Steele's dominant start goes to waste in loss to Brewers |
CHICAGO - Perhaps the biggest reason why the Chicago Cubs (1-1) started to surge during the second half of last season, you can point to the pitching. In particular, the starting pitching as they posted the third-lowest ERA in the majors after July 1, only behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros.
If Spring Training and the first two games of the regular season indicate how things will go, then the pitching looks to be the strong suit yet again. Coming off a 4-0 win against the Milwaukee Brewers (1-1) on Thursday, the Cubs pitching was at it again as they held the Brewers scoreless through seven innings on Saturday. That made 16 consecutive scoreless frames by the Cubs staff to open the series, as things were not easy to come by. Clinging a 1-0 lead in the eighth, Javier Assad struggled to keep the Milwaukee bats in check as the Brewers erupted for three runs in that eighth inning to take a 3-1 lead. That was all the offense they would need as they held the Cubs scoreless the rest of the way to even up the series. Looking to match what Marcus Stroman did on the mound on Thursday, Justin Steele got the ball on Saturday and delivered another great start. Steele went six innings, allowing just three hits while punching out eight. He exited with the lead and was in line to pick up the win until the bullpen let him down. Matching Steele pitch for pitch was the hard-throwing Brandon Woodruff as his Wrigley Field mastery continued. In seven career starts at the Friendly Confines, the Brewers right-hander is 4-1 with a microscopic 1.63 ERA. He continued that dominance on the mound in this one matching Steele pitch for pitch to go six innings with eight strikeouts while allowing just one solo homer as the lone blemish on his day. "You have to respect that fastball down and in, having caught a guy like that, to righties," Ross said. "And he's so tough on lefties with the angle. There's just some real, real deception there. And I think that late movement really helps him out." Any time you have a game this low scoring, you can bet offense was at a premium, but the Brewers had an opportunity to strike in the first. With Mike Brosseau leading the game off with a walk, it was the Christian Yelich one-out single to put a pair of runners on base only to see Steele induce an inning-ending double play. That started a string of six consecutive hitters retired until Joey Wiemer picked up a one-out double in the third. Steele worked out of that scoring chance, as he was dominant the rest of the way. Not only did Dansby Swanson have three hits on Thursday, but he added two more to start his afternoon off on Saturday, including a leadoff double to begin the fourth. Swanson was unable to come home in that inning, but he continues to play fantastic defense while showing that spring training stats don't matter. With both teams putting minimal baserunners on base through five innings, it was no surprise to see this game knotted 0-0 as things moved to the sixth inning. It was in that inning when the Cubs finally broke through as Ian Happ took Woodruff deep in the bottom of the sixth as the Cubs took the 1-0 lead. That was all the offense they would generate, as it was up to their pen to preserve the lead. Assad was the first pitcher called on by David Ross and was dominant in the seventh inning, striking out a pair to keep the Cubs in front. The same can be said about the Brewers as they, too, went to the pen in the seventh, with Peter Strzelecki keeping things 1-0. Needing offense in a hurry, the Brewers finally started to show up in the eighth inning as they began to touch up Assad. Brian Anderson started the inning with a single ahead of the Garrett Mitchell walk as Milwaukee had two on and no outs. Jesse Winker kept the line moving as his single up the middle scored Anderson to bring things back to even 1-1. Assad was pulled two hitters later in favor of Michael Fulmer, who walked the first hitter he faced to load the bases. One batter later saw William Contreras come through with the decisive hit as his two-run single proved to be the game-winner as the Brewers took the 3-1 lead. Michael Rucker closed out the eighth before Mark Leiter Jr sent the game to the bottom of the ninth with the Cubs still trailing by two. Down to their final three outs, if the Cubs wanted to get something done, they would have to do so against one of the best in the business, Devin Williams. Swanson got things started in a positive way with a leadoff single, only to have Happ follow that with a single to put a pair of runners on base. On the verge of potentially a big inning, Williams recovered nicely and induced a double play off the bat of Cody Bellinger before striking out Miles Mastrobuoni to end the game. The Cubs tallied five hits in the game as Swanson had three and Happ added two. These same teams will take the field for the rubber match on Sunday as Eric Lauer will take on Jameson Taillon.
