Bellinger's huge day pushes Cubs over Royals |
CHICAGO - For the Chicago Cubs (63-59) offense to be at their best, they need Cody Bellinger to be close to his former MVP self. Fortunately, he has been that way for a while, and after a rough go on Friday, Bellinger showed up in a big way against the Kansas City Royals (40-85) on Saturday.
Bellinger came out swinging as he belted a pair of homers early in the game before adding a sacrifice fly as he drove in four runs on the afternoon. With Justin Steele on the mound, it was more than enough run support as Steele picked up his major-leading 14th win in a 6-4 win in front of a packed Wrigley Field crowd. We are starting to run out of superlatives regarding Steele, as he continues to impress every time out. He leads the majors with 14 wins and only has three losses, all while posting a 2.80 ERA. Steele continued to make things look easy on Saturday as he gave the Cubs strong innings of two-run, six-hit baseball while striking out seven.
Opposing Steele was Brady Singer, whose season hasn't gone as planned. Not only has he been consistent on the mound, but with a 5.05 ERA, you can see how hard he has been hit this season. That continued to be the case against the Cubs as Singer didn't make it out of the fourth inning and was charged with six earned runs to take the loss. The Cubs didn't waste any time grabbing an early lead as an error from the Royals defense allowed Nico Hoerner to reach. What could have been the inning with Ian Happ being retired resulted in a 2-0 deficit as Cody Bellinger connected for his first of two early homers. Cody Bellinger - Chicago Cubs (19)
These are the typical starts the Cubs are accustomed to when Mike Tauchman leads off, as they are 29-11 when he leads off. Credit Kansas City for how well they have played against the Cubs so far, as they didn't waste any time battling back in the second. Salvador Perez got things started a single before advancing to third on the Freddy Fermin double to put a pair of runners on with no outs. Matt Duffy brought home a run on a groundout to close the deficit to 2-1, but it could have been way worse as Steele did a great job limiting the damage. Across the next three innings, the Cubs offense came to life as they scored four unanswered runs to bust the game open. With Jeimer Candelario leading off the bottom of the second with a triple, Seiya Suzuki pushed the lead to 3-1 using a sacrifice fly to get the job done. Yan Gomes and Tauchman singled shortly after as the Cubs had a chance for more, only to get turned away. One inning later, another Belli-bomb as Bellinger left the building for the second time in as many at-bats and extended the Cubs lead to 4-1. Cody Bellinger - Chicago Cubs (20) pic.twitter.com/wiX9OWZgMn
Michael Massey did his best to pull the Royals a bit closer with a double to lead off the fourth, only to have Steele respond with three straight strikeouts to turn the Royals away. The same can't be said about the Cubs and their offense as they continued to capitalize on their early chances. A leadoff single from Suzuki certainly helped, but so did a Gomes walk and Hoerner single as the Cubs had the bases loaded with one out. A single from Happ followed that up to extend the lead to 5-1, with Bellinger capping off the scoring with a sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 6-1 lead. Typically a five-run lead for Steele is more than enough, but for whatever reason, this lead never seemed comfortable for the Cubs. Even with a 6-1 lead entering the sixth, you couldn't help but have an uneasy feeling as Bobby Witt Jr led off the sixth with a single, stole second, and would eventually come home to score on an RBI groundout which was the end of the line for Steele. Although the Royals struggled out of the gates, you have to give their bullpen a ton of credit, as they pitched better than the Cubs pen on Saturday. Not only that, but they have been lights out since the start of this series which is hard to believe when you look at their struggles all season. Tasked with finishing things off, Julian Merryweather entered to pitch the seventh and had work around a pair of one-out walks. Merryweather has been outstanding all season long, but this wasn't one of his better days as Witt Jr came through with another RBI hit to close the deficit to 6-3. The same can be said about Michael Fulmer, who allowed a leadoff single to Perez to start the top half of the eighth before surrendering a two-out double to Kyle Isbel to pull Kansas City to within 6-4. Not only did the Cubs fail to score against the Royals pen, but they went 13 up and 13 down to end the game as their offense went completely silent. With only three outs to go for another win, Adbert Alozlay was on the to pitch the ninth and worked around a one-out MJ Melendez single to secure his 17th save in 18 tries. Alzolay has now saved 12 consecutive games since blowing his only save as he is turning into one of the best closers in baseball. The Cubs had nine hits in the game, with Bellinger leading the way with two hits and four RBIs. Christopher Morel was the lone player without a hit, as everyone else had at least one. The win keeps the Cubs in third place in the NL Central and within three games of the Brewers, as they remain very much alive in the playoff picture. Chicago will turn to Kyle Hendricks on Sunday as he will look for the series win against Jordan Lyles.
— Justin Steele (@J_Steele21) August 19, 2023
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