PITTSBURGH – Before the Cubs’ 8-3 win against the Pirates on Sunday, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy called building and improving on starting pitching depth, “crucial.”
“I know we’ve done some really good things this second half of the year,” he said. “But we struggled early in the year when we didn’t have the consistency and the depth quite as we wanted it. When you have good, consistent starting pitching in this league, you can do a lot of things.”
Case in point: right-hander Adrian Sampson held the Pirates to one run through six innings on Sunday, his fourth straight quality start.