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OAKLAND, Calif. — Hayden Wesneski momentarily paused to consider his words.
Coming off two subpar starts, Wesneski produced his best outing of the young season Monday at Oakland Coliseum. At one point, he retired 15 consecutive hitters in the Chicago Cubs’ 10-1 victory.
Yet the 25-year-old right-hander wasn’t satisfied by holding the A’s to one run in seven innings while striking out seven with no walks.
“Man, I don’t know. I feel good about it, but I don’t feel great. Maybe (Tuesday) I’ll watch it and I’ll feel happier about it,” Wesneski said.
“Early I didn’t have the confidence, then the third, fourth inning I started to get into a rhythm, but it still didn’t feel great. The sixth and seventh inning, they got me right where I needed to be. Yes, I feel good, but the first couple innings I still didn’t feel like myself. I had to grind through it and we got to this point.”
Wesneski has often been harsh in assessing his performances, holding himself to a high standard. Catcher Yan Gomes was glad to see Wesneski’s confidence come back during Monday’s start, especially after they had to adjust how to attack hitters when the A’s began the game with an aggressive approach and early swings in the count.
Gomes credited the behind-the-scenes work of the Cubs coaching staff and pitching coaches to help Wesneski regain confidence, something that was “hitting him a little bit.”
“It’s a great thing to be your best critic, an ability to be hard on yourself, but at the same time, we’re in the big leagues,” Gomes said after the win. “Those are big-league hitters. So you’ve got to give yourself some grace, like understand that there’s a learning curve. They’re going to learn about you. They know you’ve got a phenomenal slider. But at some point, once you start seeing a little bit of improvement, that’s where you get the confidence from.
“You can’t be like, ‘Oh, I give up a hit,’ like, OK, it’s a lot better than last time, you know?” he continued. “So just take the positive of every outing. If you keep being so hard on yourself, it’s going to be a long year. It’s good to be criticized and trying to see the ups and downs of an outing, but at the same time, take the good and just roll with it.”
Wesneski’s sweeping slider, his best pitch, was back to producing. His sweeper produced five whiffs and 13 called strikes, and six of Wesneski’s seven strikeouts ended on the pitch.
“I probably didn’t throw one slider for a strike the last two outings,” Wesneski said. “That’s my pitch, I need to have that. It sets everything else up. Yes, I threw it more today because I actually had feel for it today. I know it’s my best pitch. To get ahead, to put away, it doesn’t matter, I need to be able to set all my other pitches up with that one.”
An early lead helped Wesneski settle in. By the end of the fourth inning, the Cubs had built a 6-0 advantage, led by a four-run fourth in which they sent nine batters to the plate. They tacked on another four runs in the eighth. Patrick Wisdom slugged two home runs and Cody Bellinger produced the first five-hit game of his big-league career.
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Wisdom has hit five home runs in his last four games and is tied for the major-league lead with eight home runs this season. He is only the fourth Cubs hitter with at least eight home runs in their first 15 games of the season, joining Lee Walls (1958), Hank Sauer (1954) and Gabby Hartnett (1925).
“I could tell he was in a groove finding his pitches, a lot of soft contact and striking guys out,” Wisdom said of Wesneski. “It was good to see.”
Manager David Ross thought the Cubs’ big lead helped free up Wesneski mentally and allowed him to avoid trying to be so fine with his pitches. Ross liked how Wesneski attacked A’s hitters and the depth he saw from his slider. Perhaps just as important, Wesneski got better as the game progressed and allowed the Cubs to reset the bullpen behind his seven innings and the offense’s big game.
“He shook a lot on some 3-2 counts to the slider. Really recognize him having confidence in that, throwing it for strikes when it matters,” Ross said. “I think that’s a good catapult. Hopefully that’ll take him into just jump-starting his season.”
The rotation’s 2.95 ERA ranks third best in the majors and leads the National League. If Monday gets Wesneski locked in going forward, look out for the Cubs (9-6).
“I feel as a pitcher, if my mind’s right, I can pretty much do anything,” Wesneski said. “The physical part is going to come with the mental. With your mind, you can kind of move your body however you want. It’s just one of those things that if mentally I’m good, I’m strong, then physically I’m fine. I’m gifted.
“This is definitely a start you can build onto.”
