CHICAGO – Chicago Cubs manager Mike Quade expects to return next season, despite the team’s dismal record and numerous changes ahead, including the hiring of a new general manager.

Quade has one year left on his contract. He got the job after an impressive stint as an interim manager at the end of the 2010 season.

It has been a trying season – the Cubs are 69-87 after a 7-1 win over Milwaukee in the home finale Wednesday. Quade has had to deal with numerous issues, including injuries to two starters early in the season, the suspension of right-hander Carlos Zambrano and the firing of the man who hired him, general manager Jim Hendry. But Quade said Wednesday that he plans to be back and to do a good job next season.

Around the leagues

Oakland announced it had reached agreement on a three-year contract with manager Bob Melvin. He owns a 535-557 career managerial record in eight seasons. … Toronto third baseman Brett Lawrie (finger) will miss the rest of the season. …Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes has received an injection of painkiller to alleviate a seven-year-old back injury that recurred. … White Sox shortstop Omar Vizquel, 44, wants to return for a 24th season.

Jim Hendry will no longer hold the positions of General Manager and Vice President for the Chicago Cubs. Fired from being the Cubs’ GM, Hendry ends his nine-year run with the team.

The firing actually happened on July 22nd but was kept under wraps because Hendry wanted to help the team through the July 31 trade deadline and August 15 draft pick signing deadline. With those dates passed, the team announced Hendry’s termination Friday.

Assistant general manager Randy Bush will act as interim general manager for the time being. Team chairman Tom Ricketts said the team will search for a permanent GM, primarily looking outside the organization.

In his tenure as GM, Hendry has worked with one of the highest payrolls in baseball. Despite that advantage, the Cubs have struggled on the field. Their 55-70 record this season is among the league’s worst. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008.

While Jim Hendry is leaving, the Cubs must deal with awful contracts he signed as GM. Hendry is responsible for left fielder Alfonso Soriano’s contract, which is among the worst deals in Major League Baseball. Soriano’s contract, $136 million for 8 years, pays the declining outfielder $18 million per year through 2014, when he turns 38 years old. The former Cubs GM also leaves the team responsible for a contract that pays inconsistent closer Carlos Marmol $7 million in 2012 and $9.8 million in 2013. Even a decent closer would be overpaid at those rates. Considering Marmol’s demotion from the closer position at one point this season, it’s highway robbery.

Despite these miscues as GM, Hendry did enjoy a bit of success. Under his control, the Cubs made the playoffs in 2003, 2007 and 2008. Chicago’s victory over the Atlanta Braves in the 2003 League Division Series is the only playoff series won by the team since their last World Series championship in 1908.

CHICAGO (AP)—Starlin Castro(notes) desperately wanted to get his 200th hit of the
season in front of a supportive crowd at Wrigley Field.

Playing in the Chicago Cubs’ home finale, Castro got hits in his first two
at-bats to reach 199. But after that, he was walked intentionally, grounded out
and then walked again in his final plate appearance in the eighth inning of
Wednesday’s 7-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I was excited to try and do it here, to try and see what the fans would
do,” Castro said.

Now he’ll move on to St. Louis and try to reach the milestone.

The 21-year-old Castro is bidding to become just the fifth major league
player since 1940 to collect at least 200 hits while being 21 years old or
younger, the Cubs said in citing the Elias Sports Bureau.

The list is impressive: Alex Rodriguez(notes) (1995), Garry Templeton (1977), Vada
Pinson (1959) and Al Kaline (1955).

In his final at-bat, Castro had a 3-0 count but didn’t get the green light
to swing from manager Mike Quade because the Cubs were so far ahead.

“The game is not even close. If you swing at that pitch and miss, the other
pitch (might be) in my back,” Castro said.

That’s how Quade saw it, too.

“If you see someone cut lose with that kind of lead, the next one might be
in his ribs,” Quade said. “Then he’s got no shot to get to 200. He’ll get it,
knock on wood.”

Matt Garza(notes) pitched a six-hitter for the Cubs, his second complete game of
the season and the first one as a winner. He also went the distance in a 1-0
loss to the White Sox in July.

Quade said he even asked Garza, who was up before Castro’s last at-bat, to
strike out and avoid hitting into a double play that could deprive Castro of one
more chance.

But Garza did swing and grounded out to the pitcher.

“I’m trying to hit, too,” Garza said. “I want 20 wins. I want 200
innings. I want 200-plus strikeouts. I was in my mode, so I’m going to go out
there and compete. I’m not going to just give up.”

What about Castro’s quest for 200?

“I know he has six more games to get it,” Garza said. “I’m pretty sure
he’s going to do it. That’s all I have to say about that.”

Garza’s pitching and Marlon Byrd’s(notes) three-run homer prolonged the Brewers’
chase to nail down the NL Central.

