Steele's outburst serves as rallying cry in much-needed Cubs win

MILWAUKEE -- Justin Steele carried his frustration with him off the diamond after the third inning on Saturday afternoon. Once the Cubs lefty arrived at the dugout steps, he stopped for a moment and shouted demonstratively before continuing on and heading down the tunnel.

At that point in the afternoon, the game felt familiar to so many of the losses over the past two months for the North Siders. The missteps became footnotes in the eighth, when Ian Happ delivered a game-deciding two-run homer that secured the Cubs a much-needed 5-3 victory over the rival Brewers at American Family Field.

“That’s raw emotion,” Happ said of Steele’s display.

Steele declined to discuss his outburst in too much detail, adding that he wished he would have controlled his emotions better with families and kids watching the game. The lefty explained that he reached his boiling point due to the desire to get the team back in the win column. The third inning nearly sabotaged that goal.

One day after Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer held court for a half-hour to discuss the importance of his team starting to stack up wins before the Trade Deadline, the North Siders stumbled out of the blocks in Milwaukee. The tough opening to Saturday’s game came after dropping four of the first five games on the current road trip.

Since the Cubs were tied for first in the division and seven games over .500 on May 7 (22-15), Chicago has gone 16-30. The North Siders lead the Majors in both one-run games (33) and one-run losses (19), and currently reside in last place in the National League Central.

Steele’s eruption in front of the team felt like a moment two months in the making.

“I love every single person in that locker room,” Steele said. “I know how good we can be. I know what it takes. Yeah, it definitely comes from a good place. It comes from a place of love and passion. I want to win baseball games. That's what I show up every day to do.”

In the third inning, the Brewers had one hit bounce by the glove of third baseman Christopher Morel. There was a rundown that went awry between second and third base. There was a run-scoring sacrifice bunt that Steele was unable to grab cleanly from the grass. William Contreras had an RBI single that dropped between three defenders in center.

Steele struck out the last two hitters of the inning to escape further damage, but that messy sequence paved the way for two runs for the Brewers. That effectively canceled out the two-run homer that Cubs first baseman Michael Busch delivered on the second pitch of the game from Milwaukee righty Tobias Myers.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Steele’s shouts came “from a good place.”

“He said something coming into the dugout, essentially like, ‘Let's go,’” Counsell said. “It was an emotional inning. We played poorly that inning. We made some mistakes. And he's just voicing his emotion from a place of love.”

Happ did not take issue with how Steele reacted, either.

“It's an intense game,” said the veteran outfielder. “I think every single guy in this clubhouse is competing and wants to win baseball games every day. And when you're going through a stretch like we are, that frustration is real. It's about maintaining a level of focus.

“How do we go out there and, amidst any frustration, continue to do things we have to do to be competitive on an individual basis and a team basis?”

Saturday’s formula included a fifth consecutive quality start from Steele, who has looked more and more like the pitcher who was in the NL Cy Young conversation last season. In his six outings in June, the left-hander posted a 2.13 ERA. Against the Brewers, he struck out five and walked none over six innings.

“He's giving everything he has out there,” Happ said.

Behind Steele, the Cubs’ injury-riddled bullpen featured two scoreless frames from rookies Luke Little and Porter Hodge. Héctor Neris reprised his role as closer -- following a recent rough stretch -- and danced around some traffic to seal the win and notch his 100th career save.

The Cubs’ offense, which entered the day ranked last in the Majors in both average (.188) and OPS (.588) with runners in scoring position since April 27, went 1-for-12 with RISP against the Brewers. The lone hit was an RBI single from Pete Crow-Armstrong in the fourth, while Busch and Happ produced the type of well-timed slug that has been missing.

“We won the game,” Steele said. “To me, that's what matters most.”