Rozner: Chicago Cubs' Montgomery continues making his case to stay in rotation
Any minute now, Tyler Chatwood is going to be declared a public-health risk.
Seriously, at 64 years old, Joe Maddon ought not be stressed the way Chatwood stresses him.
Pitching coach Jim Hickey is going to wake up screaming at night.
Chicago Cubs fans have put beer vendors on retainer.
And never mind the Dodgers' Chris Taylor, who received Chatwood's third pitch of the fourth inning in his helmet.
If you lost track of his pitch count at that point, well, it's understandable. Chatwood was at 56 after 2 innings at Wrigley Field Tuesday in Game 1, and that's about when your vision starts to blur.
Yeah, it's fair to wonder whether it's harder to watch Chatwood throw a baseball game or watch him throw a baseball at your head.
Regret can also be painful, and Theo Epstein has to be wondering about the $38 million over three years he gave Chatwood in free agency.
In fairness, there's lot of time left on that deal, more than enough time to justify the dollars and make the signing look wise.
But there's no pretending 14 starts into his Cubs career — which is about half a season using today's underwhelming math — that Chatwood's been easy on the eyes.
After another 5-inning, 101-pitch outing Tuesday, a no-decision in a 4-3 loss that again stressed the bullpen, Chatwood is 3-5 with a 3.95 ERA, a mind-boggling 1.73 WHIP, a league-leading 63 walks in 68 innings, a 4.77 FIP, and he hasn't thrown more than 5⅓ innings in eight weeks.
The Cubs, however, insist that Chatwood is “getting closer” each time out.
“He threw the ball well,” Maddon said. “But he had a high pitch count again.”
The Cubs needed four relievers to get through the next four innings, something they have to expect now every time Chatwood pitches.
“I felt good. It's something to build on,” he said. “Any time you can keep your team in the game and leave with the lead, that's good.
“Everyone wants to go 7 (innings) every time. It's not easy.”
And all this time it seemed the goal was to go 9 innings, but those days are dead and buried, and 5 innings with 2 hits, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts and only a single earned run is apparently acceptable, even if it means running through your bullpen every start.
That's a bad recipe, but as of this moment the Cubs have no decision to make. Yu Darvish is weeks away from returning to a major-league mound, and at that point management will have to make a call on Mike Montgomery, who continued his strong stretch in the rotation Tuesday night in Game 2.
Montgomery wasn't as sharp as he has been, but he gave up just a run in 6 innings on 5 hits and an uncharacteristic 4 walks with 5 strikeouts, after only 3 walks in his previous 23⅔ innings.
In these 5 starts since being added to the rotation, Montgomery has posted a 1.22 ERA and 0.84 WHIP, though his peripherals are not nearly as strong.
Still, Montgomery must have wondered about the blackout Monday night, which led to Tuesday's split doubleheader and the contrast between Chatwood in Game 1 and Montgomery in Game 2.
He's been pitching for a rotation spot for two years, and now Montgomery is making that decision a little more complicated if the Cubs reach a point where they have six healthy starters.
Nothing says they can't use six for a while, but you can hardly send Chatwood to the bullpen when he's had so much trouble throwing strikes, so if they go back to five it's more likely that Montgomery heads back into a role where Maddon can use him as a swing guy, long man and even late in games.
In the meantime, he's making the call tougher for the Cubs, and they're not crazy.
If he keeps up this pace, how can they do it to him again?
brozner@dailyherald.com
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