Steady Chacín delivers again
CHICAGO -- While Zach Davies and Chase Anderson have been battling injury, illness and inconsistency for most of the last month, Jhoulys Chacín has been quietly hitting his stride.
Making his first June start Saturday, the right-hander picked right back up where he left off in May by pitching 5 2⁄3 shutout innings in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 5-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Chacín allowed just three hits and tied a season low by issuing a single walk while striking out five, keeping the Brewers in the game long enough for the offense to finally awaken over the final
three innings and even the interleague series at 1-1.
“He’s doing what he’s good at,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s executing what he’s good at. It’s a sinking fastball, it’s a very good breaking ball. It’s a sprinkled-in changeup to left-handed hitters.
“Overall, he’s just pitching well. He made a bunch of pitches today. He’s getting quick outs.”
Chacín and Chicago starter James Shields were locked in a pitchers’ duel for Chacín’s entire outing, with Erik Kratz’s third-inning homer staking the Brewers to a tenuous 1-0 lead.
Twice Chacín worked out of potential jams from there.
In the third, a one-out walk to Trayce Thompson and a two-out single by Yolmer Sánchez left runners on the corners with two outs and slugger José Abreu a chance to at least tie the game.
But Chacín didn’t give him the chance. He quickly got ahead in the count, 0-2, and then got Abreu to chase a slider out of the zone.
Chacín faced the minimum in the fourth and fifth before Yoán Moncada’s leadoff single and stolen base in the sixth had the White Sox threatening again with one out and Abreu again at the plate.
This time Abreu made contact, sending a sharp ground ball up the middle. Jonathan Villar made a diving stab, gobbled the ball up and fired to first for the second out.
It was at that point Counsell made the call for Josh Hader, who quickly put out the fire and maintained the 1-0 lead by striking out pinch-hitter José Rondon on three pitches.
Villar then homered in the seventh, with Lorenzo Cain and Jesús Aguilar following, to put the game out of reach.
It was the Brewers’ fifth four-homer game of the season as well as their fifth shutout (and first on the road).
“He was huge today,” Chacín (4-1) said of Villar. “I was hoping for him to stop the ball, but he got the out. That was the game there. You can’t have any guy better coming in for that situation than Hader, then we scored a couple more runs later.
“With the bullpen we have, we’re in a good position to win the ballgame.”
Chacín’s 79-pitch outing was his shortest since he threw 74 over 5 1⁄3 innings in a win at Colorado on May 10 the last time he’d registered a victory.
“I’ve been feeling good,” Chacín said. “I’ve been working with (pitching coach Derek Johnson) a lot in my bullpens and my throwing programs. Today my ball was finally moving the way I want it – especially my sinker.
“Those are more my pitches, my sinker, my slider, and today both pitches were good. I’m just happy giving my team a chance to win today and a chance to win the series tomorrow.”
Chacín leads the Brewers with 13 starts and 69 innings, and over his last six starts he’s 2-0 with a 2.29 earned run average. Both he and Junior Guerra (3-3, 2.65) have been rock solid in leading the rotation, with Brent Suter also pitching well of late.
“During the season, injuries and DL things happen,” said Chacín. “But I always want to take the ball every five days and give my team a chance to win.
“I’m just happy I’ve been able to stay in the rotation the whole season and hopefully the whole year, and then pitch in the playoffs.”
The signing of Chacín to a two-year, $15.5 million contract Dec. 21 was an under-the-radar move by general manager David Stearns, with much of the focus around baseball on big-ticket free agents such as Jake Arrieta, Yu Darvish, Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb.
Chacín has rebounded from a few shaky early starts to go 4-1 record with a 3.39 ERA — a bargain any way you slice it from the Brewers’ perspective.
“There’s two big things,” Counsell said. “One, he’s been healthy and taken the ball every time, which is big. Then with the way he’s pitching, he’s giving us a chance to win a whole bunch of the time.
“He’s exactly what we were looking for.”