Tyler Chatwood as Cubs’ closer? Right stuff, wrong inning, manager says

Tyler Chatwood has provided a needed boost to a depth-challenged bullpen with six weeks of sharp pitching as a two-inning-plus reliever.

And if he keeps that up, he should become a candidate to return to a big-league rotation.

But he won’t become anybody’s closer candidate anytime soon, no matter what his stuff or studio pundits might suggest.

“The big thing with him is just throwing strikes,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Chatwood, who allowed one run in four innings of relief to earn a victory Wednesday night. “If he does that, his stuff is that electric that we’ll use him anytime.”

Maddon was specifically talking about short setup relief vs. long relief. And, specifically, he was not talking about the ninth inning.

Chatwood has no experience in that role, and even when at his best with his command, he’s a top-step proposition in a given outing — much less a given inning. His best walk rate with any team in his career was 4.1 per nine innings with the Rockies.

“It’s also the last three outs. They’re just different. And he hasn’t done that,” said Maddon, who added that he envisions using Chatwood in that role only if his other options are used up or unavailable for the day.

“He definitely has the stuff to do it — absolutely has the stuff to do it. But, then again, it’s just a different role to be in. A lot of times people jump to conclusions outside the confines here, and then you have to listen to it all.

“But it’s not as easy as you think it is.”

Strop Saturday

Reliever Pedro Strop, the ninth-inning man the Cubs have missed since a strained left hamstring put him on the injured list two weeks ago, said he felt great during a bullpen session Wednesday and is scheduled to throw another one Saturday.

He said he feels ready to start pitching, and it could happen in a minor-league rehab assignment by next week depending on how Saturday goes.

“Everything feels good,” Strop said.

Phil of Phormer Phoes?

After Cubs starter Cole Hamels struggled to get through four innings in his first career start against the Phillies, his original team, he said the former-team emotions had little to do with Wednesday’s tough start.

“If it was a game in Philly, it probably would have had a different sort of feel,” he said. “In the future, we’ll see what happens.”

Pay attention to the Cubs’ probables Aug. 13-15 when they play in Philadelphia.

In two first-time starts against former teams this year — including his first start of the year, in Texas — Hamels has allowed eight earned runs, 15 hits and five walks in only nine combined innings.

Against everyone else, Hamels is 4-0 with a 2.54 ERA in eight starts.

This and that

Jason Heyward drew a career-high four walks Thursday. The last time he drew three in a game was 2015, when he was with the Cardinals.

u Chatwood’s pinch RBI double with one out in the ninth for a depleted Cubs bench was his first hit since Aug. 11 and put the tying runs at second and third before Addison Russell’s strikeout and Victor Caratini’s game-ending fly to left.