Lackey's 5-hitter leads Chicago Cubs to 6-0 win
The Chicago Cubs starting rotation is doing some crazy kind of sick stuff this year.
And it's all five pitchers.
John Lackey's stepped up and took his turn Friday. The laconic right-hander tossed 6⅔ innings of 5-hit ball in a 6-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field.
The performance was even more impressive considering the game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when the Cubs scored a run against D'Backs righty Archie Bradley. They tacked on 5 runs in the bottom of the eighth to bust this one open and improve to 38-15 for the season.
Cubs starting pitchers are 6-0 with a 1.15 ERA in their last 8 games. For the season, the starters are 31-10 with a 2.33 ERA and a WHIP of 0.99.
“I was on a pretty good staff last year,” said Lackey, referring to the St. Louis Cardinals. “We had some pretty good runs, for sure. But yeah, I've been fortunate to be on a few pretty good staffs, but this one is pitching well, for sure, right now.”
Manager Joe Maddon called Lackey the “linchpin” of the team goal to get 1,000 innings out of the five starters this season. Lackey improved to 6-2 with a 2.88 ERA with Friday's performance. He brought his ERA down from 3.16. Now, each of the Cubs' five starting pitchers has an ERA of less than 3.00.
The Cubs signed Lackey to be their No. 3 starter this past off-season, and that signing might be the most quietly effective that any team made.
“I thought he'd be one of the top signings of the off-season when it occurred,” Maddon said. “I think I actually said that. Again, you saw the edge that he provides. Their guy (Bradley) was really good. I had not seen Bradley before. He was really good. He's got good stuff. He's going to be really, really good.
“We're not making any noise on him, so we need our guy to equal that, and he did. You just expect that out of John.”
Lackey got the first two outs of the seventh inning before he walked Chris Owings and gave up a single to Yasmany Tomas. With Lackey's pitch count at 100, Maddon turned to reliever Adam Warren, and Warren retired pinch hitter Chris Herrmann on a groundout.
The Cubs got 2-run doubles from Addison Russell and Javier Baez in the eighth, with Baez coming home on a throwing error, one of two miscues by the D'Backs in the inning.
Pedro Strop and Justin Grimm came in to pitch after Warren and preserved the shutout, but what the starting pitchers have done is not lost on the position players.
“It's unbelievable,” said first baseman Anthony Rizzo. “They give us a chance to win all the time. Just go out there and play and score some runs for them. It's a nice feeling.”
As far as being labeled a “linchpin,” Lackey seemed OK with being called that.
“I'm good with that, yeah,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in being somebody you can count on, being somebody that takes the ball and somebody that goes deep into games and somebody that you know what you're going to get.”
• Follow Bruce's Cubs and baseball reports on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.