The loss left the Brewers’ magic number for winning the division title and
closing out second-place St. Louis at three. The Cardinals beat the Mets 6-5 on
Wednesday night.

Garza (9-10), 3-0 in his last five starts, allowed just an unearned run and
struck out 10 in pitching his second complete game this season and eighth of his
career. He walked one in a 123-pitch effort.

“There was no way I was coming out of this thing,” Garza said.

The Brewers dropped two of their games against the Cubs and finished 39-42
on the road. They now go to Miller Park to wind up the regular season with a
six-game homestand against the Marlins and Pirates beginning Friday.

“It’s nice to clinch at home, but I really don’t care,” Milwaukee manager
Ron Roenicke said. “I just want to get it. We would have loved to have done it
here.”

DJ LeMahieu(notes) broke a 1-all tie with two-out, two-run double in the fifth off
Randy Wolf(notes) (13-10) on a ball center fielder Nyjer Morgan(notes) appeared to lose in the
sun.

Byrd’s three-run shot, his ninth homer of the season, followed singles by
Jeff Baker(notes) and Geovany Soto(notes) in the sixth.

Wolf, who entered the game with a 1.37 ERA in three previous starts this
season against the Cubs, allowed 10 hits and six runs in six innings.

He said his cut fastball not the same after he was hit in the wrist with a
pitch by Garza while attempting to bunt in the third inning. He said the wrist
was stiff, but he expected to be OK in a couple of days.

“I don’t know how much it affected me throwing. My cutter after that wasn’t
really the same, but it wasn’t painful, so I could battle through it,” he said.

“For the most part after that, it was OK, not great, but that one inning,
I’ve got a couple of dunk hits and I left a cutter out with Marlon and he
punished it.”

Wolf said the chance to clinch at home and claim the franchise’s first
division title since 1982—the only time the Brewers made the World Series—
will more than make up for the wait.

“Definitely we want to get it over with. I think the one thing that was a
possibility that we really didn’t want was to clinch on our off-day (Thursday).
That would have been anticlimactic,” he said.

“It will be great to do it at home so we can spray some of the fans with
champagne, that’s something they’ve been dying for. Something I definitely want
to do to them. Not in a bad way,” he said.

NOTES: Castro has reached base in 34 straight games, matching the Cubs’
record for a shortstop set in 1929 by Woody English. … Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez(notes)
sat out with a leg injury in what could have been his final home game for the
Cubs. … A crowd of 30,965 gave the Cubs a home attendance for 2011 of
3,017,966. It marked the eighth straight season the Cubs have drawn more than 3
million fans. Chicago finished 39-42 at home.

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Chicago Cubs’ long night in New York proved to cause no problems in Cincinnati.

Starlin Castro homered, scored four runs and drove in three while extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games and the Cubs shook off their fatigue to pound out a 12-8 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a four-game series on Monday.

The Cubs needed 11 innings to beat the Mets 10-6 on Sunday night and didn’t arrive in Cincinnati until 5:30 a.m. Monday, but they still managed to get 16 hits, including three home runs and five doubles.

“Coming off some rough travel and an interesting weekend in New York, it was nice to see us come out and do that,” said manager Mike Quade, whose team participated as New York commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Aramis Ramirez also had three hits, including a double and his 25th homer of the season, and Jeff Baker added a home run as the Cubs won a third consecutive game for the first time since Aug. 15 and matched their season high in runs. They also scored 12 in a 12-7 win over Milwaukee on June 16.

Brandon Phillips hit two of Cincinnati’s four home runs and Juan Francisco hit a tape-measure shot, but the Reds couldn’t avoid their third consecutive loss and fourth in five games.

Rodrigo Lopez lasted 5 1-3 innings to earn the win despite allowing nine hits, including all four of Cincinnati’s homers, and five runs. Lopez (5-6) had a walk and a strikeout.

The Cubs pounced on Cincinnati starter Dontrelle Willis for three first-inning runs and knocked him out of the game in the fourth. Willis (0-6) gave up for nine hits and eight runs, one short of tying his career high, and walked three.

“Castro got us off to a good start,” Quade said. “It was good to give Rodrigo some run support.”

Francisco got the Reds on the board with his third homer of the season, a mammoth drive off of Lopez’s 1-0 pitch in the second inning. The 502-foot shot was second-longest at Great American Ball Park since it opened in 2003 to Adam Dunn’s 535-foot shot to right-center in 2004.

Somebody told him the ball hit a tree outside the stadium.

“I hit a couple out of the ballpark at (Single-A) Dayton,” he recalled. “It was just a good pitch to hit. I don’t know if they got the ball or not, but they put a branch up there.”

Quade was surprised to hear the public address announcer announce the distance before Francisco’s next at bat.

