Cubs win close one in Washington, without any help from the Russians

By Gordon Wittenmyer

Shortstop Javy Baez makes one of the best catches of the year leading off the Nationals’ eighth.

WASHINGTON — Just when you thought the Cubs didn’t have another White House trip in them anytime soon, manager Joe Maddon is pulling out his Trump card this week.

Making their first trip to Washington since their visit to the Obama White House in January, the Cubs opened a four-game series Monday with a 5-4 victory over the National League East-leading

Nationals.

Next up for some of the traveling party? Another trip to the White House?

“Who knows? We might be going over there again,” Maddon said. “The one thing I’ve got in my back pocket is Louie.”

That’s Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., a childhood friend of Maddon, supporter of Trump from early in the campaign, one-time candidate for the cabinet and a former mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he became known nationally for hardline immigration politics.

Barletta asked Maddon to meet Wednesday with a group of young Republicans.

“And they’re still working on possibly something else,” Maddon said. “I’m staying in touch with my boy Louie.”

That’s not exactly what Maddon meant in recent weeks when he talked about getting the Cubs right.

This is: Five scoreless innings from seventh starter Eddie Butler, just enough relief pitching (despite allowing four runs in a harrowing ninth inning), exceptional fielding led by shortstop Javy Baez and center fielder Albert Almora Jr., and playing with the lead from the first batter of the game, when leadoff-man-for-a-day Willson Contreras homered.

Eddie Butler starting? Contreras leading off? Ian Happ, Jeimer Candelario and Mark Zagunis all in the starting lineup?

The Cubs fielded the youngest lineup in a major-league game this year.

“If this was a spring-training lineup, we might get a call,” Maddon said of the rule requiring at least four regulars.

Not exactly what the Cubs’ side of this otherwise marquee matchup figured to look like when the season started.

“It’s just that we’re attending with a different group than we thought we would be attending this party with,” Maddon said. “That’s OK. These guys now are getting the kind of experience that is going to be very beneficial to us in August and September. In a perverse way, it may benefit us in the long run.”

The Cubs, who led 2-0 until a wild ninth, are now one game behind idle Milwaukee for the lead in the moribund NL Central.

They’re still just two games over .500. And they’re still looking for their first pair of back-to-back wins on the road since April.

And they’re still waiting for key players Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward and Kyle Hendricks to return from the disabled list in the next few weeks.

But they just beat likely All-Star Gio Gonzalez, and Butler’s scoreless outing dropped the rotation’s ERA to 2.27 over the last 13 games.

“I think games like this are what we need right now,” said Baez, who robbed Bryce Harper of a hit with a diving catch of a line drive and made the play of the season with a sliding catch of Adam Lind’s foul popup near the left-field stands leading off the eighth.

“I really don’t know how I caught it,” he said.

“That was stupid good,” Maddon said.

Before the game, Maddon called this a “curiosity series for me” because of the roster issues and the inconsistency.

Afterwards, he called the game one of the Cubs’ best of the season and especially intense.

“To play so well and not win that game, that would have been awful,” he said.

Now it’s on to that next White House quest.

Any Russians attending?

“I have no idea,” Maddon said. “I stay in my lane.”

Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.

Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com