Cubs’ Tyler Chatwood might be running out of chances to get his act together

The heat is on Tyler Chatwood.

The pitcher who went into the season as the Cubs’ No. 5 starter — and leads all of baseball with 73 walks issued — will take the mound Saturday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader against the Cardinals. Chatwood might be running out of chances to begin resembling the guy the Cubs thought they were getting when they signed him to a three-year, $38 million deal in the offseason.

How long is the team supposed to keep rolling with a starter with some of the most glaring command issues in the league?

“We’ve already spoken to Tyler, and he’s aware,” manager Joe Maddon said. “The walks are exorbitant, and he knows that. So, yeah, we’ve got to get him sharp. We’ve got to get him pitching more deeply into games and need to get him around the plate.”

Chatwood’s walks per nine innings over five seasons with the Rockies was 4.1. This season, it’s 7.8. Overall, his walks have been on the rise since he returned from the Tommy John surgery that cost him all of 2015.

The Cubs could use a quality start from Chatwood on a doubleheader day that comes on the heels of Jon Lester’s rocky start in an 18-5 loss to the Cardinals. Lester lasted three-plus innings.

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Mike Montgomery, the Cubs’ so-called “sixth starter,” will pitch the nightcap. The Cubs’ fondest hopes would involve Yu Darvish returning to action, Chatwood returning to form and Montgomery returning to primarily a bullpen role, but right now there doesn’t seem to be much reason to believe things will work out along those lines.

Unless you’re Maddon, that is.

“His stuff is extraordinary,” he said of Chatwood. “I’ll stand by that. His stuff is that good. It’s just about strike one, getting ahead of hitters and not all of a sudden maybe getting two quick outs and having trouble with the third one.

“We’ve got to get beyond that point. He’s done it before. He’s going to do it again.”

Closing time

Injured reliever Brandon Morrow wasn’t missed Friday. There’s something about closers and 13-run deficits that doesn’t mesh.

But with Morrow on the 10-day disabled list with inflammation in his right biceps, Maddon called the ninth-inning picture “nebulous.”

Steve Cishek and Pedro Strop have closed before. Carl Edwards Jr. has long itched for his shot.

“It’s just whoever is ready that night,” Maddon said.

But who’s counting?

The 18 runs scored by the Cardinals were the most allowed by the Cubs since another 18-5 game in 2010 against the Mets.

Two apparent morals to that little story: One, it’s hard to score 18 runs in a game. Two, it’s hard to win when you give up 18 runs in a game.

No extra charge for that analysis.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney