Bullpen saves Chicago Cubs again
As spring training wound down, much of the talk from inside and outside Chicago Cubs camp centered on how good their starting rotation was.
If there were any concerns, they centered on the bullpen.
The way it's shaken out over the first two months of the season has been just the opposite. The bullpen has been pretty much lights-out while the rotation has struggled to find a rhythm.
Such was the case again Sunday night before a packed house of 41,587 at Wrigley Field and a national TV audience that had to be wondering what the buzz was about the Cubs' rotation.
The Cubs were able to overcome another painful-to-watch outing by Tyler Chatwood as they rallied for an 8-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
On a night when the Cubs needed a good start from Chatwood in the worst way, he gave them only the worst-way part as he lasted just 2⅔ innings, giving up 3 first-inning runs and walking five for the night.
Cubs batters were able to take advantage of some equally wild work by Giants lefty Ty Blach as they scored 3 in the bottom of the first and later got a 3-run homer from Javier Baez off former Cub Pierce Johnson.
The Cubs overcame Chatwood's wildness — and some of their own sloppy defense — against the Giants, but that's no way to operate.
“We have work to do, he has work to do,” manager Joe Maddon said of Chatwood. “I'm not saying by any means giving up. I really believe in this fellow. His stuff is that good. We've just got to get a more stable routine that permits him to control himself when he gets out there.
“We have resources to help him, and we're going to do that.”
Chatwood said he's “pretty deep into it,” as far as trying to figure things out.
“I'm grinding right now, for sure,” he said. “But the good thing is we won the game. In hindsight, that's all that matters, but definitely go back, work hard in between starts and get ready for my next one.”
The Cubs have 27 non-quality starts from their pitchers compared with 22 quality starts. When the Cubs have gotten a quality start, they're 15-7.
Nos. 1 and 2 starters Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks have been solid. Jose Quintana has been up and down. Yu Darvish has been largely ineffective, and he's on the disabled list again. Chatwood has walked 45 in 48⅓ innings pitched, contributing to a WHIP of 1.76.
“I think I did make the comment before the season began being excited about this rotation, probably like the best one I've seen since I've been here, which I still believe you're going to see,” Maddon said. It just hasn't transpired yet.”
With all that, the Cubs have hung close in the NL Central.
“If you look statistically, we're wonderful,” Maddon said. “We're actually, like, beautiful. But we've been off with our rotation. That's it. It's hard to really get on the roll everybody's looking for if you don't pitch up to your capabilities.
“It's just hard. But we will. Stay the course. Nobody get too nuts. Let's just stay in the present tense and get the guys back on track on the mound and then we'll have a chance to take off.”