PITTSBURGH — Part of the Chicago Cubs’ game plan against the Pittsburgh Pirates and right-hander Mitch Keller became obvious early and repeated often Tuesday night.
Ian Happ swiped second base three batters into the series opener at PNC Park, one of eight bags the Cubs stole in a blowout 18-8 victory. The Cubs’ eight steals marked their most in a game since Sept. 17, 1911, per team historian Ed Hartig. Pete Crow-Armstrong was responsible for three steals as four different Cubs recorded a stolen base.
“I think we’ve done a good job of that all year, going into a game with that mindset and executing, but we’ve done a good job against these guys, and we have a good idea what we want to do,” said Crow-Armstrong, who has stolen 26 bases this year. ” … It’s just important to utilize stuff that’s going to put guys in a scoring position.”
Six Cubs finished with a multi-hit game, led by Miguel Amaya (four hits, two doubles, four RBIs), Seiya Suzuki (four hits, double, RBI, three runs) and Crow-Armstrong (three singles) as part of 21 hits. Dansby Swanson’s grand slam in the sixth during an eight-run inning helped turn a one-run Cubs lead into a comfortable cushion for starter Jameson Taillon.
The production they are getting from the bottom third of the order has helped the Cubs, who are back at .500, find some offensive consistency over the last month.
“It allows me to go out there and if I’m going to a 2-1, 3-1 count just be free to challenge a guy over the heart of the plate, make him hit it and earn it,” Taillon said of the offensive support. “So it’s a pretty freeing feeling out there. I know it can’t happen every time, but it’s nice when it does.”
Merryweather working through struggles
It only took 20 pitches for Sunday’s game to get away from reliever Julian Merryweather and the Chicago Cubs.
Merryweather was tasked with keeping the game close with the Cubs trailing the Marlins by two runs when he entered in the eighth inning in Miami. Instead, he surrendered five hits, one walk and four runs in his inning of work, another inconsistent performance from Merryweather. Manager Craig Counsell said the Cubs have been working on mechanical tweaks with the reliever.
“Obviously, he just hasn’t felt right this year, essentially,” Counsell said. “And so you’re just trying to experiment when you’re not feeling right and trying to find answers to it. And we haven’t been able to find answers to that.”
It goes beyond just mechanics, with Counsell describing Merryweather’s issues as a combination of that and physically feeling off.
“They kind of bleed into each other a little bit,” Counsell said. “So we’ll keep working.”
The dip in Merryweather’s velocity has been a concern, too. During Sunday’s rough outing, the right-hander’s four-seam fastball was 2.3 mph below his season average while his slider sat 1.4 mph under. In 11 outings since returning from the injured list after missing three months, Merryweather has been tagged for 10 runs in 10 1/3 innings while walking eight and striking out eight batters. Despite his struggles, the Cubs’ bullpen has continued to roll, representing one of the team’s most notable turnaround performances this year.
Their bullpen possesses an MLB-best 2.14 ERA dating to June 27. During this stretch, the Tampa Bay Rays have the next-lowest bullpen ERA at 2.87.
“We’ve got our bullpen kind of in a pretty good place, with some young guys and some guys that were brought on during the season,” Counsell said.
Wicks needs another rehab outing
Left-hander Jordan Wicks is not quite ready yet to come off the injured list.
Wicks will make another rehab start with Triple-A Iowa on Friday. It will mark his fifth rehab outing as he looks to return from an oblique injury that has sidelined him since June 14. Wicks built up to 73 pitches in 4 1/3 innings Sunday with Iowa.
The Cubs will likely face a decision of whether to find a spot on the pitching staff for Wicks following his start Friday. Counsell previously mentioned the Cubs could employ a six-man rotation at certain points.
Struggle to get above .500
It’s hard to take the Cubs’ fight to stay in the National League wild-card race seriously as long as they struggle to stay above .500.
They entered Tuesday’s series opener in Pittsburgh 5½ games back of the last wild-card spot and haven’t possessed a winning record since May 28 when they were 28-27. Sunday represented a missed opportunity for a crucial sweep and to finally reach that mark. Although the Cubs will need to find a way to secure a sweep or two over the final 4½ weeks, Counsell didn’t want to look at the challenge in that context.
“I don’t think it helps for me to say we got to win three games in one day, you know what I mean?” Counsell said. “If you win every series, that’s a pretty good record the rest of the year. … You don’t get to pick how you do it. It’s why you just worry about every day.
“If we’re going to do it, there’s going to have to be a sweep in there yes. There will probably be a two-game losing streak. We’re not going to win every series. There will probably be a sweep in there, there will probably be a series in there we lose. That’s how this goes.”
