Cade Horton continues scoreless streak in much-needed win

Sometimes the biggest upgrade to a team comes from within. The Cubs‘ front office took a more conservative approach to the trade deadline to the chagrin of much of the fanbase, which means they are going to have to compete for a playoff spot with largely the same group that started the season on the 40-man major league roster. The good news is, that group includes Cade Horton.

On Wednesday, Horton continued an impressive string of starts that stretches back to the beginning of July, holding the Reds scoreless across 5 2/3 innings while giving up just two hits and striking out six batters, en route to a much-needed 6-1 win. Against Cincinnati, Horton threw 56 of his 67 pitches for strikes.

“That’s top end stuff,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s quality stuff, and that’s a good formula for success.”

With Wednesday’s start, Horton has a 23 1/3 inning scoreless streak that goes back to July 9. He posted a 1.52 ERA in July, and after two scoreless starts this month, Horton’s season ERA is down to 3.18. That’s lower than pitchers like Logan Webb, Edward Cabrera, Spencer Strider, and Merrill Kelly. Fans who might be frustrated that team president Jed Hoyer chose not to go big at the trade deadline and get a top-tier starter, should perhaps take note of what Horton is doing and the fact that he was asked about in trade talks with teams like the Nationals.

In other words, want a Mackenzie Gore? It’s going to cost you Horton. The Cubs’ front office clearly values Horton highly enough to hold onto him over the long term.

“It means a lot,” Horton said of the organization’s faith in him. “You know, I feel like I just want to go out there and do my job and help this team win. We’ve got a really good group in there, so being able to do my part, whenever it’s asked of me, is the big thing.”

Helping the team win is at a premium these days. The Cubs were four games ahead of the Brewers a month ago and were four games behind before Wednesday’s outcome. They have three more series — against the Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Pirates — before a five-game showdown at Wrigley Field in just under two weeks.

Notably, that’s the last series the Cubs and Brewers have against each other on the schedule, so gaining ground in the standings between now and August 18 and then taking full advantage of the five games at home will do a lot for getting the Cubs back to the top of the division and then staying there.

The Cubs’ pitching has not been a major part of the problem that’s led to the drop in the standings, however. Other than a couple of recent bullpen blowups, the starting pitchers and the relievers have regularly given the Cubs chances to win. It’s been the offense that’s scuffled. So much so that Counsell has begun sitting guys like Pete Crow-Armstrong (on Monday), Seiya Suzuki (Tuesday), and Kyle Tucker (Wednesday).

In Suzuki’s case, it seems to have helped. Batting third on Wednesday, he went 2-for-2 with a home run and a walk. His only time up without a hit was a sacrifice fly in the third inning that drove in the game’s first run. The day off on Tuesday gave Suzuki a chance to take a closer look at some of his recent at-bats to determine what was going wrong.

“I’m always looking at my balance when I’m in the box, and recently it was a little bit off,” Suzuki said via team interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “But today felt good. Obviously, the pitchers are throwing competitive pitches, so sometimes it’s not going well, but today I stayed aggressive and it felt good.”

It’s not likely that the Cubs offense will continue to collectively struggle though. Tucker said before Wednesday’s game that he feels good physically but has been missing pitches he normally drives into the air and fouls them off instead. That kind of thing usually points to a timing issue, something that day or two out of the lineup can give a hitter time to address.

The six runs on Wednesday were the most the Cubs have scored since July 30 in Milwaukee. Counsell shuffled the lineup some in the series finale against the Reds, sitting Tucker but also moving Nico Hoerner to the top of his order. Hoerner got on base three times and drove in a run. Otherwise, Suzuki, Dansby Swanson, and Ian Happ each homered.

In the days after the July 31 trade deadline, the general consensus was that Hoyer had come up short. Things got worse when newly acquired Michael Soroka hit the injured list with a shoulder strain after throwing just two innings in his first start for the Cubs on Monday. Then Andrew Kittredge, brought in from the Orioles to help the bullpen, contributed to Tuesday night’s frustrating loss.

But more time might show that Hoyer’s approach could have been the right one. The asking price on a lot of of the best starting pitchers was so high that several of them were not traded at all, and less than 24 hours after a bad outing, Kittredge came out for the seventh inning on Wednesday and threw nine straight strikes for the first immaculate inning by a Cubs pitcher since Hayden Wesneski did it in September 2022 and only the sixth known immaculate inning in Cubs history.

Then there’s Horton. Hoyer might not have needed to go get a young, cost-controlled, dynamic arm on the trade market because he already has one. Ever since a rough outing in Houston at the end of June, Horton has been dominant, and it plays off of the belief in himself that he has always had.

“There has to be a level of confidence there, just to be successful in this league,” Horton said. “It’s a really hard league, and if you don’t believe in yourself, then it’s going to be even harder.”