Justin Steele said what Cubs fans have been saying for ages.
Did Justin Steele just take a page out of Marcus Stroman’s book? And did it actually work?
The Chicago Cubs starter has been hung out to dry by the lineup and bullpen all season. He is 0-3 on the season despite a 3.08 ERA and four-straight quality starts going into Saturday’s game against the Brewers.
He soon picked up his fifth quality start but also reached his breaking point coming off the mound after the third inning.
“WAKE THE F**K UP!” Steele appeared to yell at the dugout.
On Friday night, Marcus Stroman had a similar moment with Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres. After Torres failed to turn a double play, Stroman went off on him. Remarkably, instead of sowing further seeds of discontent, New York seemed to turn a corner, scoring 16 runs on the Blue Jays. Fifteen of those came after the outburst.It may have worked for Steele and the Cubs as well. Pete Crow-Armstrong drove in a run in the fourth and Ian Happy knocked a two-run homer in the eighth to give Chicago a 5-3 lead over their division rivals.
Steele left the game after six innings of work, allowing seven hits and three earned runs while striking out five.
Someone had to shake the Cubs out of their funk, Justin Steele volunteered
Having a player raise his voice at teammates like that is often a sign of a toxic culture, but sometimes it’s necessary for something over-the-top to shake a struggling team out of a skid. Maybe it’s an ejection or some other flashpoint. It’s all about how the team responds to it.
The Cubs have a long, long way to go before they can say they’re out of the woods. Hector Neris got the save in the end but the much-maligned closer flirted with blowing it by putting the winning run at the plate.
But Steele at least got some sort of positive response to his show of emotion even if he’s still waiting for his first official win of the season.
