{"id":737916,"date":"2026-04-19T02:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/737916\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:50:14","slug":"chicago-cubs-craig-counsells-decision-pays-off-in-4-2-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/737916\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs: Craig Counsell’s decision pays off in 4-2 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell was peppered with questions Saturday morning about his decision a day earlier<\/a> to pinch-hit for streaking rookie Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros.<\/p>\n

Just a few hours later, Counsell did it again.<\/p>\n

His decision to yank the hot-hitting Ballesteros for the right-handed Carson Kelly resulted in a three-run, sixth-inning home run on the first pitch Kelly saw, propelling the Cubs to a 4-2 win over the New York Mets, their fourth straight victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it works,\u201d Counsell quipped after the win.<\/p>\n

\n

Photos: Chicago Cubs beat New York Mets 4-2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Friday, Counsell took the bat away from Ballesteros for righty Matt Shaw when the Mets turned to left-hander Sean Manaea. Shaw went 1-for-2 with a double against Manaea, but Counsell was grilled Saturday morning for the decision because Ballesteros was 2-for-2 with a home run before his day ended in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Ballesteros is hitting .375 with a 1.034 OPS but has just two hitless at-bats against lefties this season. Shaw, meanwhile, has a lifetime .262\/.321\/.508 slash line (.829 OPS) against left-handers and is hitting .308 against them this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to put the players that we think and put them in a position to have success, and that trumps (player development),\u201d Counsell said before the game. \u201cNow, at some point, if the team doesn\u2019t provide a better option, then maybe we do something different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not a hard decision. There\u2019s no training wheels there. This is a team. This is a team that we\u2019re trying to win games with. We\u2019re going to go with the best matchups.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when the Mets turned to left-hander Brooks Raley on Saturday with two runners on base, two outs and the score tied at 1, the only decision Counsell wrestled with was whether to go with Shaw or Kelly, who wasn\u2019t starting with Miguel Amaya behind the plate. He chose Kelly, who has a 14-game on-base streak after the home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarson\u2019s just been swinging the bat so good,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big at-bat in the game, and he\u2019s just been really locked in. They\u2019ve both been swinging the bat well, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsell also looks at the development of the 24-year-old Shaw, who is in a super-utility role in his second season, when choosing platoon matchups as in Friday\u2019s game. Shaw and Ballesteros represent key pieces of the Cubs\u2019 future, and consistently playing will help their growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt Shaw is involved in that as well, and putting Matt in positions to be successful is something that we\u2019re trying to do as well,\u201d Counsell said before the game. \u201cThe development part of it, you take some shots during games with some development things, and then you also take some shots with, \u2018This is the right thing to do for the team to win the game.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always running through both in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs were intentional with the construction of their bench this year. The offseason addition of third baseman Alex Bregman allows Counsell to deploy Shaw as a Swiss Army knife and maximize his matchups.<\/p>\n

It lengthens his options late in games too. When Kelly\u2019s turn was set to come up again in the bottom of the eighth, Counsell could have kept with the hot hand or turned to the left-handed-hitting Michael Conforto, who is hitting .273 this season in 12 games. The inning ended with Kelly on deck.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s putting us in position to have success,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThis group, we\u2019re always prepared, we\u2019re always looking for that opportunity. Just as a group, we\u2019re pulling for each other in all moments, and special moments like today can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CubsCubs starting pitcher Jameson Taillon and catcher Miguel Amaya head to the dugout after the top of the first inning against the Mets on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Wrigley Field. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s blast helped Jameson Taillon record his first win of the season. The right-hander steadily improved after allowing a solo home run to Mark Vientos in the second. He allowed just five hits and the one run in six innings, helping hand the Mets their 10th straight loss \u2014 their first double-digit losing streak since an 11-game skid in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was driving here today and I told myself, \u2018I\u2019m not going to fall into the trap of thinking this is a bad team or a struggling team,\u2019\u201d Taillon said. \u201cYou look at the names up and down that lineup, I knew coming here, I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be the reason they get hot.\u2019 I was kind of having that conversation with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The close game tested the Cubs\u2019 beleaguered pitching staff. Ten pitchers on their 40-man roster are on the injured list. Counsell used Ben Brown as a two-inning bridge to left-hander Caleb Thielbar, who picked up his first save of the year with two strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Thielbar could fill that ninth-inning role with closer Daniel Palencia on the IL<\/a>. The Cubs selected the contract of Corbin Martin before the game to take Palencia\u2019s place on the active roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen kept making pitches,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThat\u2019s a really good sign and a good step. That\u2019s important. I thought Ben\u2019s second inning of work was crucial. Then Caleb, that was just a pound-the-strike-zone inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Happ negated Vientos\u2019 home run with a solo shot in the bottom of the second, his team-leading sixth of the year and the second time this season he has homered on consecutive days.<\/p>\n

That allowed the Cubs to beat the Mets with their bench \u2014 and vindicated Counsell, for the second day in a row, to sit Ballesteros and his sizzling bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeck of a job managing there,\u201d Happ said with a smile. \u201cPinch-hit, three-run homer, that\u2019s a good day for the manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell was peppered with questions Saturday morning about his decision a day earlier to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":737917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[5438,68503,17625,960,1271,1816,5604,5386,1818,5439,30300,67238,1305],"class_list":["post-737916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-ben-brown","tag-caleb-thielbar","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-ian-happ","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-matt-shaw","tag-moises-ballesteros","tag-new-york-mets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116429104014897896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}