SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Busch is often on the receiving end of Gold Glove defensive plays, given that his second baseman, shortstop and third baseman all have that shiny hardware on their mantles.
It’s only fair he gets a turn to make some of those plays, too.
Busch wowed with a few web gems in Friday night’s Cubs win, starting a 3-6-3 double play with a diving stop and clipping a pair of base-runners with his glove for replay-assisted outs.
He’s not one of the five Cubs regulars with a Gold Glove to his name, but his award-winning teammates are not excluding Busch from their great-defenders club.
“The 3-6-3 double play, even when it looks routine, there’s a lot that has to go right, with two accurate throws and throwing to a moving target at first base. A lot of factors. To start that with a sliding play on a good runner, just a really impressive play,” second baseman Nico Hoerner told the Sun-Times on Saturday. “He’s done a great job at first base his whole time he’s been with us, but I do feel like he’s continuously gotten better.
“There’s so many outs that start and end with the first baseman. And it creates confidence and trust for the rest of us on defense knowing we’re throwing to a reliable guy over there. We’re super grateful for all the work he puts in and where he’s at.
“He’s been amazing.”
Of course, Busch was just one part of the Cubs’ defensive puzzle in Friday’s win, with Hoerner making his own, typically sterling play that had teammates awestruck.
“A ball to my right, I was like, ‘Dang, I should have gone after that one.’ I ended up going to first base, and there Nico is, gloving it and making the play,” Busch said. “I haven’t really played with a ton of second basemen, but there’s a different level with No. 2.”
There’s a different level, defensively, with this whole Cubs team. A year after winning the team Gold Glove, they’re again the best defensive team in the sport, according to a couple metrics.
That’s a big deal, and not just because of the old adage that defense wins championships, something the Cubs are trying to do this season. It’s a big deal because the defense has stayed consistently great, even while the offense and pitching have struggled through the last month, dropping the Cubs from the top of the NL Central to a shade above .500.
“You always strive, as a team, to have everything synced up at the same time, but the reality is that’s not always going to be the case,” Hoerner said. “But defense is something that can be a little more consistent than some other facets of the game. It can definitely help keep you in games and win games for you.”
“It’s a skill that some of our players are [at the] top of their profession at,” Counsell said Friday. “It’s a stable skill. That’s one of the reasons why you like it. It’s like speed, it shows up every day. It can go in slumps, yes, but for the most part, it’s a pretty stable skill. And it matters. It matters every single day.”
While the expectation from the jump was that Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, Ian Happ and Pete Crow-Armstrong – Gold Glovers, the lot of them – would turn in dependably terrific glovework, the Cubs have received those types of contributions from more than just the usual suspects, like right fielder Seiya Suzuki and Busch, two more contributors to this Cubs team’s defensive identity.
“He’s become a very good first baseman,” Counsell said of Busch. “It matters a lot to him, how he plays defense, and he knows it’s important. And I think the other players out there, that’s what having great defenders around you makes you feel like, that I’m going to be a great defender.
“He’s excellent at it. I’m proud of where he’s gone and what he’s become as a first baseman.”