Playoff push ‘refreshing’ for Chicago Cubs, who get a career-high 7 innings from Javier Assad in 6-2 road win – The Denver Post

Right-hander Javier Assad has done it all for the Chicago Cubs this year.

He’s served a multi-inning relief role, come into the game for leverage moments to give the offense a comeback opportunity, and now he’s back in the rotation getting a look as the Cubs push for the postseason. Assad threw a career-high seven innings in Friday night’s 6-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays. The 26-year-old retired the last 10 batters he faced as he held Toronto to just one run and four hits.

The offense spotted Assad a three-run lead before he threw a pitch behind home runs from Nico Hoerner (solo) and Cody Bellinger (two-run) off Blue Jays starter José Berríos. The Cubs (60-56) tacked on three more runs in the fourth. Seiya Suzuki connected for a two-run double and Mike Tauchman delivered an RBI single.

“This isn’t just a guy filling in,” Hoerner said after the win. “This is a guy throwing 94 mph with command of five pitches and it’s a legit mix. I’m not at all surprised by what he did today, but it’s still impressive for sure.”

It’s the type of performance that earns another start during the playoff hunt.

“I don’t think much fazes him,” manager David Ross said before the game. “He’s a quiet competitor for sure and has a lot of belief in himself. He never backs down from a challenge.

“He does a really nice job of going out there and competing with his best stuff. I’ve said that a lot about a lot of these guys, we’re wired the right way, like, just going to go in and give it his best and nothing seems to faze him as far as role shifting or any distractions. He has just been really good at anything you asked him to do.”

Playing games for 16 consecutive days challenges even the best big-league teams.

Between the daily grind and being nearly 4 1/2 months into the 162-game schedule, the Cubs earned Thursday’s off day in Toronto, their first since July 24. The exhaustive stretch tested the pitching staff. The Cubs entered Friday’s series opener at the Blue Jays refreshed following the one-day break, part of three off days in a week span.

It allowed the bullpen to get an important reset, especially the back end that has been called on a lot lately. Seven of the Cubs’ last 16 games were decided by two runs or less, creating plenty of high-leverage opportunities. That’s representative of what the Cubs have faced over the last two months in their efforts to dig out of the poor stretch from the end of April into May.

“I feel like we’re pretty well equipped for whatever the next month and a half, two months of the regular season in front of us just in what we’ve experienced with the deadline,” Hoerner said. “I feel like having some games that felt like they were a little turned up as far as urgency and intensity, that’ll be a really good experience in the long run for our group too.”

These final seven weeks of the regular season are a stark contrast to the environment Ross and the team faced in the previous two seasons. Trade deadline seller status, and being out of the postseason hunt, meant more of a long-term view of player usage and development after the All-Star breaks in 2021 and 2022.

That has not been the case during the second half of this season.

“Right now there’s guys that are going to lack some at-bats and innings in moments,” Ross said Friday. “You’re going to ride the guys that are doing well. … Myself included, just trying to put the right winning formula out on the field every single day.

“There’s no mandates of this guy’s got to play, that guy’s got to play. It’s, let’s go win baseball games. It’s a refreshing time to be in this push and those guys put themselves in that position and earned it.”

It requires some adjustment from Ross’ position of handling the people part of his job. Every game matters the rest of the way and playing time isn’t guaranteed. The Cubs are optimizing their options. This week it meant moving left-hander Drew Smyly to the bullpen amid his struggles and inconsistencies while moving right-hander Javier Assad into his slot for now. Assad, who got the start Friday night at Rogers Center, earned the opportunity through his performance in a versatile relief role for most of the year.

Conversations with players whose playing time or role has been downsized is an ongoing effort by Ross as the Cubs battle to reach the postseason.

“Some of the bullpen guys when they feel like they’re overworked I try to talk to them and tell them, hey, you’re valued and I understand I’m pushing you hard. Communicating through that and letting everybody know that you see the tough times that come with it. It’s fun when you’re winning, but somebody’s not getting the bats and somebody’s not getting the innings and somebody’s going through things — I think that’s throughout the season — but trying to just be open and honest is the best I can do it, communicate, let guys know.

“That is part of the challenges of that, but it’s all a good thing. Everybody’s here to win. They all know that.”

With three catchers on the roster, Tucker Barnhart’s limited playing time has put him among the players on Ross’ radar lately. Since Aug. 1, Barnhart has pitched in more games (two) than starts behind the plate (one). He hasn’t even recorded a plate appearance after his last start. Despite the Cubs’ heavy schedule over the last 18 days, Barnhart, who wasn’t in the lineup Friday, hasn’t started in 10 days.

Ross doesn’t know when Barnhart will next be in the lineup, but part of his message to the veteran catcher: Be ready because we don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Having success can be really tough when he gets back in there and having those conversations with him and him coming in games that we’re down eight-plus runs and pitching and being able to pick us up and be a great teammate, he works his butt off,” Ross said. “He’s here early hitting when nobody’s here early on. Like, I want to talk to him and let him know that I understand.”

Ross told the team during spring training that great teams rely on everybody to have success. There will be a balancing act down the stretch of maintaining players’ health and not grinding their top hitters or pitchers into the ground as they try to rack up series wins. Justin Steele and Kyle Hendricks have already exceeded their total innings pitched in 2022.

Finding spots to utilize a locked-in pitcher like Assad might not be uncommon in moments during their final 46 regular-season games.

“We need everybody and we’re going to rotate through,” Ross said. “Hayden (Wesneski) may make a big start for us at some point and Assad’s making a big one today and Drew’s going to be back in there at some point and that goes throughout the pitching group and the hitting group.

“We need them all. Somebody in the minor leagues that probably hadn’t been up here this year is probably going to be an important piece so it takes an entire organization, depth and everybody, and we’re going to continue to do that with sticking to the core values that have gotten us here and working our tails off trying to get better every single day.”

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