“I can’t remember the P.A. guy announcing how far a ball went,” Quade said. “How do they measure that?”

Willis followed one out later with a vicious line-drive single off of Baker’s glove at first base, and Brandon Phillips — who got his first day off on Sunday since Aug. 13 — hit his 13th homer, a 459-foot shot into the second deck in left field.

The Cubs regained the lead in the third on Baker’s third homer of the season, a 372-foot opposite-field drive into the second row of the right-field seats. They broke the game open with three runs in the fourth, the first scoring on the first of Castro’s two doubles in the game. He added a two-run homer in the fifth, and Ramirez led off the sixth with his 25th homer of the season.

“It was real tough,” said Castro, who now has 190 hits and has reached base at least once in a career-high 25 consecutive games. “You know you’re not going to sleep good. You’ve got to sleep quick.”

Phillips led off the Reds’ fifth with his second homer of the game, giving him two multihomer games this season and eight in his career, and rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco hit the first pitch of the sixth inning into the left field seats for his first career home run.

Notes: Reds utility INF Chris Valaika will have season-ending surgery next week to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was hurt in the top of the fifth inning Sunday at Colorado when his spikes caught in the dirt as he was swinging at a pitch from LHP Drew Pomeranz. … SS Zack Cozart, already sidelined with Tommy John surgery on his left (non-throwing) elbow, is scheduled to have minor surgery to clean out his right ankle. … RHP Mike Leake’s start Tuesday against the Cubs is expected to be his final start of the season. Leake has logged 159.2 innings, 21.1 more than he pitched last season, and the club is trying to limit him to an increase of about 30 innings. … RHP Ryan Dempster, Chicago’s scheduled starter on Tuesday, is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his last three starts against the Reds.

CINCINNATI  — The Chicago Cubs’ long night in New York proved to cause no problems in Cincinnati.

Starlin Castro homered, scored four runs and drove in three while extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games and the Cubs shook off their fatigue to pound out a 12-8 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a four-game series on Monday.

The Cubs needed 11 innings to beat the Mets 10-6 on Sunday night and didn’t arrive in Cincinnati until 5:30 a.m. Monday, but they still managed to get 16 hits, including three home runs and five doubles.

“Coming off some rough travel and an interesting weekend in New York, it was nice to see us come out and do that,” said manager Mike Quade, whose team participated as New York commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Aramis Ramirez also had three hits, including a double and his 25th homer of the season, and Jeff Baker added a home run as the Cubs won a third consecutive game for the first time since Aug. 15 and matched their season high in runs. They also scored 12 in a 12-7 win over Milwaukee on June 16.

Brandon Phillips hit two of Cincinnati’s four home runs and Juan Francisco hit a tape-measure shot, but the Reds couldn’t avoid their third consecutive loss and fourth in five games.

Rodrigo Lopez lasted 5 1-3 innings to earn the win despite allowing nine hits, including all four of Cincinnati’s homers, and five runs. Lopez (5-6) had a walk and a strikeout.

The Cubs pounced on Cincinnati starter Dontrelle Willis for three first-inning runs and knocked him out of the game in the fourth. Willis (0-6) gave up for nine hits and eight runs, one short of tying his career high, and walked three.

“Castro got us off to a good start,” Quade said. “It was good to give Rodrigo some run support.”

Francisco got the Reds on the board with his third homer of the season, a mammoth drive off of Lopez’s 1-0 pitch in the second inning. The 502-foot shot was second-longest at Great American Ball Park since it opened in 2003 to Adam Dunn’s 535-foot shot to right-center in 2004.

Somebody told him the ball hit a tree outside the stadium.

“I hit a couple out of the ballpark at (Single-A) Dayton,” he recalled. “It was just a good pitch to hit. I don’t know if they got the ball or not, but they put a branch up there.”

Quade was surprised to hear the public address announcer announce the distance before Francisco’s next at bat.

“I can’t remember the P.A. guy announcing how far a ball went,” Quade said. “How do they measure that?”

Willis followed one out later with a vicious line-drive single off of Baker’s glove at first base, and Brandon Phillips — who got his first day off on Sunday since Aug. 13 — hit his 13th homer, a 459-foot shot into the second deck in left field.

The Cubs regained the lead in the third on Baker’s third homer of the season, a 372-foot opposite-field drive into the second row of the right-field seats. They broke the game open with three runs in the fourth, the first scoring on the first of Castro’s two doubles in the game. He added a two-run homer in the fifth, and Ramirez led off the sixth with his 25th homer of the season.

“It was real tough,” said Castro, who now has 190 hits and has reached base at least once in a career-high 25 consecutive games. “You know you’re not going to sleep good. You’ve got to sleep quick.”

