Twins grow up doing a lot of things together. In the case of Brian and Sean Marshall, that meant throwing a ton of baseballs.

And dreaming of one day pitching in the major leagues.

The duo starred on the mound for Manches ter High and Virginia Commonwealth, before being drafted in June 2003. Brian went in the fifth round to the Boston Red Sox and Sean in the sixth to the Chicago Cubs.

Both are left-handers, although Sean was a starter and Brian a closer.

"Sean and Brian were completely different pitchers," said Mark McQueen, VCU's pitching coach. "It just boiled down to the different clubs and what they needed, starters or relievers. Scouts would ask me which one I thought was better, and it was really hard to compare them. I always told them I thought both of them would do great."

Because he was more of a strikeout pitcher and southpaw relievers are somewhat rare commodities in the big leagues, Brian figured to have the best chance to make it to the majors.

So it was ironic that several days after Brian was released in spring training by the Red Sox, Sean found out he had made the starting rotation for the Cubs.

"I got released about a week before spring training ended," Brian said. "That's pretty close to the same time he learned he was going to be the No. 4 or 5 starter for the Cubs. That was good, because it kind of helped ease my upsetness, knowing what he was doing. It made things a lot better.

"The best part about me getting released is I had a lot of free time to go to Chicago and watch him pitch his first couple of games, which was a huge bonus. If I had been playing, I wouldn't have been able to do that. That was special."

Sean, who is 3-2 in nine starts, is scheduled to go tomorrow against Atlanta at Wrigley Field in a game that will be televised locally at 1 p.m. by Fox.

Meanwhile, Brian is in Richmond, working out in an effort to attract offers from major-league teams. The Red Sox let him go because of shoulder problems that have plagued him since 2004. In parts of three minor-league seasons, he was 6-2 with eight saves and an ERA of 2.56, but Boston was concerned about his velocity.

"The last season and a half was not exactly what I expected it to be," said the 23-year-old. "Just kind of battling shoulder issues; velocity and control problems."

Brian went to spring training a month early with Boston and was on the verge of getting into some games when he pulled a muscle in his side that all but sealed his fate. His daily workouts now have him close to 100 percent again, and he's hoping to attend some big-league tryouts later this summer.

In the meantime, he'll continue to dream about joining Sean in the majors.

"With me and him, we've always had our ups and downs," Brian said. "One of us will be going good and the other one will be sliding back a little bit. I don't know if it was a twin thing or not. In high school, I made the team and he didn't. Then he came back and made the team and he was the main pitcher. In college, he was a freshman All-American and I didn't pitch much.

"Our sophomore year, he had a so-so year and I had a breakout season. Our junior year, we both did pretty well, but we've kind of been teeter-tottering. So I guess this is his good year. I'll always have a slight bit of jealously that he beat me [to the majors], but hopefully one day soon I can catch up with him."