Age-old formula works for Maholm, Cubs
Pitching and defense.
These two basic elements make up one of the oldest clichés in baseball.
But lovers of the game know they go together like your hand inside a freshly oiled Wilson A2000 glove. Or a Rawlings Gold Glove, if you will.
The Cubs threw plenty of good pitching and a lot of leather at the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday during a crisply played 1-0 victory at chilly Wrigley Field.
Left-hander Paul Maholm won his fourth consecutive start to improve to 4-2 and lower his ERA from 5.13 to 4.05 as he worked 7 innings of 3-hit ball.
He got plenty of help behind him, not so much by highlight-reel plays, but by fielders being in the right spot almost every time.
It might have seemed uncanny, but there has been a method to all the shifting and overshifting the Cubs have been doing this season.
If a ball goes up the middle or to the hole at first or third, chances are somebody’s there waiting to catch it. For instance, Maholm had runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth. The Braves’ Chipper Jones lined a ball up the middle.
Sure basehit, right? Nope. Second baseman Darwin Barney was behind the bag to snag it.
“It’s like the last few starts, where it’s mixing pitches, getting ahead, trying to keep them off balance as much as possible and letting the defense make plays,” said Maholm, who has a 1.07 ERA in his winning streak.
“I think Chipper probably thought he was going to be 3-for-3. Starlin (shortstop Castro) and Barney made some great plays. The whole infield, they’ve been picking me up the last four games.
“The one where Chipper almost hit me in the forehead and Barney caught it, it’s scary, and it’s very good.”
Jones, whom the Cubs honored with a Braves banner before the game for his long career, credited the Cubs’ defense.
“The shift won them the game today,” he said. “It lost them the game last night. You live with it. You’re going to die by it.”
The way Cubs manage Dale Sveum sees it, you can live by it 90 percent of the time and take your chances with the other 10.
“Through technology, through video, when a guy’s going to hit a ball 90 percent of the time in one specific area, you’re going to play there,” Sveum said. “If you’re going to get beat by it 10 percent of the time, I can live with it.
“When the data says play here, you play there. Sometimes even the starting pitcher has his own spray chart, as well, where he just never gives up the ball in a certain area, the way he pitches, the way he sinks the ball.
“I’ve always (had) a gambler-kind of attitude. To me, it’s not that you’re gambling. All it is, is that you’re doing something different than what’s been the history of baseball.”
Bryan LaHair drove in the game’s only run in the seventh, when he singled home David DeJesus, who led off with a single. Maholm gave way in the eighth to James Russell and in the ninth to Rafael Dolis, who earned his third save.
The starting pitchers have turned in 19 quality starts. The team is 12-7 in those games, with the starters having an ERA of 1.37.
“Going into the season, we knew that it was going to be one of our strong suits,” said Sveum, whose team is 13-18 and has won two straight series. “It’s been probably as good as anybody’s in baseball for the most part.
“Thirty games, whatever we’ve played, we’ve had a lot of quality starts and guys going 6, 7, 7-plus (innings) consistently … our starting pitching’s been great.”
bmiles@dailyherald.com