Cubs showcase pitching depth in sweep of Rockies
The Cubs began their home-opening series with plenty of starting pitching questions.
They finished it with some added confidence in their pitching depth.
Rookie Ben Brown turned in 4-plus innings of 1-run ball in relief in the Cubs’ 9-8 win over the Rockies on Wednesday. Brown covered the bulk of innings after Luke Little served as an opener, pitching a perfect 1st inning. He finished with 5 strikeouts and a walk.
Brown, called up after Justin Steele’s Opening Day injury in Texas, was the third straight solid outing by a Cubs pitcher, following Shota Imanaga and Javier Assad’s quality starts in the first two games of the series.
“Three very young starters and Imanaga making his debut, we did well,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And if you count Ben in that group, we did really well. We did a nice job. Those three guys did a heck of a job.”
The Cubs opened the season with the Steele injury and then a pair of short outings by Kyle Hendricks and Jordan Wicks. That led to some worry about the Cubs’ pitching depth, given their need to rely on their reliever corps so frequently and so suddenly.
Assad and Brown’s outings, specifically, were encouraging. Assad picked up where he left off last season, tossing 6 shutout innings and Brown provided some needed length in his second major league appearance.
Brown retired the first 5 batters he faced and worked out of a 2-out, 2-on jam in the 3rd inning. After a leadoff single in the 4th, Brown struck out Kris Bryant and induced an inning-ending double play from Nolan Jones to end the frame.
He pitched a perfect 5th inning and then allowed a leadoff double to Jacob Stallings in the 6th to end his night. It might not have been a quality start like his two predecessors, but the 12 outs he recorded were much-needed length from a pitcher who hadn’t expected to be in the majors so quickly.
“It was definitely difficult kind of seeing that and wondering where you stand or whatnot,” Brown said Tuesday of his time between being optioned to the minors in spring and being recalled to the majors.
It was quite a turn from his major-league debut where he allowed 6 runs in 1.2 innings against Texas last weekend.
“That was probably the best part about moving forward, was the love I got from the older guys or the other guys,” Brown said. “Cause I think in a situation like that, you tend to think you’re alone and then all of a sudden you get opened up to so many different perspectives, and there’s just so much thankfulness. The Lord put those guys in my path to help me out in that way.
“It was awesome.”
The Cubs offense, too, came alive in the 3-game set. They scored 26 runs in the series, hitting 5 home runs and showing their versatility.
Wednesday was a microcosm of it.
The Cubs scored 4 runs in the 3rd inning — they used 3 singles and 3 walks in the frame to generate the offense. In the 5th, Seiya Suzuki hit his second home run of the season, a 105-mph shot to left field.
The outings from Brown, Imanaga and Assad gave their bullpen some much needed rest ahead of a big series with the Dodgers this weekend. Counsell used Mark Leiter Jr., Julian Merryweather and Héctor Neris on Wednesday, but with Thursday’s off day, Counsell should be able to count on any reliever come Friday afternoon.
“The pitching staff is connected and how one guy covers innings and that makes it easier for the next guy and gets guys rest,” Counsell said. “That’s how you put together a series and that’s how you put together winning baseball games.”