LOS ANGELES – Even after the Cubs’ homestand this week, the origin of the sheriff’s hat remained mysterious. Cubs catcher Yan Gomes said he found it lying around the clubhouse.
“Somebody’s missing a hat,” he quipped.
Gomes put the hat on Nico Hoerner’s head for his interview after hitting a walk-off RBI single – “He’s the new sheriff in town.” Then, Hoerner passed it to Nelson Velázquez in the clubhouse after his go-ahead grand slam the next night.
As a media scrum formed around Velázquez, he turned to locker mate Adbert Alzolay to ask if he should put the hat back on for his interview. Alzolay thought it was a no-brainer.
“I told him, ‘You need to go to bed with that on your head,’” Alzolay said.
Those were the kind of good vibes circulating the Cubs clubhouse this week, as the Cubs took two of three games against the Mariners. And good vibes turned into good news for the Cubs Friday afternoon, when the team announced it had reinstated Seiya Suzuki (strained left oblique) from the 10-day injured list. He made his 2023 debut at Dodgers Stadium. In a corresponding move, the Cubs optioned utility player Miles Mastrobuoni to Triple-A Iowa.
“It was my goal to get back here as soon as possible,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita before the game Friday. “And now I’m here. So I’m very excited for what’s ahead.”
The Cubs are in the midst of a stretch, starting with the Mariners series, in which they face 2022 playoff teams in three of four series. They opened a three-game set Friday in Los Angeles and play the Dodgers again in a four-game set next week. Then, the Padres come to Wrigley Field.
A three-game series in Oakland is the only thing breaking up the block of playoff teams.
“You’re always trying to judge yourself against the better teams,” manager David Ross said. “The good teams I’ve been on, it’s always fun to have good teams come in, and you get that test. But, you can also fall into that lull of not bringing it during the times you play teams that you don’t think are up to your caliber. So trying to try to be a consistent team on a nightly basis is probably our biggest goal.”
The next couple weeks will be a useful barometer for a group full of offseason additions that’s raved about how well it has jelled early on.
“We’ve got great guys all around,” third baseman Patrick Wisdom said. “So that’s super fun and makes coming to the park every day just a blast. It even started in spring. … You look to your left, look to your right, and there’s always people conversing, having a good time, laughing, and getting to know one another, interested in each other’s lives, which is impactful.”
Their style of play is also collective-driven. The team is built on defense and pitching. And when the offense has put up big numbers, it’s been by stringing together base hits. It’s a small sample size, but even with favorable conditions at Wrigley Field this week, the Cubs had only hit 10 home runs entering Friday. Only three teams had fewer.
Suzuki’s return should help add power to the lineup. He took over the cleanup spot, after Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ.
“Getting off to a good start is, for sure, important for any [team],” Gomes said this week. “But at the same time, I feel like it’s important to understand what we’re building here.”
Then, without meaning to, the veteran who started the sheriff’s hat celebration invoked a saying about hats.
“We’ve got way too good of a team, way too good of a culture, way too good of a fan base that was way behind us every single game, to hang our hats,” he said. “And I feel like we’ve built a team that, from top to bottom, can really do this.”