It was the type of performance from the Cubs bullpen that can breed confidence late in the season. The win moved them to 83-66 and a half-game up on the Philadelphia Phillies for the top NL wild-card spot with 13 games left in the season. The Phillies played the Braves later Saturday in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hard thing, especially this time of the year, being a reliever,\u201d right-hander Clay Holmes said. \u201cYou do your job 40 times of the year, and it\u2019s just expected, and then when you\u2019re not perfect a couple of times, it\u2019s easy just to feel like the world\u2019s spinning. You hear a lot of voices, people telling you this and that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough just to kind of keep believing what you\u2019re doing in those moments. There\u2019s going to be some rough patches and you got to believe that things will level out and as soon as you get another good one, you go out there and kind of do what they did today, it just kind of levels the water some and you\u2019re just able to keep going back out there and believe in yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs bullpen entered Saturday with a 4.57 ERA since Aug. 21, and their six blown saves in that span were tied for the major-league lead. Any option Counsell turned to at that time seemed to struggle. So, Cabrera\u2019s return, coupled with his tantalizing pitch arsenal, meant there was some very cautious optimism that operating in shorter bursts could help solve their woes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we talked to Cabby about is there\u2019s examples,\u201d Counsell said before the win. \u201cA great example from last year is what (Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander) Roki Sasaki did the last month and into the playoffs. That could happen. That\u2019s an example. That\u2019s a road map to how this could be really successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that the best result? That was a pretty darned good result. But that\u2019s what you keep yourself open to.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a best-case scenario. The Cubs might\u2019ve seen a better preview of the path to solving their bullpen malaise in Saturday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n
![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CTC-Z-CUBS-PIR.jpg\")
Cubs starter Clay Holmes, right, wipes his face during the sixth inning against the Pirates on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, at Wrigley Field. (Nam Y. Huh\/AP)<\/p>\n
In a duel with Pirates ace Paul Skenes, Holmes cruised through 5 1\/3 innings, retired nine straight at one point and looked to be able to limit exposure for the bullpen. But he hit a road bump in the sixth, allowing a one-out, three-run home run to Ryan O\u2019Hearn that flipped a two-run lead to a one-run deficit. The blast was even more crushing because shortstop Nico Hoerner made an error on the second hitter of the frame that allowed a runner to reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust made one bad pitch there in the sixth inning,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cThat was a pitch, probably wish I could have back just knowing the score of the game, just my strengths, what I\u2019m able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holmes picked up the second out two batters later but then allowed a single and a walk to the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters to load the bases. That\u2019s when Counsell turned to right-hander Jacob Webb to face lefty Oneil Cruz and the top of the Pirates lineup.<\/p>\n
Webb, who was the Cubs closer just a few weeks ago, had blown three straight save opportunities and carried a 17.36 ERA in his last six outings (nine earned runs in 4 2\/3 innings).<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, it wasn\u2019t an ideal situation I wanted to put him in for his next appearance,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cBut in the sixth inning, if we\u2019re going to win the game, (left-hander Ryan) Rolison\u2019s going to have to get outs the next time around because it\u2019s not late enough in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb induced a groundout, then pitched around a leadoff walk to post a scoreless seventh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put us in a tough spot during the sixth inning, bases loaded, already down a run,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cFor him to come in and keep that game where it is and then go back out and throw another scoreless (inning) was big.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was probably the game there. Gave us a chance to come back and win.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CTC-Z-CUBS-PIR_982c76.jpg\")
Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, right, scores as Nico Hoerner walks to first after being hit by a pitch against the Pirates in the eighth inning Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, at Wrigley Field. (Nam Y. Huh\/AP)<\/p>\n
Rolison tossed a scoreless eighth, allowing the Cubs to mount a rally in the bottom of the frame. Pedro Ram\u00edrez doubled to open the inning, but left-hander Gregory Soto picked up two outs against Tyrone Taylor and Pete Crow-Armstrong. The next four hitters reached without recording a hit \u2014 Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch, Seiya Suzuki and Matt Shaw drew walks and Hoerner was plunked to give the Cubs the lead.
Counsell sent Rolison back out in the top of the ninth with the top of the order due up, then turned to Ryan Zeferjahn to pick up the final out, and he struck out Bryan Reynolds to end it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what being a reliever is, what being a high-leverage reliever is about,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have some times the other guys beat you, and it hurts, and then you\u2019re going to get the ball the next time (and) say go do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bullpen and the rest of the Cubs hope Saturday was a stepping stone to fixing their recent struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the bullpen held it down today,\u201d said Webb. \u201cThat\u2019s what we need to be doing every time. I know it doesn\u2019t work like that, but I think we have a really good bullpen down there and the guys are going to keep putting up zeros.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs thought they were receiving a new option for their reeling bullpen. Right-hander Edward Cabrera was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[98094,5,24,1712,576,47653,4914,442,716,4,44882,2305,33,40194,45122,10,776,64,4297,8052,10047,105],"class_list":["post-803514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-alez-bregman","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-clay-holmes","tag-craig-counsell","tag-cubs-magic-number","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-jacob-webb","tag-matt-shaw","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoff-race","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-nl-wild-card-race","tag-pedro-ramirez","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates","tag-ryan-rolison","tag-ryan-zeferjahn","tag-seiya-suzuki"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117260652759919565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}