CHICAGO -- Mark Prior will make his first start of the season Sunday against the Detroit Tigers after missing the first 2½ months with a strained shoulder.
"It's been a long, hard road, but I'm glad that Mark's getting back on the mound," manager Dusty Baker said before Saturday's game. "Hopefully, we can keep him on the mound all year long."
Already on a slower paced program to avoid the elbow problems he experienced the previous two springs, Prior strained a muscle in his right shoulder in March and began the season on the disabled list for the third straight year.
He made four minor league rehab starts, allowing one unearned run and four hits while striking out 10 in 6 2/3 innings for Triple-A Iowa at New Orleans on Tuesday night. He threw 90 pitches in that game and will likely be limited to about 90 on Sunday.
"He threw 90 his last game, so that's what we're looking for," pitching coach Larry Rothschild said of Prior, who also made two rehab starts at Single-A and one at Double-A.
He began last season on the DL with a sore elbow, went back in May after taking a line drive in the elbow and finished 11-7 in 27 starts. He's been there six times in all.
Prior's best season was 2003, when he was 18-6 and led the Cubs to the playoffs. Now, he's rejoining a team that has been in a downward spiral since first baseman Derrek Lee broke two bones just above his right wrist joint in a collision with the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal on April 19. The Cubs went from 9-5 after beating Los Angeles that night to 26-40 and fifth in the NL Central entering Saturday's game, losing 12 of 13 at one point.
In the interim, Kerry Wood, their other injury-prone starter, came back after missing the first seven weeks while recovering from arthroscopic shoulder surgery and returned to the 15-day disabled list June 9 after going 1-2 with a 4.12 ERA in four starts. He might pitch a simulated game in Cleveland and could be ready next weekend.
"It's certainly a possibility," Rothschild said. "I don't want to give a date, but I would think it wouldn't be a long time after he's eligible."
Wood's and Prior's injuries have forced the Cubs to use a makeshift rotation behind Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux, with veteran Glendon Rusch and youngsters Angel Guzman, Sean Marshall, Rich Hill, Jae Kuk Ryu and Carlos Marmol getting turns.
"Mark has been on a pretty steady schedule ... as far as his recovery," Rothschild said. "With Kerry, we knew when we activated him there were going to be times when it was touch-and-go just because of his surgery."
