The Cubs are at a point in the season and in a spot in the National League wild-card race where it’s easy to defuse questions about whether Friday’s 6-0 triumph over the Rockies was a must-win game.
“They’re all big,” manager David Ross said before the game.
But having lost 10 of their last 13 and sliding to the point of being out of the playoffs based on tiebreakers entering Friday, the Cubs spurning a chance to clean up on the woeful Rockies would be especially unforgivable.
“The goal is to always not give up runs, but today especially I was in the mindset of ‘can’t let these guys score,’ ” Jameson Taillon (8-10) said after pitching six scoreless innings. “We lost two of three to Pittsburgh. We were hoping to get the homestand started on a better note.”
The Rockies are easily the worst team in the league, and even in that context are uniquely ill-suited (.278 road winning percentage) to playing away from their high-altitude home park. Moreover, the first of the final three games the Cubs will play against a team with a losing record was started by 26-year-old rookie right-hander Noah Davis.
Recalled from Triple-A on Sunday, Davis had the air of an emergency starter even before the outing left him with a 9.11 ERA for his career. Cubs fans might have blinked at seeing players in the lineup like Jared Young and Miles Mastrobuoni, who have gotten most of their at-bats at Triple-A Iowa this season. But considering that Davis’ platoon splits are such that even left-handers at Triple-A touted a .950 OPS against him this year, as Tom Thibodeau might say, there was more than enough to win with.
“I don’t just grab it out of a hat,” Ross said. “Contrary to what probably fans think and everybody thinks, I try to have a process to set guys up for success.”
Young hit a two-run shot in the sixth inning off low-slot righty reliever Gavin Hollowell, but the only name that really mattered was Seiya Suzuki. Collecting three hits, nailing his 20th homer of the season and driving in all three runs against Davis, the resurgent Cubs right fielder powered an effort that served its purpose.
The Cubs didn’t exactly pummel an overmatched opposing pitching staff, though doing that Tuesday ultimately didn’t carry over. Even their own pitching staff’s shutout effort involved allowing seven walks. But a handful of hours after Ross lamented dropping games to a Pirates team below their caliber, the Cubs were a cut above throughout.
“I don’t think the fans would like to see the players have their head down in the dugout,” Suzuki said through an interpreter. “It hasn’t been really going our way during this last stretch. I can see that everyone is grinding and trying to get the ‘W’ because all these games are really meaningful. If we focus too much on winning or losing, then the results wouldn’t really go our way. It’s just focusing on every game.”
Taillon’s six innings and a mounting lead allowed Ross to close things out with Drew Smyly and Hayden Wesneski, largely resting the back end of a bullpen with two injured high-leverage relievers and plenty more tired ones. Lightly used prospects Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alexander Canario even got some late-game action.
But most of all, the Cubs won, and as Ross said, they’re all big from here. The day got even better when the Diamondbacks, Marlins and Reds, the teams nearest to the Cubs in the wild-card race, all lost.
“It felt good,” Ross said. “They all feel good right now.”
