A look at trends after the second round of the City Series, in which the Chicago White Sox won two of three against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Sox took five of six overall in this year’s City Series.
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Patrick Wisdom’s defense at third base
Wisdom’s power numbers understandably garner most of the attention surrounding the 30-year-old rookie. His defensive work, especially at third base, shouldn’t be overlooked, though. He made several nice plays there against the White Sox, earning praise from starting pitcher Alec Mills after Saturday’s Cubs victory for the work behind him.
While Wisdom has passed the eye test defensively, the numbers also support his steadiness in the field. Among the 36 players with at least 400 innings at third base, Wisdom ranks in the top third in DEF, UZR/150 and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) while leading the group in Revised Zone Rating (RZR), which measures a player’s range.
Wisdom also has shown he can handle left field when manager David Ross looks to optimize the Cubs’ offensive options. Ross said there is a lot to Wisdom’s game, which he believes isn’t one-dimensional. He didn’t know much about Wisdom’s defense before getting to watch him in person but likes what he has seen.
“You hear different things about everybody. I don’t ever trust what really is said until you get your eyes on them and get to see what real big-leaguers look like,” Ross said. “I’ve done nothing but been pleasantly surprised about what he’s brought daily and how he’s gone about his work.
“I’m very confident moving him around. He seems confident and does a really nice job, so I’ve been extremely happy with how he’s played.”
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Dallas Keuchel’s two-seam command low and away to right-handers
Keuchel had the shortest start of his career, lasting one-plus inning Friday. He allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits.
He surrendered a three-run homer to Wisdom and has given up a career-high 23 homers this season.
“The home runs have been kind of my death wish this year, more so than any other year I’ve been pitching,” Keuchel said Saturday. “I have to make better pitches. Watched a little bit of the film, was kind of enlightening. My lack of two-seam command down and away to righties has been hindering my ability pretty much for the whole season. I’ve been searching for that for a lot of the time. One game it will be there, one game it won’t be there.
“That’s really my biggest handicap right now is the fact that I’m not consistently hitting that low and away two-seam fastball.”
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Alec Mills’ future role on the Cubs pitching staff
When projecting the 2022 Cubs rotation, one pitcher is potentially being overlooked: Mills.
Mills doesn’t possess flashy stuff or the upside of young arms such as Keegan Thompson and Justin Steele, but he has been one of the Cubs’ most reliable arms. After throwing 8? scoreless innings Saturday versus the White Sox, Mills has a 3.73 ERA in 14 starts this year.
If you take out a dud last week against the Kansas City Royals (seven runs allowed in four innings), Mills’ numbers are even steadier and more impressive: a 2.90 ERA in 13 outings since joining the Cubs rotation June 15, with nine of those starts featuring two earned runs or fewer.
“He’s been as consistent a guy as I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Ross said. “The things we’ve asked him to do, ups and downs — that’s a really good lineup he ran through pretty efficiently. He’s definitely a guy that’s proven every time he takes the bump that he gives you a chance to win. It’s a nice feeling.”
Mills, 29, is showing he deserves an opportunity to stick in the rotation next year rather than fill a bullpen/spot starter role. The Cubs need to figure out a lot about how to upgrade the roster, but it doesn’t hurt having a pitcher like Mills who can be an efficient starter, knows what he needs to do to be successful and can effectively execute the game plan.
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Ejections on the final day of a rehab assignment
Yasmani Grandal had a unusual final day of his rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte, getting tossed after striking out in the first inning.
He chuckled about the incident Friday.
“The umpires just had a really bad game (earlier in the week),” Grandal said. “After the game, as they were walking down the tunnel, I just let them know: ‘Hey, you guys had a really good day today.’ Guy that was at third base apparently really didn’t like it.
“He was behind the plate (Thursday). I struck out, I turned around, didn’t look at him and I told myself that that was a really bad at-bat, not quite that way, but I didn’t scream it out loud. I said it under my breath. He thought I was talking to him, and that’s why he threw me out.”
Grandal made an instant impact in his return from the injured list, going 4-for-6 with two three-run home runs and eight RBIs on Friday. The RBI total matched a team record.
That made for back-to-back memorable nights.
