Cubs show mettle during grueling West Coast swing

SAN DIEGO – When the Cubs looked over their early-season schedule, it was easy to circle this West Coast swing against the Dodgers and Padres as arguably the hardest trip on the calendar. What the North Siders found over the past week was that they have the ability to be a thorn in these clubs’ sides.

“If anything,” center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said, “I think we enjoy coming out here and playing these teams, because of how talented they are and how deep they are. And getting to showcase why we feel like we are just equally as deep and talented as them.”

The Cubs’ 4-2 loss to the Padres on Wednesday wrapped up a 3-3 showing through Dodger Stadium and Petco Park. Chicago won the series in L.A., delivering the largest home shutout defeat (16-0) for the Dodgers in their history. In San Diego, the Cubs also ended the Padres’ perfect 10-0 start at home.

“We did make ourselves a hard [team to] beat,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “But you’re also kind of frustrated, because we probably feel like there was another game out there we could’ve won on this trip.”

Here are three takeaways from the Cubs’ six-game trip:

1) Rotation’s first test without Steele
The loss of left-hander Justin Steele for the season was undoubtedly a tough blow for Chicago’s starting staff, and this trip offered the first look at how the rest of the rotation would respond.

Over the past six games, the group posted a combined 2.30 ERA with 31 strikeouts against 10 walks in 31 1/3 innings. Lefty Matthew Boyd made two of the starts in that span and held the Dodgers and Padres to five total runs over 11 1/3 innings.

Beyond Boyd, the rotation has Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga and Ben Brown, with Colin Rea stepping up as the fifth starter right now. In Rea’s initial move out of the bullpen and into the rotation, he touched 96 mph and led Sunday’s pitchers (Cubs and Dodgers combined) with nine whiffs in his pitch-count-limited 3 2/3 frames.

“When you have a lot of good veterans in the room, it just kind of is able to stabilize everything,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Obviously, it’s tough losing guys -- especially a guy like Steeley. It’s hard to replace, right? You could argue it’s irreplaceable, what he means to this group. But at the end of the day, that’s why we have depth.”

2) Crow-Armstrong starting to take flight
Padres lefty Wandy Peralta fired a fastball to the top of the zone in the eighth inning on Wednesday and Crow-Armstrong attacked the pitch, sending it arcing high over right field. It dropped into the seats for the young outfielder’s second career homer off a southpaw.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting to do that or feel that off a lefty this year,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s taken me a second to feel really convicted.”

The Cubs’ offense overall had a few players produce well on the trip -- Michael Busch, for example, had a three-game home run streak -- but Crow-Armstrong has looked back in rhythm over the past few days.

Crow-Armstrong’s homer in San Diego gave him seven extra-base hits (three homers, three doubles and one triple) in his past five games. He was hitting .200 (.523 OPS) in his first 16 games before that stretch, in which he has turned in a .429/.429/1.095 slash line in 21 at-bats.

“Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time to figure it out when the season gets going,” Swanson said. “It’s not just balls finding holes. It’s balls getting driven, balls getting hit in the gap, both sides of the field. It’s really fun to watch a player of his caliber really starting to come into his own.”

3) Bullpen shuffle is underway
Beyond Rea sliding to the rotation, the Cubs lost one reliever to injury (Eli Morgan) and optioned another to Triple-A Iowa (Nate Pearson) during this trip. Ethan Roberts, Daniel Palencia and Luke Little rejoined the relief corps as Counsell keeps looking to unlock the right combination beyond the primary late-inning group.

Veteran closer Ryan Pressly looked better on the road trip after a tough start to the season, but the bullpen as a whole is still finding its footing. Porter Hodge and Julian Merryweather have been bright spots early on as well, but expect Chicago to keep testing which arms can fill out the rest of the staff deep into the summer.

“Experience is going to come with more games that we play,” Pressly said. “And we’re going to get even more polished when we go out there and do the things that we know how to do best.”