OAKLAND — Rookie Hayden Wesneski didn’t feel like himself for the first few innings of the Cubs’ 10-1 win against the A’s on Monday.
It was hard to tell. Yes, he gave up hard contact in the first inning and a couple more hits in the second, but that’s nitpicking. He then turned around and retired 15 straight batters.
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll watch it and I’ll feel happier about it,” Wesneski said of his dominant start. “But early I didn’t have the confidence. And then the third, fourth inning, I started getting to a rhythm, but it still didn’t feel great. But the sixth and seventh inning, they got me right where I needed to be.”
Keep in mind, this was an outing in which Wesneski held the A’s to one run through seven innings. He bounced back from a rough first couple starts, in which his ERA rose to 7.50, to get back to the high standard he’d set late last year.
“It’s a great thing to be your best critic,” veteran catcher Yan Gomes said. “... But at the same time, we’re in the big leagues, those are big league hitters, so you’ve got to give yourself some grace.”
The biggest difference between Wesneski’s first two starts and his outing Monday was his confidence in his slider.
Wesneski’s slider is best when he’s spinning it out in front. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy identified that Wesneski’s mechanics had slipped a bit in that area, and they worked to correct the issue in between starts. Sometimes subtle changes make all the difference.
In his first two starts, Wesneski didn’t have the feel for the slider, so he didn’t use it as much. Last season, it was his most-used pitch (31.9 %), according to Statcast. But to start this year, he threw his four-seam fastball more often than his slider (28.5 %).
“I know it’s my best pitch,” Wesneski said. “It’s just something that – 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.”
Wesneski was falling behind in counts, laboring through starts. The chase rate on his slider was 17.4%, compared to 32.1% last year.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” manager David Ross said before the game Monday. “When you’re not getting ahead, you’re trying to put the pitch a little bit finer, and then that can have you fall behind. And then you want to be a little more careful if [the slider] doesn’t have the shape you want.”
On Monday, Wesneski said leaning on the slider more was part of the game plan, but he also had the feel for the pitch, giving him the ability to execute the plan.
“He was making some quality pictures in that first inning,” Gomes said, “They just maybe surprised us a little bit with the approach. They were taking a lot of early swings, so we had to make an adjustment. And it was really good to see that from him, not put his head down, just still go back out there and pitch.”
Out of the 90 pitches Wesneski threw Monday, 37 were sliders (41%). He got batters to chase it out of the zone at a 40% clip.
Wesneski’s offense gave him plenty of room to work with. Patrick Wisdom homered twice, extending his streak to four straight games with at least one home run. He became the fourth Cub in the modern era to record eight-plus home runs in 15 games to start the season, joining Lee Walls (1958), Hank Sauer (1954) and Gabby Hartnett (1925). Cody Bellinger went 5-for-5 for the first time in his career.
All the while, Wesneski was progressively feeling more like himself.
“This is definitely a start you can build on,” he said.
