Miles: Cubs display plenty of guts, reap lots of glory
Joe Maddon is fond of a nice glass of red wine following Cubs games.
But the manager may have seen fit to share a six-pack of suds with somebody following Saturday's gutsy 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field.
That's six-pack as in 6 straight victories for the Cubs, who are sporting a nice 21-15 record.
Maddon pulled out all of his managerial stops on a warm, humid day while a season-high 38,883 nervously watched.
Starting pitcher and ace Jon Lester did his part by overcoming cramps in his upper right leg and pitching 7 innings to improve to 4-2 with a 3.70 ERA.
It got interesting after that. With a bullpen that pitched 11 innings over the previous two days, Maddon had to rest his relief regulars.
Brian Schlitter came up from Iowa and couldn't get either of the two batters he faced to start the eighth, but veterans Phil Coke and Jason Motte summoned up the resolve to work out of trouble and hold the Pirates scoreless.
The surprise came in the ninth, when left-hander Travis Wood went 1-2-3 to earn his first career save. Wood will move from the rotation to the bullpen after some shaky starts, but the Cubs were able to use him Saturday and avoid using closer Hector Rondon for a fourth straight day.
“Yeah, Jonny was fabulous and that permitted everything to work for us today because their pitcher was really good today, too,” Maddon said, referring to Pirates starter Gerrit Cole. “You've got to pitch better than good pitching to win. We had the better pitching today. Jonny set the whole thing up. He was outstanding.
“The bullpen, how's that? Schlitter had a tough day, but how about Coker not playing in awhile, getting a comebacker and fielding it properly? And then Motte coming back like he did and not permitting anything, which is huge. Woody was out there. One batter (on base), and I was going to bring Rondon in. But it was set up for (Wood), and he got a save. It was a beautiful thing.”
The Cubs signed Lester to a six-year, $155 million contract to be their ace and pitch through tough days. After a visit by the trainer with two outs in the seventh and two men on, Lester got Andrew McCutchen looking and showed plenty of emotion as he exited the field after his 110th pitch with the game still close at 2-1.
“Not just for me,” he said of being fired up. “That's probably a huge turning point in the game right there. They got a little momentum, some infield hits. To get out of there unscathed is huge, especially in that tight game.”
The Cubs offense was led by the R&B Boys: Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. They combined to get on base six times, with Rizzo adding a huge sacrifice fly in the 2-run burst in the bottom of the seventh.
Starlin Castro, another of the Cubs' young core, chipped in with 2 RBI. Bryant and Rizzo singled back to back in the first, and Castro hit a sacrifice fly. Bryant walked and Rizzo singled and stole a base in the third, with Castro driving Bryant home on a forceout.
“It's been fun with them, but it's not just us,” Bryant said of the three young stars. “This lineup is a pretty good lineup up and down, and even some of our pitchers can hit, which is pretty cool.”
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