CHICAGO -- It’s early August, the Cubs are red-hot and Joe Maddon has made one thing clear: The Kid stays in the lineup.
The kid in question is Kyle Schwarber, the Cincinnati (Metropolitan Area) Kid, the New Natural. He doesn't look like a movie star like Kris Bryant, but as Jon Lester said several times Friday, he's just a baseball player.
Ballplayers recognize ballplayers.
But this isn't just about Schwarber, the latest, greatest rookie of Theo Epstein's grand plan.
It's not just about Maddon, who is managing in early August like it's late September and early October. It's not just about Lester, who is pitching like the guy they sent for.
It's everything all at once, as Cubs fans are starting to feel giddy again, packing Wrigley Field to the top row of seats.
It's early August and the Cubs are in the middle of a playoff race, and Addison Russell is at shortstop, where he belongs, and just like you figured back in March, Chris Coghlan is at second base, while Starlin Castro is on the bench and Javier Baez is in Triple-A.
A 7-3 victory Friday over the San Francisco Giants means the Cubs (60-48) have won eight of nine games and have a 1½-game lead over San Francisco for the National League's second wild card. This isn't a World Series team, but it is a playoff team.
It’s early August, and September baseball can’t come soon enough.
It’s been too long, but when the Cubs are streaking and Wrigley Field is rocking, it feels like old times at Clark and Addison. I even saw a few Alfonso Soriano jerseys in the stands Friday.
In a season during which the Cubs introduced moving pictures to historic Wrigley Field, it’s pretty obvious recent convention has left the park.
The winds of change are blowing out, my friends.
It’s tough to have a statement series this early in August, but Maddon is managing for the present, and that is sure to buy him even more respect in a confident clubhouse.
Maddon made news before the game when he posted a lineup that featured Russell at starting shortstop for just the sixth time, with Schwarber in left field and Coghlan at second.
The big news, of course, was Castro on the bench. The three-time All-Star has been struggling all season, and he’s been awful at Wrigley Field, with a .201/.250/.238 line.
“None of this is punitive. I’m just trying to help us win today’s game,” Maddon said before Friday’s victory. “You’re always concerned about the emotion. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the Cubs winning.”
Maddon’s moves worked again. Lester (7-8) gave up two runs on six hits and two walks in seven innings to drop his ERA to 3.22.
Schwarber had a double and scored in the first inning and knocked home two runs with a single in the Cubs’ five-run fifth. Coghlan drove in Schwarber in the first and Jorge Soler scored Schwarber with a two-run double in the fifth. It was only Soler’s second double, and second extra-base hit, since July 22. Even David Ross had an RBI single Friday.
“It’s because of Schwarber. Schwarber is the guy that kind of enacted this whole thing,” Maddon said. “By the way he’s hitting right now, we had to try and find a way to keep him in the lineup. Lester’s pitching, Ross is catching, Coghlan’s swinging the bat well, so how do you get this all to play?”
Coghlan was just happy to be in the lineup, and he’ll move back to left when Schwarber catches. One thing is for sure: Schwarber has to be in the lineup every day.
“The way he’s swinging, there’s not many people in the game right now that are as hot as he is,” Coghlan said of Schwarber. “So you just try to ride him out. You can’t really sit a guy who’s swinging that good.”
Schwarber (.345/.427/.631) will go through his slumps, as fellow rookies Bryant, Soler and Russell have already this season.
But that’s why it’s so important for him to play now, while he’s so hot, so the Cubs have the best hitters out there on a daily basis.
That’s why Russell is the new everyday shortstop -- though Maddon stops short of saying it, telling Castro before the game this wasn’t a day off and telling reporters afterward that Russell would start at short Saturday. That's about as far as he'll go.
“Addison’s the shortstop today,” Maddon told reporters before Friday’s game. “He could be the shortstop tomorrow. I want to see how this all plays out.”
Russell isn’t on a Schwarberian hitting tear. But going into the game, he had a .695 OPS at Wrigley to Castro’s .488. In 189 home at-bats, Castro had five extra-base hits, while in 141, Russell had 15.
Russell made a sweet tag on a stolen-base attempt and turned a huge double play, on a low throw from Lester, when the Giants were threatening in the seventh.
“Having him at second base, you really don’t get to see his athleticism,” Lester said. “Today it was unbelievable the stuff he was able to do out there.”
There’s no point waiting for everything to click this season for Castro. Not when a playoff berth is there for the taking.
Everyone knows this year’s Cubs team wasn’t built to make a World Series run, and the lack of big moves before the non-waiver trade deadline proves it.
But this could be an October team, and once you get in, who knows?
“For a group of guys that have never done it, we’ve got that excitement every single day where we’ve got a chance,” Lester said. “Once you have a chance, once you get there, it’s just a matter of who’s the hottest team. It’s not the best team.”
That’s why Maddon isn’t worried about overwhelming Schwarber with a position switch, and that’s why he’s not coddling Castro. That’s why he’s being so aggressive with late-game substitutions, such as sitting Coghlan for Jonathan Herrera and Soler for Chris Denorfia with a late lead. That’s why he pulled starting pitcher Jason Hammel after 76 pitches Thursday. That's why Maddon pointed out how big Dexter Fowler's eighth-inning homer was.
His players are paying attention.
“Joe’s doing a great job,” Lester said. “I don’t know why he makes the decisions he makes. That’s stuff you got to talk to him about. ... Let Joe do his thing. It’s worked in the past, and just show up to play.”
Often, bad teams play the kids all at once, but in this case, the Cubs have to play the rookies to make a run.
“It’s tough because we’re still developing but winning,” Coghlan said. “It’s a tough dynamic. You can’t really do both when it gets down to it, when it gets to crunch time. You can see how the switches are happening, you can tell it’s different than it was in the beginning of the year, as it should be. We’re getting to the point where it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s whatever’s best is for the team, and whatever matchup he feels. As a player you have to be content in that, because it’s about winning, it’s not about yourself, it’s not about your stats. It’s not about you staying in the game all the time.”
It's about that W flag fluttering in the breeze -- and yes, you can believe again.