him or the team.

"Not at all," Clement said. "I think we're all focused on trying to get to the playoffs right now. For him, he's too down-to-earth and experienced to let something like that bother him."

Unlike Saturday's playing conditions, it was warm and humid, and the wind blew out. Maddux yielded a solo home run to Jimmy Rollins on his second delivery of the game. Nine pitches later, Bobby Abreu slammed a Maddux mistake over the right-field wall.

After the sixth inning, Maddux, trailing 3-2, told Cubs manager Dusty Baker he was gassed.

In the bottom of the seventh, Chicago broke through to take the lead for good, giving reliever Kent Mercker the victory. Maddux said it wouldn't have been right for him to test the waters in the seventh just to benefit him in his quest for No. 300.

"It wouldn't have been fair. That's not the way it's supposed to be played," Maddux said. "If I had started the seventh, I don't know if I would have made it out of the inning. I was pretty much done after the fifth and sixth.

"(The Phillies) have a good lineup. Fortunately, they didn't score more runs off me."

Baker said it was Maddux's decision to remain in the dugout.

"He's an honest guy," Baker said. "He knows himself better than we do."

As much as Maddux, a Valley High graduate who was drafted by the Cubs in 1984, tried to downplay the significance of becoming baseball's 22nd 300-game winner, he couldn't overlook the unusually rabid early atmosphere in the friendly confines.

When he left Chicago's bullpen to warm up on a mound along the left-field line 25 minutes before the start of the game, the buzz of the crowd was umistakable.

"It's just not normal to get that kind of reaction," said Maddux, acknowledging the emotional edge to the game.

Garciaparra, one of the game's top slugging shortstops who was acquired by the Cubs on Saturday in a blockbuster trade, had something to do with that, too.

Shortly after Maddux started warming up, the crowd exploded as Garciaparra emerged from the dugout to run sprints. When he was introduced in the batting order, a rousing standing ovation forced Garciaparra to doff his cap to the fans.

Garciaparra helped turn the tide against the Phillies by driving in a key run in the seventh.

"We'll miss Alex Gonzalez," Maddux said. "That said, we now have on our team one of the best shortstops in the game. He plays the game right and he plays the game hard."

In the second inning, Chicago made it 2-2 on back-to-back shots by Sammy Sosa and Aramis Ramirez.

After that 24-pitch first inning, Maddux had settled with seven-, nine- and 16-pitch innings. Then came a grueling fifth, in which he hit Marlon Byrd with his second toss of the inning.

Philadelphia starter Randy Wolf laid down a nifty sacrifice bunt to get Byrd to second, and Sosa's misplaying of Rollins' sharp single to right helped Byrd cruise into home to give the Phillies the lead.

Maddux wasn't the only one who got gassed during the game, as Sosa eventually left with dizzy spells.

Maddux got out of that inning with no more damage, but he had thrown 20 pitches. In the sixth, Maddux was helped by Sosa's sweet sliding catch of David Bell's liner and Mike Lieberthal's around-the-horn, inning-ending double play.

Then Maddux prudently gave way to the Cubs' bullpen.

"You just do what you have to do," Maddux said, "and you don't get caught up in it."

Maddux has allowed more than three earned runs in only one of his past six starts.

"Baseball doesn't care if he gets 300," Prior said. "It will take on a life of its own. Sometimes, it takes you a while to win games. But as far as we're concerned, nobody's pressing. Nothing.

"I don't think there's a doubt that he'll win his 300th game. It's not like he has (only) two or three more starts the rest of the season. But he won't put any extra pressure on himself. He'll approach the next start like it's just his next start."