Phillips led off the Reds’ fifth with his second homer of the game, giving him two multihomer games this season and eight in his career, and rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco hit the first pitch of the sixth inning into the left field seats for his first career home run.

Notes: Reds utility INF Chris Valaika will have season-ending surgery next week to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was hurt in the top of the fifth inning Sunday at Colorado when his spikes caught in the dirt as he was swinging at a pitch from LHP Drew Pomeranz. … SS Zack Cozart, already sidelined with Tommy John surgery on his left (non-throwing) elbow, is scheduled to have minor surgery to clean out his right ankle. … RHP Mike Leake’s start Tuesday against the Cubs is expected to be his final start of the season. Leake has logged 159.2 innings, 21.1 more than he pitched last season, and the club is trying to limit him to an increase of about 30 innings. … RHP Ryan Dempster, Chicago’s scheduled starter on Tuesday, is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his last three starts against the Reds.

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Chicago Cubs’ long night in New York proved to cause no problems in Cincinnati.

Starlin Castro homered, scored four runs and drove in three while extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games and the Cubs shook off their fatigue to pound out a 12-8 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a four-game series on Monday.

The Cubs needed 11 innings to beat the Mets 10-6 on Sunday night and didn’t arrive in Cincinnati until 5:30 a.m. Monday, but they still managed to get 16 hits, including three home runs and five doubles.

“Coming off some rough travel and an interesting weekend in New York, it was nice to see us come out and do that,” said manager Mike Quade, whose team participated as New York commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Aramis Ramirez also had three hits, including a double and his 25th homer of the season, and Jeff Baker added a home run as the Cubs won a third consecutive game for the first time since Aug. 15 and matched their season high in runs. They also scored 12 in a 12-7 win over Milwaukee on June 16.

Brandon Phillips hit two of Cincinnati’s four home runs and Juan Francisco hit a tape-measure shot, but the Reds couldn’t avoid their third consecutive loss and fourth in five games.

Rodrigo Lopez lasted 5 1-3 innings to earn the win despite allowing nine hits, including all four of Cincinnati’s homers, and five runs. Lopez (5-6) had a walk and a strikeout.

The Cubs pounced on Cincinnati starter Dontrelle Willis for three first-inning runs and knocked him out of the game in the fourth. Willis (0-6) gave up for nine hits and eight runs, one short of tying his career high, and walked three.

“Castro got us off to a good start,” Quade said. “It was good to give Rodrigo some run support.”

Francisco got the Reds on the board with his third homer of the season, a mammoth drive off of Lopez’s 1-0 pitch in the second inning. The 502-foot shot was second-longest at Great American Ball Park since it opened in 2003 to Adam Dunn’s 535-foot shot to right-center in 2004.

Somebody told him the ball hit a tree outside the stadium.

“I hit a couple out of the ballpark at (Single-A) Dayton,” he recalled. “It was just a good pitch to hit. I don’t know if they got the ball or not, but they put a branch up there.”

Quade was surprised to hear the public address announcer announce the distance before Francisco’s next at bat.

“I can’t remember the P.A. guy announcing how far a ball went,” Quade said. “How do they measure that?”

Willis followed one out later with a vicious line-drive single off of Baker’s glove at first base, and Brandon Phillips — who got his first day off on Sunday since Aug. 13 — hit his 13th homer, a 459-foot shot into the second deck in left field.

The Cubs regained the lead in the third on Baker’s third homer of the season, a 372-foot opposite-field drive into the second row of the right-field seats. They broke the game open with three runs in the fourth, the first scoring on the first of Castro’s two doubles in the game. He added a two-run homer in the fifth, and Ramirez led off the sixth with his 25th homer of the season.

“It was real tough,” said Castro, who now has 190 hits and has reached base at least once in a career-high 25 consecutive games. “You know you’re not going to sleep good. You’ve got to sleep quick.”

Phillips led off the Reds’ fifth with his second homer of the game, giving him two multihomer games this season and eight in his career, and rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco hit the first pitch of the sixth inning into the left field seats for his first career home run.

Notes: Reds utility INF Chris Valaika will have season-ending surgery next week to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was hurt in the top of the fifth inning Sunday at Colorado when his spikes caught in the dirt as he was swinging at a pitch from LHP Drew Pomeranz. … SS Zack Cozart, already sidelined with Tommy John surgery on his left (non-throwing) elbow, is scheduled to have minor surgery to clean out his right ankle. … RHP Mike Leake’s start Tuesday against the Cubs is expected to be his final start of the season. Leake has logged 159.2 innings, 21.1 more than he pitched last season, and the club is trying to limit him to an increase of about 30 innings. … RHP Ryan Dempster, Chicago’s scheduled starter on Tuesday, is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his last three starts against the Reds.