CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs acting manager Andy Green’s professional baseball career as a player, coach and skipper has spanned 20 years with five organizations across every level.
Yet Monday afternoon he couldn’t recall experiencing an emotional ride quite like the one the Cubs have endured this year. From an All-Star-laden roster with postseason expectations and a season-defining 11-game losing streak in June to a July trade deadline that dismantled one-third of their opening-day roster, including the departure of three franchise fan favorites, and a 12-game losing streak in August — well, it has been a lot.
“You absolutely love the guys that were here to start the year, and as we went through that rough stretch in June, you could feel it threatening to end and everybody carried the weight of that through the end of the trade deadline and even the start of August when everybody had turned over,” Green said. “But as the new guys came in, they came in hungry with a lot to prove and they’re great guys, and they’re having fun on a baseball field and competing to win.”
The Cubs are suddenly playing their best baseball of the season. Their 4-3 win Monday against the Cincinnati Reds gave them their season-high seventh consecutive victory. It represents their longest winning streak since winning seven straight from April 27 to May 5, 2019. Even with an overhauled roster that doesn’t boast much big league experience, the Cubs are beating the teams they should (the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins) and handed a setback to a Reds team fighting for a playoff spot.
Their formula for success over the past week has been multifaceted: timely hits by Frank Schwindel, a red-hot Ian Happ staying locked in, a dominant bullpen, promising talent stepping up and doing the little things to win games. All of those components were on display Monday at Wrigley Field.
“It’s not the level of names we had before and the resumes aren’t there, but these guys are competing every day and enjoying being on the baseball field together,” Green said. “(David) Ross has done a tremendous job at the top of keeping this group together and focused as we’ve gone through probably one of the more emotional seasons you’re ever going to have.”
1. Frank Schwindel continues to play hero with timely hits
When the Cubs have needed the clutch hit lately, Schwindel has been the one to come through. His one-out RBI single in the eighth Monday broke a tie. It marked the fourth time in the Cubs’ last four games in which the 29-year-old rookie drove home the winning run. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Schwindel became the first player with a go-ahead RBI in the sixth inning or later in four consecutive games in the last 40 years.
“I was borderline giddy in the dugout thinking, ‘It can’t happen again, can it?’ ” Green said after the win. “We were laughing over there just by the sheer fact that he was up with the opportunity to do something special again, and thankfully, he controls his emotions better than me and (coach) Mike Borzello do. So he needs to keep that mentality and not change, not be like the rest of us who were just laughing and marveling and enjoying what he’s doing. It’s really impressive.”
Schwindel isn’t just delivering the big hits, though. He’s consistently getting on base. He produced his fourth straight multi-hit game Monday and has recorded at least one RBI in seven of his last eight games. During his career-high-tying eight-game hitting streak, Schwindel is batting .441 (15 for 34) with six home runs and 14 RBIs.
“He’s one of those guys that can put the barrel on the ball wherever it’s thrown,” Green said. “So you see him (Sunday) where it’s down below the zone and he puts the barrel on it, hits it out of the ballpark. You see 92-mph cutters or 98-mph fastballs up, in, out, down — if you’ve got a hole at this level, they’re going to find it out and everybody’s got some place where they’re not as good as other places.
“But he really does have a pretty special ability to find the barrel of the bat on any pitch in any zone at any point in time, which makes him really good late in the game. Because a lot of people can’t control those emotions and can’t find the barrel in crucial situations, and he’s continuing to prove that he does have that ability.”
In just 33 games, Schwindel is tied with catcher Willson Contreras for the fourth-best fWAR (1.7 in 107 games) in a Cubs uniform this season behind Kris Bryant (2.7 in 93 games), Patrick Wisdom (2.1 in 90 games) and Javier Báez (2.0 in 91 games).
2. Ian Happ’s offensive turnaround has played a big role in the Cubs getting on a roll
Happ’s three-run homer in the first off Reds starter Sonny Gray gave Cubs left-hander Justin Steele a cushion to work with. Happ’s homer was his eighth since Aug. 12, tying him for second in the National League during that stretch. The long ball also extended his hitting streak to seven games; he’s batting .387 (12 for 31) with two doubles, three homers and seven RBIs in the streak.
