Starter Chris Volstad, acquired in the Carlos Zambrano deal with the Marlins, made his Cubs debut Monday night against division rival Milwaukee.
Volstad was an easy choice for manager Dale Sveum in the spring training competition for two rotation spots.
The Cubs removed the flags from both foul poles because of the strong winds, which were clocked at only 14 mph at game time.
"The first day is was howling in about 40 (mph) and then Saturday was a little nicer," Volstad said. "It's something you've got to get used to. It's going to be really different, but for me, (throwing) a sinkerball and trying to keep it down, the way the conditions are, it doesn't really matter."
Volstad lasted five innings, allowing three runs on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Ex-Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez was greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos in his first at-bat and wound up hitting a sacrifice fly to right to bring home Nyjer Morgan with the first run. Ryan Braun was booed lustily before dumping a double into medium left.
The Cubs tied it in the bottom of the first on Darwin Barney's one-out solo shot into the basket in left, the team's first home run of 2012. Bryan LaHair smoked one onto Sheffield Avenue in the second, giving the Cubs the lead.
But Rickie Weeks tied it with a line drive home run to the left field corner in the third, and the Brewers went ahead 3-2 one inning later on a successful suicide squeeze by pitcher Shaun Marcum scoring Alex Gonzalez from third.
After Morgan lost Geovany Soto's fifth-inning pop fly in the lights, resulting in a triple, Blake DeWitt tied the game with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly.
psullivan@tribune,com
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