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Reynaldo López’s confidence
López followed Keuchel on Friday and provided exactly what the Sox needed to stage a comeback. He pitched five perfect innings with seven strikeouts.
According to the Sox, López became the first Sox reliever to throw five-plus perfect innings in a game since Eddie Cicotte on June 23, 1917, against Cleveland (five innings).
López is 2-0 with an 0.95 ERA and 22 strikeouts in nine relief appearances this season. After the game, he was asked if this was the most confident he has been in his career.
“I think that you can say that,” López said through an interpreter. “You learn from your experiences, and sometimes you’re going to have ups and downs, but the most important thing is to learn from them. And I feel like I have a lot of confidence right now. I’m 200% confident in myself and all my stuff. I just need to keep moving forward and keep learning from experience.”
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Kyle Hendricks’ consistency
Hendricks bounced back from an ugly April to deliver a great stretch over the next three months, putting up a 2.89 ERA in 17 starts.
The Cubs ace didn’t deliver the same level of consistency in August. His performance Sunday capped a roller-coaster month for the right-hander. The Sox tagged Hendricks for eight runs in 4? innings. Most of the damage came on a four-pitch sequence that resulted in five runs with two outs in the fifth. It wasn’t the way Hendricks wanted to enter the final month of the season. He finished August with a 7.81 ERA in five starts.
Hendricks wasn’t able to replicate his success versus the Sox at Wrigley Field on Aug. 6, when he held them to two runs in six innings. He attributed his inconsistency this month to too many bad pitches.
“Just not executing as well as I’d like to do,” Hendricks said Sunday. “I went through a good stretch where I was executing a lot of pitches one after another and changing speeds well. Then had a few starts this month where I made way too many bad pitches. So focus on getting back to execution in my work and trying to translate that to games.”
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A stacked Sox lineup
The Sox reached double figures in scoring in two of the three games. Friday represented the team’s most complete lineup this season, with Luis Robert, Eloy Jiménez and Grandal playing together for the first time.
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Robert rested Saturday but homered twice in his return Sunday. Jiménez and Grandal also homered in Sunday’s 13-1 blowout win. The Sox clicked offensively while shortstop Tim Anderson and third baseman Yoán Moncada, who has a 14-game hitting streak, had the day off.
“You can’t really pitch around somebody to get to another guy,” Keuchel said of the lineup.
That group, which also includes José Abreu and Andrew Vaughn, will have the potential to cause problems every night.
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Inexperienced Cubs starters enduring growing pains
Part of the value in Steele and Thompson getting big-league starts with the Cubs out of contention is learning how to work through tough stretches.
Both labored in their last outings, though Thompson’s came against a tough Sox lineup. He struggled to use a 6-0 first-inning lead to his advantage in an ugly loss Friday. It’s important for Thompson to learn and adjust after needing 62 pitches to pitch into the third without recording an out versus the four batters he faced in the inning.
Although Thompson was disappointed by his start and his inability to maintain the sizable lead, he has time to get back on track and use Friday’s outing as a springboard in his development.
Honorable mention
Alfonso Rivas’ memorable big-league debut
The Cubs haven’t been shy in their player usage. They have used a franchise-record 63 players this season, surpassing the 56 they used in 2013. In the process, 38 players have made their Cubs debut in 2021, another franchise record, topping the 34 in 2013. Before 2013, the record was 30 Cubs debuts in 1902.
Among those players are first baseman Alfonso Rivas and reliever Scott Effross, who appeared in their first major-league game in Sunday’s loss. Rivas had an especially memorable day, finishing 2-for-3. He swung at the first pitch he saw for a single. In his next at-bat, Rivas displayed a nice piece of hitting, going the other way for a double down the line. He fell behind 0-2 to Sox starter Dylan Cease, took a ball outside and then went with a curveball on the outside edge of the zone and didn’t try to pull it.
Rivas nearly had a three-hit day when he drove a ball into the left-field gap, but Sox center fielder Robert ran it down to end the top of the seventh. Ross liked Rivas’ approach, which scouting reports have described as a strength of the 24-year-old.
“That’s kind of in my game, be a hitter first rather than just start launching balls,” Rivas said Saturday after getting called up. “That’s something I take pride in. I really focus on every pitch, strike-zone discipline and all that stuff.”
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