Made of Steele: Steele dominates Giants in epic performance
David Banks - USA Today Sports

Made of Steele: Steele dominates Giants in epic performance
by - Senior Writer - Mon Sep 04 17:01:34 GMT-04:00 2023

CHICAGO - There is excitement building by the day at Wrigley Field, and rightfully so, as the Chicago Cubs (74-64) are inching closer to a playoff berth. Had you said that at the beginning of the season, people would have called you crazy, but here we are in September with the Cubs occupying the No.2 wild card spot and aiming for more.

Entering play Monday, the Cubs not only controlled the second wild card spot, but they are just 2.5 games behind the Phillies for the top spot and 3.5 games behind the Brewers for first in the division. Most importantly, they entered play with a three-game lead over the No. 3 Wild Card team, which happens to be a four-way tie. Two of those teams the Cubs will see this week with one of them being the San Francisco Giants (71-68) who the Cubs opened a three-game series on Monday.

Looking to win a career-best seventh consecutive decision, the Cubs turned to their ace Justin Steele as he took the ball against Logan Webb. Not only has Steele emerged as the ace of the Cubs staff, but the fans are witnessessing a star being born right before their eyes as Steele gave the Cubs eight shutout innings of dominating baseball allowing two hits and a career-high 12 strikeouts in the Cubs 5-0 win. It was Steele's seventh consecutive winning decision as he became the first Cubs pitcher since the 2015 Jake Arrieta no-hitter to post a line of eight innings of 12 strikeouts and two-hit ball.

While Steele dominated the Giants from start to finish, Logan Webb was equally as good early on as he continues to put up great numbers for the Giants. Often overlooked in terms of the better pitchers in the game, Webb handcuffed the Cubs through six innings, allowing just one run on two hits in those frames. In the seventh, he began to lose it as the Cubs tacked on four insurance runs late to make things easier for Steele.

One of the walks and one of the hits Steele allowed came in the first two innings, but apart from that, the lefty was locked in the rest of the way. At one point, Steele retired 16 consecutive Giants hitters as they had no answers for him. All the Cubs needed to win this game was a single run, and Seiya Suzuki provided that with a long homer in the second inning to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

For Suzuki, he was the offense most of the day as that homer traveled 432 feet for the longest of the season for him and the third longest of the season for the Cubs. That would be it for the runs for quite a while, as the two-out double from Yan Gomes in the fifth was the only other hit Webb would allow until the game's later stages.

Still holding their 1-0 lead in the seventh, the Cubs knew any additional support would be greatly appreciated. With Cody Bellinger leading the bottom of the seventh off with a single, the Cubs offense was in business. David Ross chose to get aggressive and sent Bellinger to avoid a double play, which played a pivotal role in the end. Another well-struck ball from Suzuki followed that decision as he went the other way again for an RBI double to extend the Cubs lead to 2-0.

Two batters later saw Gomes flare one into center field for a single as the Cubs pushed their lead to 3-0 and chased Webb from the game in favor of Tristan Beck, who retired Nick Madrigal to end the inning without further damage.

Sensing that Steele was starting to tire, Ross sent him out for the eight, and he immediately walked J.D. Davis to start things off.

A few pitches later, Steele got Casey Schmitt to ground to Madrigal, who began a 5-4-3 double play. Paul DeJong would add a hit shortly after, but that was all the trouble Steele had to face as he closed out his eight innings of work with his 12th punchout as his fantastic season continued. With Beck back on the mound for a second inning of work, Mike Tauchman started things with a leadoff walk as the Cubs searched for more.

On the verge of getting out of the inning without further damage, the MLB's worst defense picked a bad time to commit another error as Bellinger reached on an error by Thairo Estrada to keep the inning alive. That proved costly as Dansby Swanson followed that up with a bloop double that got past a sliding Mitch Haniger to bring home Tauchman, with Suzuki adding an inning-ending fielder's choice to bring home another run as the Cubs took their 5-0 lead to the ninth.

With Steele done for the day, Jose Cuas was on to finish things off, and despite allowing some hard contact, he retired the Giants in order as the Cubs opened up a crucial seven-game homestand with a dominating win and now lead the Giants by four games in the Wild Card. The win moves Steele to 16-3 on the season, while his ERA fell to 2.55. Suzuki paced the offense with two hits and three RBIs as he has been the fifth-best hitter in the National League since August 6.

Gomes added two hits and an RBI for the Cubs, with Bellinger and Swanson coming through with the other two. The Cubs are now 5-0 in their last five Labor Day games. The Cubs will look to clinch the series win tomorrow night as they send the Professor Kyle Hendricks to the mound against a starter TBD. The last time Hendricks faced the Giants, he took a no-hitter into the ninth only to lose it late. Chicago is also 20 games above .500 since they last played the Giants, which is good for the second-best record in the NL and third-best in baseball.

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