New Pitching Additions Loving Playoff Atmosphere, Superior Defense Since Joining Cubs

Lost in the shuffle of the Cubs’ deadline moves is the trade for David Peterson a little over a month earlier. More of a band-aid than anything at the time, the lefty has stabilized a rotation that was crumbling away as if Thanos had just snapped his fingers again. Though Peterson hasn’t always looked good out there, he’s found ways to gut out at least five innings with no more than two runs allowed in six of his seven starts.

Were he still pitching for the Mets, he’d surely have picked up a few more losses over that span. Instead, he’s 3-1 with Cubs wins in five of his starts. That includes Thursday afternoon, when his only run allowed came on a balk caused by making a third unsuccessful pickoff attempt. It was the kind of mistake that could have snowballed into something much worse with a team that was checked out. Instead, the Cubs brushed it off and stayed in it right down to their final strike.

“Winning teams take shape in a lot of different forms,” Peterson said after the win. “I’ve been on teams that we won 103 games in the regular season, then got knocked out in the Wild Card. And I’ve been on teams where we had one of the worst records in the [sic] MLB the first two months and ended up able to make it to the NLCS. This group has a lot of talent.

“Great team on paper, but I think it’s what the guys bring every single day. It’s the work ethic, it’s the competitiveness, it’s the will to win…We get down early and there’s no panic, there’s no pressure. We stick to our approach and know that we can fight our way out of it.”

It’s freeing for a pitcher to know they don’t have to be perfect in order to keep their team in the game, which is why so many are raving about the acquisitions of Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes. The pitchers feel the same way, especially as guys who know how to get more grounders than most. Holmes had already impacted the Cubs in a positive way well before joining them, as his offseason work with Ben Brown in Nashville is what led to Brown’s adoption of a sinker.

Holmes downplayed his role during an in-game interview with Marquee on Thursday, but he was not able to hide his excitement to pitch in front of the league’s best defense. It didn’t hurt that he had a packed house behind him on a weekday afternoon while wearing the logo of a team that has a 98.2% chance of making the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Mets are 16 games under .500 with no shot at the postseason. Holmes is like Andy Dufresne after getting out of Shawshank.

Gausman’s view is perhaps more bittersweet, though some of that undoubtedly comes from having the Blue Jays in town so soon after he was traded. He would have been on regular rest for Thursday’s game, but asked to be pushed back due to the emotional weight of the matchup, hence Peterson taking the bump. It was probably best for everyone involved, plus Gausman now gets to face the Royals in KC.

But don’t take his decision about his start to mean he’s not bought in on being a Cub. The 35-year-old and his family have been loving the atmosphere at their new home ballpark, and he’s well aware that this has been a long time coming after Jed Hoyer’s dogged pursuit of him over the years. Gausman’s daughter told him she liked the Cubs because they can beat the Dodgers, and it sounds like the environment is also amenable.

“It’s the first time my wife’s been here and, after the first day, she said, ‘It’s so different than Toronto,'” Gausman shared. “I was like, yeah, the focus is baseball. It’s real grass. It’s outside.”

We’ve seen plenty of instances in the past, with the Cubs and other teams, where players put additional pressure on themselves following a trade. Maybe it’s the move to a bigger market or the increased exposure of a postseason race, but they’re just not able to maintain the same level of performance when the scenery changes. By bringing in seasoned veterans who understand their fit on the roster, Hoyer may have avoided the fears that come with acclimation.

And again, it’s easier to settle in when you know you just have to go out and let your defense make you look good. While we could see this whole thing fail miserably as Gausman, Holmes, and the rest of the staff implode, it’s hard to feel anything but optimistic about where the Cubs stand heading into the weekend in Kansas City.