Justin Steele let his pitching doing all the talking this time. And it was more than enough.
In his first start since an emotional outburst in which he implored himself and his team to “wake the [bleep] up” in Milwaukee on Saturday, Steele was in complete control of his emotions and the Angels in a 5-1 victory on Friday before 36,948 fans at Wrigley Field.
The 28-year-old left-hander allowed one run on two hits and struck out seven (1-3) to earn his first victory of the season. He did not allow a hit until there was one out in the fifth inning. Steele has a 1.67 ERA over 54 innings in his last eight starts.
Seiya Suzuki hit a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Cubs a quick 2-0 lead. Ian Happ had RBI singles in the third and fifth innings. And Nico Hoerner’s RBI single in the sixth gave the Cubs a 5-1 lead.
As good as he was, Steeler was aided by outstanding defense on four occasions — three by third baseman Miles Mastrobuoni.
On the very first pitch of the game, Mastrobuoni snared a liner by Taylor Ward. In the fourth inning, shortstop Dansby Swanson made a nifty move to his left to throw out Kevin Pillar. After Suzuki dropped a fly ball in right field and Brandon Drury walked, Mastrobuoni darted to his left to make a dazzling stop of Zach Neto’s 107 mph liner for a force at second to end the inning.
In the eighth, Mastrobuoni made another nice play on a short Jo Adell’s short-hopper to barely get Adell at first.
The Cubs (41-48) have won back-to-back games for the first time since June 18-19 against the Giants. They have not won three consecutive games since April 26, when they beat the Red Sox 7-1 for a four-game winning streak that gave them a 17-9 record.