TORONTO – Cubs lefty Justin Steele’s consistency this year makes it easy to forget how new he is to the major leagues.
After his start Saturday, he had the second-best ERA (2.79) among qualified National League pitchers, behind only the Padres’ Blake Snell. And, for what it’s worth, he was tied for the most wins (13), with the Phillies’ Taijuan Walker.
Now, remember this is Steele’s second full season as a starter.
“His maturity, his growth, his career just continues to evolve,” manager David Ross said after the Cubs’ 5-4 win against the Blue Jays. “And you see him getting better every time out. That slider, really [the] depth in those first two strikeouts really stood out to me.”
That was after Steele had already surpassed his previous career high in innings, which he set last season (119). Holding the Blue Jays to three runs through five innings on Saturday, Steele brought his running season total to 126 innings.
“I definitely learned a lot from last season and even the season before,” Steele said. “And I put a lot of work into this offseason in preparing my body to go 162, and hopefully more. And I feel like I’m in a good spot right now.”
His average fastball velocity had been ticking down recently, but it was back up to 92.5 mph on Saturday. And he struck out both Whit Merrifield and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first inning on that slider Ross mentioned. Both were down and in, moving toward the right-handed hitters’ back feet. Catcher Yan Gomes had to block the last pitch to Merrifield, and he still swung.
“Felt really good with it, as far as throwing it for strikes when I needed to, getting it back foot, on the plate, just moving around the zone,” Steele said.
Between the off day on Thursday and Javier Assad making another spot start while Marcus Stroman is on the injured list, Steele got an extra day of rest between starts this turn. The Cubs have even more flexibility coming up to potentially build in a little extra mid-season rest. They have two off days on the schedule next week and Stroman penciled in to return Wednesday.
Now’s the time to do it, before they make their final push for a playoff berth.
Those off days will be a welcome change for the pitching staff as a whole. The trio at the back end of the bullpen — Julian Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr. and Adbert Alzolay – are throwing in high leverage more consistently than they’ve experienced before. Merryweather has just about doubled his previous high in major-league innings this season.
“We all lean on each other a lot,” Merryweather said after throwing a scoreless eighth inning Saturday. “We kind of talked about, ‘Hey, how are you feeling? How are you feeling today?’ and find ways to get our bodies ready each day. And you see when the game’s on the line, we have our guys in there where everyone’s ready every time.”
The bullpen has settled in as a reliable unit with consistent roles. Alzolay has converted 12 straight save opportunities.
“They just been doing an unbelievable job out there, coming in and shutting the door, keeping the game where it’s at,” Steele said.
Steele himself has remained consistent all year. Whereas the beginning of last season one of his main goals was pitching deeper into games, he’s only had two outings of less than five innings this season and put himself in the Cy Young conversation.
He’s done so with mostly two pitches, his four-seamer and slider. But he’s been playing around with integrating other secondary pitches.
“I think there’s even more there,” Ross said. “You’re gonna see him continue to be even more efficient at times, and I just think there’s still tricks and stuff that he hasn’t even tapped in on yet.”