Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell was peppered with questions Saturday morning about his decision a day earlier to pinch-hit for streaking rookie Moisés Ballesteros.
Just a few hours later, Counsell did it again.
His decision to yank the hot-hitting Ballesteros for the right-handed Carson Kelly resulted in a three-run, sixth-inning home run on the first pitch Kelly saw, propelling the Cubs to a 4-2 win over the New York Mets, their fourth straight victory.
“Sometimes it works,” Counsell quipped after the win.
On Friday, Counsell took the bat away from Ballesteros for righty Matt Shaw when the Mets turned to left-hander Sean Manaea. Shaw went 1-for-2 with a double against Manaea, but Counsell was grilled Saturday morning for the decision because Ballesteros was 2-for-2 with a home run before his day ended in the fifth inning.
Ballesteros is hitting .375 with a 1.034 OPS but has just two hitless at-bats against lefties this season. Shaw, meanwhile, has a lifetime .262/.321/.508 slash line (.829 OPS) against left-handers and is hitting .308 against them this year.
“We’re going to put the players that we think and put them in a position to have success, and that trumps (player development),” Counsell said before the game. “Now, at some point, if the team doesn’t provide a better option, then maybe we do something different.
“That was not a hard decision. There’s no training wheels there. This is a team. This is a team that we’re trying to win games with. We’re going to go with the best matchups.”
So when the Mets turned to left-hander Brooks Raley on Saturday with two runners on base, two outs and the score tied at 1, the only decision Counsell wrestled with was whether to go with Shaw or Kelly, who wasn’t starting with Miguel Amaya behind the plate. He chose Kelly, who has a 14-game on-base streak after the home run.
“Carson’s just been swinging the bat so good,” Counsell said. “It’s a big at-bat in the game, and he’s just been really locked in. They’ve both been swinging the bat well, though.”
Counsell also looks at the development of the 24-year-old Shaw, who is in a super-utility role in his second season, when choosing platoon matchups as in Friday’s game. Shaw and Ballesteros represent key pieces of the Cubs’ future, and consistently playing will help their growth.
“Matt Shaw is involved in that as well, and putting Matt in positions to be successful is something that we’re trying to do as well,” Counsell said before the game. “The development part of it, you take some shots during games with some development things, and then you also take some shots with, ‘This is the right thing to do for the team to win the game.’
“You’re always running through both in your head.”
The Cubs were intentional with the construction of their bench this year. The offseason addition of third baseman Alex Bregman allows Counsell to deploy Shaw as a Swiss Army knife and maximize his matchups.
It lengthens his options late in games too. When Kelly’s turn was set to come up again in the bottom of the eighth, Counsell could have kept with the hot hand or turned to the left-handed-hitting Michael Conforto, who is hitting .273 this season in 12 games. The inning ended with Kelly on deck.
“He’s putting us in position to have success,” Kelly said. “This group, we’re always prepared, we’re always looking for that opportunity. Just as a group, we’re pulling for each other in all moments, and special moments like today can happen.”
Kelly’s blast helped Jameson Taillon record his first win of the season. The right-hander steadily improved after allowing a solo home run to Mark Vientos in the second. He allowed just five hits and the one run in six innings, helping hand the Mets their 10th straight loss — their first double-digit losing streak since an 11-game skid in 2004.
“I was driving here today and I told myself, ‘I’m not going to fall into the trap of thinking this is a bad team or a struggling team,’” Taillon said. “You look at the names up and down that lineup, I knew coming here, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be the reason they get hot.’ I was kind of having that conversation with myself.”
The close game tested the Cubs’ beleaguered pitching staff. Ten pitchers on their 40-man roster are on the injured list. Counsell used Ben Brown as a two-inning bridge to left-hander Caleb Thielbar, who picked up his first save of the year with two strikeouts.
Thielbar could fill that ninth-inning role with closer Daniel Palencia on the IL. The Cubs selected the contract of Corbin Martin before the game to take Palencia’s place on the active roster.
“Ben kept making pitches,” Counsell said. “That’s a really good sign and a good step. That’s important. I thought Ben’s second inning of work was crucial. Then Caleb, that was just a pound-the-strike-zone inning.”
Ian Happ negated Vientos’ home run with a solo shot in the bottom of the second, his team-leading sixth of the year and the second time this season he has homered on consecutive days.
That allowed the Cubs to beat the Mets with their bench — and vindicated Counsell, for the second day in a row, to sit Ballesteros and his sizzling bat.
“Heck of a job managing there,” Happ said with a smile. “Pinch-hit, three-run homer, that’s a good day for the manager.”
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
