Paul Sullivan: Cubs answer Justin Steele's wake-up call with a 5-3 victory against the Brewers
Published in Baseball
Asked when he felt a challenge like this season, he said “every day is a challenge to be a good day, a right day, so if you don’t come to the field with that in mind and that frame of mind, you’re doing yourself and your team a disservice. … There are challenges every single year in every different type of season. And this is no different.”
Cubs President Jed Hoyer said he has heard the same things in the past about every team that’s scuffling to score runs. He agreed the Cubs have a deficit of “edgy players,” but that makes no difference in how they’re performing.
“In my career, whenever a team is struggling offensively, the natural thing everyone talks about is the team is flat, they lack an edge, they lack fire,” Hoyer said Friday. “But you just can’t have fire when you’re making a right turn and going into the dugout all the time. … Do I think we lack an edge, lack fire, lack energy? No, I think we’re struggling offensively.”
The edge returned Saturday, courtesy of Steele.
“Raw emotion,” Happ said of Steele. “Everybody seems how much he cares, how much he wants to win baseball games.”
Whether that edge becomes a trend or remains an anomaly could determine the Cubs’ fate the rest of the season.
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