SAN FRANCISCO — The steady performance of the Cubs’ starting rotation in the last couple of months had been overshadowed recently by the struggles of their offense. But now that the team is winning again, the starting pitching is back in the spotlight.
‘‘You go through a six-week or two-month — I don’t know where you want to draw the line — stretch of the starting pitching that we’ve had, you’re going to win some games regardless of how you’re doing offensively,’’ second baseman Nico Hoerner said Sunday. ‘‘And combine that with pretty solid defense lately, and then [getting] some slug this series [against the Angels] really made a big difference. So I feel like we’re in a strong place.’’
Let’s draw the line at the All-Star break. Since then, the Cubs’ 2.89 ERA from their rotation has been the best in the majors by a comfortable margin. Entering play Monday, two other National League Central teams — the Reds (3.39) and Brewers (3.41) — were second and third.
Starting pitching was instrumental in the Cubs’ sweep of the Angels that cut the Brewers’ lead in the division to five games. Right-handers Javier Assad, Cade Horton and Jameson Taillon combined to allow two runs in 17 innings. And that was with Horton on a workload limit and Taillon leaving his start with tightness in his left groin.
‘‘Over the next couple of days, we’ll gather more [information],’’ Taillon said after the game Sunday. ‘‘But I’m super-encouraged. I think we caught it early. I pitched that whole fifth inning feeling a little something. So if it was really bad, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.’’
Taillon also dealt with an injury to his left groin in 2023, a strain that sidelined him for two weeks. But he said the ‘‘little cramp’’ he felt while warming up for the fifth was ‘‘way less’’ than that strain two years ago.
Sunday marked Taillon’s second start back from a seven-week stay on the injured list with a strained right calf. He said he didn’t know whether the two lower-body injuries were connected.
‘‘Could be,’’ he said. ‘‘Could also just be I threw one pitch and it tweaked.’’
Getting Taillon and Assad back from the IL was a boon for the Cubs’ rotation depth, especially after trade-deadline acquisition Michael Soroka suffered a strained right shoulder in his first appearance for the team. Manager Craig Counsell said Soroka is scheduled to throw off a mound this week for the first time since the injury.
After missing most of the season with a pair of strained left obliques, Assad pitched six innings Friday and was back to his old self in his third major-league start of the season.
‘‘That last pitch where he struck out [Angels outfielder Taylor] Ward, that’s his pitch,’’ Counsell said after the game Friday. ‘‘And I’m not sure in the first two starts if we saw it, necessarily. But he had it going tonight in a big way.’’
The pitch was a sinker that started off the plate and darted into the strike zone to strike out Ward looking, an appropriate way for Assad to end his start. The Cubs optioned him to Triple-A Iowa afterward to keep him stretched out, but he’s expected to make more major-league starts this season.
On Saturday, Horton took up the mantle and pitched six scoreless innings in only 74 pitches.
‘‘That’s just kind of the way I pitch,’’ Horton said. ‘‘Get ahead and stay ahead. When you start falling behind in counts, that’s when you walk guys. And then a bloop single and then all of a sudden a double, and you let up two runs or whatever [it may be]. So just continuing to stay on the attack and letting the result be what it is.’’
The 21 consecutive strikes Horton threw to begin his outing were a reflection of that mentality.
Horton bounced back from a blister on his right middle finger, which had cut his previous outing short, to remain on schedule. Something similar would be the best-base scenario for Taillon, but his recovery in the next couple of days will give the Cubs a sense of a realistic timeline.
‘‘We could be in an unbelievable situation. I’d be concerned about our pitching,’’ Counsell quipped Friday about the innings puzzle for the rest of the season. ‘‘Maybe that’s my issue that I need to talk about. But I think we’ve handled this week [with a doubleheader] and the guys have handled this week really, really well.’’
