In a season lacking drama for the first four-plus months, the Chicago Cubs flipped the switch after the calendar turned to September.
Now it’s all drama, all the time.
The Cubs were six outs from pulling to within 2 1/2 games of Atlanta for the third National League wild-card spot Monday before blowing a three-run lead to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a devastating 5-3 loss.
Minutes later, manager Craig Counsell ended his news conference by announcing Justin Steele was scratched from Tuesday’s start with left elbow soreness, adding another layer of misery to the loss.
Counsell didn’t stick around for questions, letting Cubs fans spend a day squirming about the news of Steele’s surprising injury. On Tuesday afternoon Steele revealed the MRI he received showed no “severe damage” and nothing more than inflammation. He said rest was prescribed before taking the next step.
Everyone in Wrigleyville gave a sigh of relief, but it’s too early to say when Steele will be back.
“We’re still in a pretty good place,” Counsell said before Tuesday’s game against the Pirates. “We’re not going to put him on the (injured list) yet. It may still happen, but we’ll let all the eyes get on it and see how he feels, and probably have to make a decision tomorrow.”
Steele said he couldn’t pinpoint how long he’s felt the soreness, but it was evident in his last bullpen outing in Washington.
“Been battling it, and (the thought was) kind of just go ahead and figure out what it was,” Steele said. “From everybody’s understanding, (the MRI) was good news.”
Kyle Hendricks, who was scratched from his last start for the return of Jordan Wicks, took the mound Tuesday trying to keep the Cubs in a race few figured they’d still be in only a month ago when the offense was struggling and the team was seven games under .500. In his last start on Aug. 28 in Pittsburg he went only 1 2/3 innings and allowed six runs, and was available in the bullpen until the Steele injury.
With little margin for error, the Cubs can’t afford to lose their best starter for the rest of the season and still compete for the postseason. Steele is scheduled to play catch Wednesday and said he was confident he would pitch again this September.
But considering he has felt some soreness for a while, taking a precautionary approach to the problem might be in his long-term interest. Steele is not eligible for free agency until after the 2027 season, and figures to receive a nine-figure contract if he remains healthy and is as productive as he’s been the last two seasons in Chicago.
He began the day ranked 12th among major-league pitchers with 120 or more innings with a 3.09 ERA. Last year he made the All-Star team and went 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA.
“Obviously we’re in a tight situation with playoffs and stuff, so I want to get back on the mound as soon as possible,” he said.
Counsell said Steele “wants to be out there,” but added: “At the same time, we have to make the right decision for the players. We’re glad Justin said something. We want to get some answers. And if the answers are ‘This is going to go away quickly and you’re not at risk for hurting yourself,’ then we feel much better about going out there and pitching.”
Steele has been the de facto leader of the Cubs since June 28 in Milwaukee when he shouted “wake the f−−− up” in the dugout following a poor defensive inning. The Cubs won that game, and are 32-19 since July 4, the third-best record in the majors the last two months. But they didn’t really wake up until early August, staying on the periphery of the wild-card race without feeling like they were real contenders.
They’ve been declared dead so many times already, including by me, they should have a doctor on call in the clubhouse to conduct autopsies on a weekly basis.
“Early in the year, y’all are saying that we stink and can’t score runs and all that kind of stuff and everyone’s putting so much pressure to be able to score runs and produce,” Dansby Swanson said over the weekend in Washington.
That’s because the Cubs did stink and couldn’t score runs and all that kind of stuff. The recent hot streak has been fun to watch, but it doesn’t mean the criticism of the team with the highest payroll in the National League Central wasn’t valid.
I asked Nico Hoerner on Tuesday how the players reacted to being left for dead so often.
“As a player you want to play for a team that has both a fan base that holds you to a high standard, as well as the media,” Hoerner replied. “It’s a privilege to have that. This isn’t a team or an organization that should be striving to just be in it in September. That’s not the goal. I’m proud of the group being resilient and getting to this place after having been well below .500. But yeah, the standard should be higher here.”
The offensive progress of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya has been credited as the main factor in the recent offensive surge, and Swanson came into Tuesday with an RBI in seven-straight games since Aug. 26, the longest stretch of his career.
Scoreboard watching is now part of the daily routine, with the New York Mets and Braves in their sights.
“Obviously we don’t fully control our destiny at this point,” Hoerner said. “But there is enough baseball where the focus is on today, but the results of the other teams do matter.”
The possible loss of Steele for any length of time would increase the degree of difficulty, especially with so little time left in the season and chasing multiple teams.
“We’ve played some of our best baseball the last couple of weeks,” Hoerner said. “It was a tough loss (Monday) night, but morale and everything is still in a great place to make that possible.”