It was three months ago that veteran Cubs left-hander Drew Smyly took a no-hitter against the vaunted Dodgers into the eighth inning. But a 7.08 ERA over his last 10 outings have made it feel even farther away.
Manager David Ross and the Cubs tried to stem the tide Saturday by using Michael Fulmer as an opener, providing some lefty on lefty matchups for Smyly upon entry, but to little avail. Smyly allowed five runs (one unearned due to his own fielding error) and fell an out shy of completing four innings.
In the wake of those results, Ross is not yet willing to commit to how the Cubs will handle Smyly’s next turn in the rotation.
“We’ll address that when it’s time comes,” Ross, who had held off on announcing this weekend’s pitching plan until Friday night. “It’ll be TBD again, I can promise you that.”
A Monday off-day allows some flexibility for the Cubs to put off how they want to use Smyly next—although it comes before a stretch of 16 games in a row. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski throwing five scoreless innings Saturday night at Triple-A Iowa also serves as a reminder of an alternative option present.
But this is also a Cubs team that is surely receiving trade inquiries on All-Star Marcus Stroman, and re-signed Smyly in the offseason with belief in how the 34-year-old stuff projected going forward.
“He wants to start, I promise you that,” Ross said. “The track record coming over the last 10 starts, it hasn’t been the best version of him. But he’s capable of doing what he did at the beginning of the season too. Our pitching guys diving deep, a lot of his numbers are really good underneath the underlying stuff. Some of his metrics on pitches are still there or even better. Just got to get some results out of that.”
What else can you say about Cody Bellinger?
At one point in discussing his cleanup man’s monster series against the Cardinals this weekend, Ross reached a point of exhaustion in the best way.
“I don’t know what else to say,” Ross said, laughing. “He’s awesome. He’s great. He’s amazing. He plays multiple positions at a really high level.”
But Ross did find an interesting detail, exemplified in Bellinger launching a two-run homer off Jordan Montgomery on Sunday.
Once treated as a platoon player earlier in his career, Bellinger is now hitting .352/.408/.659 against left-handers, and has now hit half of his 14 home runs against same-handed pitching this season.
With an MVP in his pocket and a career spent in the national spotlight, it’s easy to forget Bellinger is a 28-year-old player still capable of improving facets of his game.
“In the past, I haven’t had too much issue with them when I feel good,” said Bellinger. “I’m just staying within myself.”
A snag in Madrigal’s rehab
Nick Madrigal was originally set to play DH Sunday at Triple-A Iowa, for a third-straight day of action in his rehab assignment. But the Cubs provided notice that Madrigal was scratched for “general lower body fatigue,” after starting at third base the previous two days.
There is no immediate word on what this means for tentative plans of Madrigal returning to the majors on Tuesday. But for a player returning from a right hamstring strain, being sidelined by leg fatigue is a deviation from the plan.