After dreadful start, Cubs finding unconventional ways to win
Five weeks into the season, we’re still not sure what to make of the Cubs.
They might not be as bad as they looked through most of April nor as good as they’ve looked during a 5-0 homestand that included a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.
They’re not speed demons, but they’re second in the National League in stolen bases.
The rotation has disappointed, but a mostly anonymous relief corps full of other team’s castoffs frequently has bailed them out.
If they’re still in contention in the NL Central in late July, will President Jed
Hoyer “white flag” it and start trading his soon-to-be freeagent stars? Or will Hoyer roll the dice and play out the season, risking getting nothing back if Kris Bryant, Javier Báez and Anthony Rizzo leave?
We have a few months to contemplate such weighty matters. For now, the Cubs have won five straight to move over .500 for the first time since April 23, and that was all that really mattered Saturday to a nicely chilled crowd of 10,343.
Pinch hitter Matt Duffy RBI single in the seventh brought Jason Heyward
home from second with the go-ahead run, and rookie Keegan Thompson recorded his first major-league win with three innings of scoreless relief.
Duffy, who didn’t play in the majors in 2020 and was hitting .091 with only 11 at-bats on April 21, is hitting .364 over his last 18 games and changing the mood at Wrigley.
“Love ‘Duff,’ “Heyward said. “Love his work ethic and how he approaches every single day.”
After going through so much adversity the last few years, Duffy appears to have found his comfort zone in Chicago, where no one expected him to play with Bryant established at third.
But Duffy’s recent success led manager David Ross to give Bryant more playing time in the outfield, and it has worked out well for both players.
“My journey here has given me some perspective on the fact this game is a blast,” Duffy said. “And it’s not always perfect. And despite that, if you choose to enjoy it as often as possible, it stays fun.”
Even though the Cubs won a division title in 2020, this is the first time in the Ross era the Cubs have looked offensively fit, even playing small ball to get the job done when necessary.
Heyward walked leading off the seventh, stole second and scored on Duffy’s two-out, pinch single to short right.
Heyward’s headfirst slide barely beat the throw home, and replay confirmed the call on the go-ahead run.
Heyward credited third-base coach Willie Harris for being aggressive.
“I knew we were going to make the outfielder make a play, and fortunately I put a good enough slide in,” Heyward said.
It’s going to take a lot more than a five-game winning streak to convince Cubs fans this isn’t a mirage.
The Cubs hit .217 in August 2020, which seemed unthinkable until they hit .213 in September. And with most of the same lineup back in 2021, they just wrapped up a historically bad April in which they finished with a .216 average.
The last time we saw the Cubs really put together any stretch of semi-consistent hitting was in 2019, when they missed the postseason and let go of the only manager to win a championship in the last 113 years.
Even in their last four wins, the Cubs have managed to go 7-for-45 (.156) with runners in scoring position and mustered up only five singles Saturday to improve to .225.
That’s why Heyward’s timely steal was so important.
“Hitting is really hard,” Ross said. “I don’t know if you guys look at the numbers, what those are around the league. But 90 feet is very important in this game, and we value 90 feet.
“These guys are playing heads-up baseball, they keep their heads on a swivel.”
Yep, it’s hard all right. Going into Saturday, majorleague teams were hitting a collective .233, a steep drop-off from last year’s .245 average, which was the lowest since 1973, the year the designated hitter was introduced in the American League. The previous low in a full season since ’73 was .248 in 2018.
The so-called “dejuiced” ball obviously hasn’t helped create offense and might have exacerbated its decline. If that trend continues, the teams able to take more risks and find creative ways to score runs might be ahead of the curve.
It’s still too early to make any presumptions about the state of the game, much less the relevance of the 2021 Cubs based on a nice homestand against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pirates.
But the good news for the Cubs is Báez reportedly is OK after being removed from the game for back tightness, and Craig Kimbrel returned to notch a save after Ross rested him Friday and got defensive when asked for an explanation.
It’s a strange new world for the Cubs, and sometimes it’s even a blast.