Cubs bullpen bears down, gets redemption against Arizona
Maybe this is where everything changes.
Before Saturday's game at Wrigley Field, there was sort of a Chicago Sports Success Summit, featuring two coaches whose teams could snap the city's playoff drought — Cubs manager Craig Counsell and the Bears' Ben Johnson.
Johnson threw out the first pitch — with authority — then skipped singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” while the Cubs beat Arizona 6-2.
“I know he's already fell in love with the city of Chicago and looking forward to the draft and getting started,” Counsell said of Johnson. “It was fun meeting his family and wish him all the best.”
Johnson's pitch to Brad Keller wasn't a strike, but it was the sort of hard sinker that might draw a swing and miss.
“I hope he told Brad that was coming, because that was some gas,” Counsell said with a laugh.
A football team is broken into offense, defense and special teams. In baseball there are hitters and pitchers. In the Cubs’ case, this was a day of redemption for the late-game run prevention group.
On Friday the Cubs bullpen gave up 10 runs in the eighth inning. On Saturday starter Ben Brown needed 100 pitches to get through four innings, so the pressure was on the relievers again.
They got it done. Caleb Thielbar breezed through two innings, then Keller tossed one and Daniel Palencia got the last two. When it was all said and done, the Diamondbacks scored on a home run by Corbin Carroll leading off the game, then a solo shot from Tim Tawa with two outs in the ninth inning.
“Life of a bullpen guy is just short memory,” Thielbar said. “Yeah, it happened a couple times this year against this (Arizona) team. We've really just got to keep our head on straight. Go out there and try to execute pitch-to-pitch and not worry about the stuff that happened yesterday.”
Overall this season, the Cubs bullpen has a couple of colossal gaffes. But take away the 18 runs from the two awful innings against the Diamondbacks and the reliever ERA drops to 3.66 from 5.58, which would put them 14th in MLB instead of 28th.
“Those guys were great,” Counsell said of the relievers. “Thielbar, I thought going six up and six down really put the game in a good place for us and put the rest of the bullpen in a good position. They all just attacked the zone with strikes. This is a team, they don't chase very much.”
Arizona's lack of chase might also explain why Brown struggled with traffic. He allowed 3 hits, 4 walks and a hit batter, having to deal with two baserunners in every inning. But he got through it all with just 1 run allowed.
“Ultimately, walks are going to be part of my game,” Brown said. “To get swing and miss, I need them to chase. That's kind of how I do things. So there's going to be walks. Not having four (walks), maybe two and being able to pitch the fifth and sixth innings is ultimately the goal.”
Cubs hitters did all their damage early. Kyle Tucker tripled in between a pair of singles to produce 2 runs in the first. In the second inning, Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch hit back-to-back home runs to build a 6-1 lead.
After that, Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen settled down and made it through six innings with no further damage.
“Sometimes the best time to get (the starters) is those first two innings before they settle in,” Counsell said. “That's pretty much exactly what we did, made him work hard for the first two innings, never got comfortable the first time and a half through the lineup.”
Pete Crow-Armstrong doubled in the eighth inning, his seventh straight game with an extra-base hit.