Happ’s turnaround extends beyond the hitting streak. Over his last 22 games, the switch hitter has raised his season average from .177 to .214. He has seven multi-hit games in that span, including four three-hit games; in his first 104 games, Happ compiled only six multi-hit games with three three-hit performances. Hitting more line drives and balls in the air has been a key part of his turnaround.
“He was going through stretches early in the season where his ground-ball rate was extremely high, even in comparison to his career norm, and now he’s down below his career norm recently as he’s heating up,” Green said. “Everybody’s excited about the way he’s swinging the bat and the quality of his at-bats. The lineout in the last inning was a great swing too. We’ve believed in him for a long time, and everybody’s really excited to see him kind of be Ian Happ right now.”
3. A dominant bullpen keeps tossing up zeroes while promising talent emerges
There were a lot of questions surrounding the bullpen after the Cubs traded their three best relievers — Craig Kimbrel, Andrew Chafin and Ryan Tepera — as they looked to figure out which younger arms would step up.
The Cubs are getting a glimpse of their future, and there are encouraging early returns. Right-handers Codi Heuer and Manny Rodríguez possess electric stuff, while Rowan Wick and Adam Morgan, who earned his second career save Monday, continue to show why they have been successful big league relievers. Right-hander Scott Effross has pitched well after a shaky major league debut, throwing five scoreless innings with six strikeouts and no walks during his last three appearances, including two innings Monday.
After throwing four shutout innings against the Reds, the Cubs bullpen owns an 0.51 ERA (two earned runs in 35 innings) during the seven-game winning streak.
The emerging talent extends beyond the relievers. Steele again pitched like a quality big league starter. The Reds struggled to generate quality contact through the first five innings as Steele found the right mix of strikeouts and attacking for quick outs.
The Reds finally got to him in the sixth. Steele found himself in a jam after giving up a double, walking a batter and hitting two consecutive Reds to load the bases and then bring home a run. That sequence ended Steele’s afternoon with two of the inherited runners scoring to tie the game.
“I’ve just got to take what I’m doing through the first five innings and just keep it going, keep translating it over,” Steele said. “I was forcing some things in that last inning. Nothing that I can’t fix. Just go back to the drawing board, make some adjustments and then just go from there.”
Steele’s efficiency bodes well in his efforts to stick as a starter. He clearly has the potential and stuff to be an important part of the rotation next year. Monday was another learning opportunity for Steele. Now he has to learn how to convert his effectiveness into longer outings, something that remains a focus for the 26-year-old rookie.
4. The little things are paying off
There are always little moments, good or bad, that affect a game’s outcome. When things are going well, it’s typically because a team is doing the little things that can lead to big moments. The Cubs had two such situations that stood out Monday and played a low-key role in extending their winning streak.
Alfonso Rivas’ opportunities have been limited off the bench, but his approach and success as a pinch hitter can’t be ignored in the small sample size. Pinch hitting to start the eighth in a tie game, Rivas fell behind 1-2 against Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen. Rivas worked a full count, fouling off four pitches before pulling an inside fastball to right for a single to cap a 10-pitch at-bat.
Rivas, who is 3 for 4 as a pinch hitter, advanced to second on a wild pitch with Rafael Ortega at the plate. One batter later, Schwindel connected for a one-out single to score Rivas with the eventual winning run. Rivas’ patience, approach and ability to fight off pitches until he was able to get one he could barrel helped set up Schwindel’s heroics.
The Cubs were partly in position for the late-inning win because of Happ’s play in left field when the Reds rallied in the sixth. Happ cut off Max Schrock’s game-tying RBI double from getting to the wall and quickly threw the ball back in to hold Asdrubal Cabrera, the go-ahead run, at third. Heuer forced pinch hitter Mike Moustakas to pop out, stranding the runners.
“That’s how you win baseball games,” Green said. “You keep the score 3-3, give us an opportunity to go out there and keep our best pitchers coming into the games, the guys we feel best about, because if we fall behind, a lot of our guys are taxed and we’re not going to want to use them. So his ability to cut that ball off and get it back in was huge.”