5:55 AM UTC
CHICAGO — As Cubs starter Marcus Stroman walked off the mound on Wednesday, the fervent fans of the White Sox sang their ritualistic goodbye taunt for an opposing pitcher. The South Siders had plenty of reason to gloat, given the sizable lead held by the home side four innings into the night.
Inside the visitors’ dugout, the Cubs were hoping there was sufficient time to swing the momentum back in their direction.
“Our mentality was to get a few back: ‘We don’t have to get it all now,’” Cubs star Cody Bellinger said. “Obviously, we did.”
The North Siders pulled off a stunning 10-7 comeback victory over their crosstown rivals, using a six-run fifth inning to erase the 7-2 advantage the White Sox had built. It marked the seventh win in eight games for the Cubs, moving them one game shy of a .500 record for the first time since May 12.
More important, the players inside the Cubs’ clubhouse are doing all they can to convince the front office not to shift into sell mode at Tuesday’s Trade Deadline. Stroman and Bellinger (who belted back-to-back homers with Ian Happ in the eighth) are Chicago’s top trade chips, but they could also be key for a second-half push into the postseason picture.
As things stand, the Cubs sit six games back of the National League Central-leading Brewers and 4 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card race. There is a hope among the players that the past few weeks — the Cubs have won 12 out of 18, and are 24-15 dating back to June 9 — could be a preview of the final two months.
“I think that it’s an opportunity to just embrace a situation where you’re playing meaningful baseball,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “And that’s really what we all want, right? You have the opportunity to win. You have the opportunity to have a team that’s pushing towards the end of the season.
“And yeah, it is a real factor and it’s something we’re all aware of, and I think we’ve handled it in a pretty mature way of controlling our end of it day by day. We’re giving it absolutely our all and I would love, love to play with this group for an extended period and see what that looks like.”
Stroman, who has the ability to opt out of his contract after this season, was one of baseball’s top starters over the season’s first three months. The righty admittedly has not been right dating back to his abbreviated, blister-impact London Series outing on June 25 against St. Louis.
After going 7-0 with a 1.29 ERA in seven starts leading up to his appearance in London, Stroman has posted an 8.00 ERA in 27 innings in six starts. The veteran right-hander’s season ERA has grown to 3.51 from 2.28 in that span. That includes the seven runs he was charged with in 3 1/3 innings on Wednesday against the Sox.
“Definitely awesome to come out with the ‘W’ in that one,” Stroman said. “I’ve been just kind of struggling a little bit mechanically, timing, tempo, rhythm. Just very inconsistent right now on the mound.”
It is to be determined how that could impact how teams are viewing Stroman as a potential trade target. That is something the pitcher insisted he is not thinking about at all.
“I love the group of guys here — I’ve been saying that since I’ve been here,” Stroman said. “I feel like we all know what we’re capable of when we’re hot. It’s just a matter of going out there and getting wins.”
Trailing by five runs in the fifth, the Cubs sent a dozen batters to the plate and capitalized on the collective wildness of White Sox pitchers Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly. In the frame, there were two batters hit by pitches, a pair of bases-loaded walks, a run-scoring wild pitch, two stolen bases and a two-out, two-run single by Christopher Morel.
“That was nice, really nice,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “Guys continue to fight. We’ve done a lot of that lately. Just getting down in the middle of the game, and the at-bats don’t go away.”
“It’s hard to measure these things in baseball,” Hoerner said, “but it just felt like a pretty good amount of will power just to make that happen.”
Now, the Cubs are trying to will their way back into a position to potentially add at the Deadline.
“We believe in this clubhouse, for sure,” Bellinger said. “There’s a lot of winners in this clubhouse. We’re playing good baseball. We’re excited to just keep it going.”
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