For Chicago Cubs left-hander Jordan Wicks, subpar command that limits his repertoire is a dangerous combination.
Too many mistakes in the zone Tuesday against the Oakland A’s presented some challenges for Wicks, who gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings during the Cubs’ 4-3 loss. The Cubs (77-74) went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.
Wicks was looking to bounce back from a tough outing at Dodger Stadium last week when he was hit for seven runs, including a four-run first-inning home run, over three innings.
“Well, generally from the start it was a bit of a struggle, to be honest,” manager Craig Counsell said of Wicks’ outing. “The misses were big enough to get him in trouble, and then obviously he got burned on the misses in the strike zone, just average-average pitches, essentially. And to his credit, they didn’t hit singles with them.
“There are very few pitchers who can get away with a pitch that works, and someone like Jordan has to have his repertoire working to be really effective.”
Wicks felt his command on Tuesday took a step in the right direction and was better than this month.
“There’s no excuse, though, when you’re in this league and you’re trying to help us win, it’s not ideal to have three months left of the season,” Wicks said. “But there’s no time for excuses. You have to go out there and compete.”
Ian Happ’s second solo home run brought the Cubs within a run in the ninth. His home run to the opposite field against A’s closer Mason Miller came off a 103.2 mph pitch. It’s the fastest home run by an MLB player in the Statcast era (since 2015) and gave Happ his 15th career multi-homer game.
“Just try to be on time for the fastest, one of the fastest pitchers in the game, he’s had some good stuff and obviously he’s been great all year,” Happ said. “You’re trying so hard to be on time for that fastball, it makes other things play out.”
Wicks has struggled with his fastball command to extend since coming off the injured list on September 1st. Too often his fastball-changeup go-to combination wasn’t effective, and opposing hitters made him pay. In three starts this month entering Tuesday, Wicks has allowed 11 runs and 17 hits in 13 innings (7.62 ERA) with eight walks and six strikeouts. It would be good for Wicks to show improvement in his last three starts of the season to end the year on a high note after battling injuries.
Justin Steele to start the series finale
Left-hander Justin Steele and the Cubs were confident that if his elbow tendinitis resolved as they had hoped, he would be back before the end of the season.
Steele’s recovery set him up to come off the injured list Wednesday and start the series finale against Oakland. With Steele rejoining the rotation, the Cubs will push the other five starters back to one game. While the Cubs could have chosen to shut down Steele for the rest of the season, both sides felt he was valuable to return to game action, even with the Cubs still far out of the final wild-card spot. the National League.
Cubs recall Daniel Palencia
The Cubs made a bullpen move before Tuesday’s game, recalling right-hander Daniel Palencia from Triple-A Iowa.
Right-hander Trey Wingenter was optioned to Iowa as the corresponding move. Wingenter had been used primarily by Counsell in low-leverage locations. This represents another opportunity for Palencia to show that he can tap into the command he displayed in Triple A, but hasn’t been able to consistently deliver at the major league level.
Palencia pitched two perfect innings Tuesday against the A’s, striking out two while needing just 16 pitches and striking out 13.