Héctor Neris let out a fired-up scream as soon as he turned and saw the baseball’s flight path.
The Chicago Cubs’ seven-run lead had nearly evaporated, and Neris was charged with escaping a jam that had escalated through the bottom of the ninth. The Sox, in their first game under interim manager Grady Sizemore, put two on to begin the inning, leading to a two-out, bases-loaded situation. It prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, who told Neris to stay focused in the moment and just worry about retiring the next hitter, Andrew Vaughn.
Neris needed only three pitches to retire Vaughn, forcing him to fly out to center field on an elevated fastball to leave the bases loaded and secure the Cubs’ 7-6 win at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“That’s life in baseball,” Neris said. “If this situation has happened before, now you want to like that feeling to control the emotion is the only thing you can do. Try to be focused and follow your strength.”
The Cubs (58-60) built a 7-0 lead through three innings behind four home runs — Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger, Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner, the last two back-to-back in the third — off Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet. Bellinger’s homer was the first Crochet had allowed to a lefty hitter in his career. Crochet entered Friday’s start having surrendered only three doubles and one triple to a left-handed batter in 192 plate appearances.
Three of the Cubs’ four homers against Crochet came off his cutter. The Cubs had identified the pitch as one they could attack.
“Today was one of those days where it was like I’m going to challenge people in the zone, more or less,” Crochet said. “Getting 1-0 to most of the guys was tough but I feel like I was able to battle back into every count. It was just battling back over the heart of the plate as opposed to making my pitches.”
Over the last two weeks, the Cubs have scored the second-most runs in the National League (76). Manager Craig Counsell attributes the offensive consistency from the production they are getting from top to bottom in the order, particularly the bottom third of the lineup, which too often hasn’t been giving them enough punch. Dansby Swanson and Miguel Amaya each went 1-for-3 while Pete Crow-Armstrong collected three hits, including a triple.
The Cubs, winners in seven of their last nine games, have a chance to make a move up the National League wild-card standings. If they’re going to get back into the playoff hunt, currently 4½ games back of the final spot, the Cubs must take advantage of playing 19 of their next 22 games against teams under .500.
“I hate to talk bad about any teams, I’m well aware that any team can get you on any given day, but you need to beat the teams that you need to beat,” said Jameson Taillon, who gave up five runs in five innings. “And that’s something in years’ past I’ve been on teams where it felt like you either make the playoffs because you beat the teams you need to beat or you miss because you don’t beat up on the teams you have to beat, so that’s definitely part of it.
“I think we’re all pretty aware that we had a tough schedule there for a while. It felt like we were kind of in the jungle for a bit and now it’s some nice off days and better travel and all that lining up. We’ve still got to go out there and execute and play good baseball.”
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