Cubs ace Steele throws career-high 12 strikeouts in dominant win over Giants

When Justin Steele is dominating on the mound, it’s hard to believe how simple his approach is.

Following Monday’s 5-0 victory over San Francisco at Wrigley Field, Cubs catcher Yan Gomes had a story to illustrate that point.

“I know when guys are at the plate — I haven’t seen this many times (in general) — they all kind of look at the board to see what pitch it was,” Gomes said. “It’s just the fastball and slider.”

The scoreboard in left field at Wrigley offer a good view of the pitch type and velocity. Steele threw 100 pitches in the game and, according to Statcast, 98 of them were either fastballs or sliders. He threw one curveball and one sinker. In fact, Steele was fastball-heavy against the Giants, throwing it 68% of the time.

“I think he sets the tone, usually in the first inning,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “He’s coming out there just pumping heaters, he’s feeling good that day and it’s going to be a pretty good day for the Cubbies.”

This was pretty clearly Steele’s best outing of his Cubs career. He tossed 8 scoreless innings on just 2 hits, with a career-high 12 strikeouts.

“It’s one of them games, you just want to pitch all day,” Steele said. “Just want to keep going out there. It’s always fun when you have your stuff, you kind of know where your four-seam’s going, slider. You’re able to go in and out, up, down. It was a really good game.”

Steele (16-3) was on his game from the opening pitch. He struck out two batters in each of the first four innings. Then when he didn’t record a strikeout in the fifth, it was because he retired the side on just 4 pitches. The Lucedale, Mississippi, native retired 16 in a row before walking J.D. Davis to lead off the eighth.

“I felt good warming up in the bullpen,” Steele said. “Didn’t really throw too many pitches. I kind of realized I felt good. It’s a hot day, it doesn’t take too many throws to get loose. I realized I felt good and just wanted to take it to the game.”

Last time out, Steele threw 6 scoreless innings against Milwaukee. Monday’s performance lowered his season ERA to 2.55, slightly behind San Diego’s Blake Snell (2.50) for the major league lead. Snell tossed 6 scoreless innings against the Giants on Saturday.

The NL Cy Young is starting to look like a two-man race between Steele and Snell, although Atlanta’s Spencer Strider and Arizona’s duo of Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen probably remain contenders. As it stands now, there will be a Steele-Kelly matchup at Wrigley on Saturday.

“September is usually when the Cy Youngs come out,” Gomes said. “When you’re having outings like this, the voters like it.”

Gomes was part of two AL Cy Youngs. He played for Cleveland when Corey Kluber won the award in 2014 and ’17. Snell won the AL Cy Young with Tampa Bay in 2018.

“I love that his name’s getting mentioned for that,” Ross said. “He deserves that. But for us, it feels like he’s going to give us a chance to win. The ‘Win Day’ guy on that staff, Steely feels like he’s that guy.”

The Cubs couldn’t do much against San Francisco starter Logan Webb, either. But Seiya Suzuki connected for his 15th home run in the second inning, and the score was still 1-0 until the seventh.

Suzuki delivered again with an RBI double that scored Cody Bellinger and Gomes followed with a single to knock in Suzuki and make it 3-0. The Cubs added a pair of unearned runs in the eighth, with Dansby Swanson’s RBI double the key hit.

The Cubs (74-64) returned to 10 games above .500, matching a season-high. They held onto the second wild-card spot, while at the start of the day, the third NL wild card spot was a four-way tie between the Giants, Diamondbacks, Reds and Marlins.

Twitter: @McGrawDHSports