SAN FRANCISCO — Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw reacted so quickly that it was nearly impossible in real time to understand what he had done to snag the line drive Angels hitter Bryce Teodosio had sent screaming up the line.
One moment, Shaw was facing the plate in a ready position. The next, he was pushing himself up from the ground with the ball in his glove for the last out of the fifth inning of the Cubs’ eventual 4-3 victory Sunday, which completed a three-game sweep.
In between, Shaw turned to his backhand side and launched himself up and toward the line in a move that already looked entirely natural for someone who used to be a middle infielder.
‘‘You’re seeing the ball at a different angle, so the reactions are very different at third than they are in the middle,’’ Shaw said Sunday as the Cubs closed the book on the series against the Angels and looked forward to a three-game set against the Giants, which began with a 5-2 loss Tuesday that dropped them 6½ games behind the Brewers in the National League Central. ‘‘So it’s taken a lot of time to continue to adjust.’’
As the Cubs rebuilt after their teardown at the trade deadline in 2021, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer made defense — a hallmark of the 2016 World Series champions — central to the identity of this new iteration of Cubs baseball, as well.
The solution at third base, however, was a moving target, and defense at the position fluctuated. It again was a question entering this season, dependent on the development of Shaw, the Cubs’ first-round pick in 2023.
Shaw, primarily a shortstop at the University of Maryland, only had been playing third regularly since the 2024 minor-league season, when he still was cycling in at second, too.
He had adjusting his arm slot a priority entering spring training, but an oblique injury limited his activity in camp.
The strides Shaw has made since — offensively and defensively — have raised the Cubs’ potential for the last five weeks of the regular season.
‘‘The big word there is ‘comfortable,’ ’’ veteran right-hander Jameson Taillon said. ‘‘It’s a pressure situation being a top prospect breaking camp with a team that expects to win. And I think he’s just become more comfortable with this group, become more comfortable as a big-league player, become more comfortable at third base, become more comfortable with his swing. That’s just a big theme.
‘‘And he’s a smart kid and a really hard worker, so not surprised he’s gotten good at third base.’’
With a 1.035 OPS since the All-Star break entering play Tuesday, Shaw was a major factor in the Cubs’ series victory last week against the Brewers at Wrigley Field, logging a triple and a home run in back-to-back games.
In their sweep-clinching victory Sunday against the Angels, Shaw went 2-for-4 and scored their first run against former Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks.
Besides those offensive contributions, Shaw’s defense helped prop up the Cubs’ steady pitching, two elements the team will have to rely on down the stretch and into the postseason.
‘‘It’s so impressive,’’ second baseman Nico Hoerner said. ‘‘[Third base is] a really different position. I know he’s had a lot of experience on the left side at short [in college], but it just seems like even though he played it well early in the year, he’s just getting more and more confident.
‘‘More plays are looking routine. [He’s] diving to his left. Or he charges the ball so well. And then [he’s] going to the line and using long hops. It seems like he’s finding more ways that those tough plays are becoming routine for him.’’
In the first game of the series against the Angels, a 3-2 victory Friday, Shaw made two diving plays on grounders between him and shortstop Dansby Swanson.
Then he made an entirely different kind of play — Teodosio’s line drive Sunday — look routine.
‘‘He’s playing pretty far in for the bunt possibility with a really fast runner,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘There’s no teaching him that. If anything, having your prep step be on time is important. Other than that, it’s just great athleticism.’’
