Chicago Sports

Cubs left-hander Justin Steele began strolling off the field before the fly ball to left field came down for the final out of the third inning. Nothing about his demeanor suggested the inning had been a turning point in his start.

Steele, who was challenged early in the season by pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to retire as many batters as he could in three pitches or fewer, had come to expect quick innings from himself.

In the Cubs’ 7-1 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday, Steele’s first game back from the paternity list, he took a couple of innings to regain his rhythm. When he did, however, he retired 11 batters in a row.

”The things that I’ve seen so far with him,” manager David Ross said before the game, ”the evolution [over the past year] is, ‘I found my strengths and been able to home in on that,’ and not searching for changeups and sinkers and both sides of the plate. He’s gotten to his strength and just hammered that and had a lot of success.”

Steele and right-hander Keegan Thompson have shouldered extra responsibility in the last month because the Cubs’ rotation has been hit hard by injuries. Right-hander Marcus Stroman’s and left-hander Drew Smyly’s returns from the injured list in the last week only partially have lightened the load the young starters continue to carry.

Right-hander Kyle Hendricks (strained right shoulder) won’t be back from the 15-day IL soon. Ross said Wednesday he doesn’t expect Hendricks even to start playing catch for at least two to three weeks.

Ross didn’t provide a timeline beyond that. But considering the time it would take for Hendricks to build up and likely go on a rehab assignment, even a middle- to late-August return might be optimistic.

Similarly, left-hander Wade Miley (strained left shoulder) isn’t exactly speeding toward a comeback. He told the Sun-Times he had a cortisone shot in recent weeks, which has seemed to help his progress. But Miley is still on the flat-ground portion of his throwing program.

While their rotation mates have been battling injuries, Steele and Thompson have gone from being the young arms in the rotation to developing into tone-setters.

Steele claimed a rotation spot out of spring training, but Thompson was thriving in a multi-inning relief role to start the season. Ross mused this week about whether Thompson would be starting now if the Cubs’ rotation hadn’t endured so many injuries.

”There’s different stories along the way that are really positive,” Ross said, ”that have come from some of the stuff that the veteran guys being out has shown us.”

Thompson, who is scheduled to start the series opener Thursday against the Mets, has posted a 1.93 ERA in his last five starts.

”Keegan’s earned his right to be in the rotation,” Ross said, regardless of the health of the rest of the Cubs’ starters.

Steele has gone through a similar stretch of success. Since the start of June, he has posted three starts of at least 6 2/3 innings, limiting his opponents to one earned run in each.

Though he allowed four runs (three earned) in the first two inningsagainst the Orioles, his ability to recover, regain his efficiency and get through six innings was a boost to the bullpen. Entering play Wednesday, Cubs relievers led the National League in innings pitched (372).

Steele’s pitch count was approaching 70 through four innings, but he needed only nine pitches to get through the fifth and seven to finish the sixth.

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CLEVELAND — Tony La Russa says his sense of urgency is there every night, as much as it ever was over his Hall of Fame career.

“You treat every game like it’s the last game of your life,” the White Sox manager said Wednesday before the Sox defeated the Guardians 2-1 in a game they urgently needed. “That’s why I don’t feel like anything that was accomplished before matters with this job.”

Needing a win to get within two games of .500 and to stay within five games of the Twins, who walked off the Brewers Wednesday afternoon, the Sox beat Cleveland for only the third time in nine games. Lucas Giolito (6-5) allowed an unearned run in 6 1/3 innings, and Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman (perfect eighth) and Liam Hendriks (perfect ninth, 18th save) were spotless in relief. Jose Abreu and Andrew Vaughn drove in the Sox’ runs.

The Sox head to Minnesota to four games after splitting four against the Guardians thanks to wins in the last two, allowing just one run in those victories.

“Big wins, big wins,” Giolito said. “Considering where we’re at in our division. Splitting the series was big considering how the series started. We have good vibes going into this last series before the break.

“We want to obviously win the series, a sweep would be great. But we have keep playing with energy we brought the last two nights.”

On the day manager Charlie Montoya was surprisingly fired by the Blue Jays with a 46-42 record — the Jays, like the Sox, were considered by many as the favorites in their respective divisions — La Russa was asked if he evaluates his own performance, even with his Hall of Fame resume. The Sox are 43-45.

“You always do. Never stops,” La Russa said. “If you’re preaching accountability for the players you better start with yourself. I think our record should be better so I should manage better.”

La Russa’s performance has come under scrutiny for in-game decisions and lineup construction, and the unexpected lack of offense gives the team a flat appearance in losses that’s never a good look for the manager.

“Literally want to win as much as I ever have as much in my life,” La Russa said.

“But I still respect and admire what’s in [the clubhouse] and how we keep pushing. And I believe it’s coming.”

La Russa has given his starters long leashes in some games but he pulled Giolito with a 2-0 lead after Franmil Reyes singled off the wall and Nolan Jones walked with one out in the seventh. Giolito threw 91 pitches, and had allowed five hits while striking out five.

“Just not going to push him,” La Russa said. “He gave us all he had.”

The move looked right as Lopez entered and retired Owen Miller on a forceout and would have escaped the jam if not for second baseman Josh Harrison’s error allowing the Guardians to get within 2-1.

It was Giolito’s last start before the All-Star break. The right-hander has had an uneven first half, bringing a 5.05 ERA into the game but a 3.86 mark over his previous three starts. He lowered his ERA to 4.69.

Giolito had a good trend going for him — a 4-1 record with a 0.92 ERA in his last nine starts against Cleveland. The Sox haven’t been able to sustain any positive trends, and need one going into the All-Star break following the Twins series.

“We’ve had some games where, ‘what the heck was that about,’ ” La Russa said. “But a lot of times we followed up with real gutsy performance that has kept us hanging around.

But there’s no getting around a losing record, La Russa said.

“No it’s not ok, [to] accept it. We had expectations for a reason. We’ve got talent. And when we get hurt, everybody gets hurt. And you have to win with what you got.

“There is nothing wrong with the guts and chemistry on this team is outstanding.”

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After waiting for his chance to start, striker Jhon Duran is showing why he’s an internationally known prospect. His athleticism, speed and strength have stood out since he was added to the starting lineup, all of which are starkly different attributes than what benched Kacper Przybylko was bringing to the Fire.

Unfortunately for the Fire, Duran’s emergence is probably way too late to save their season.

Duran scored both goals in the Fire’s 2-0 win Wednesday over Toronto FC in front of an announced Soldier Field crowd of 10,450. Signed in Jan. 2021 but ineligible to join the Fire until this year due to FIFA age rules, Duran sat for most of the season as coach Ezra Hendrickson waited for Przybylko to find a scoring groove and show why the team invested so much in the veteran striker.

That hasn’t happened for Przybylko, who was acquired from the Union for $1.15 million in allocation money but has scored just three times. If Duran, 18, keeps up the form he’s shown since taking Przybylko’s spot, the questions will come about whether the switch up top should’ve come sooner, since the win actually moved the Fire’s playoff chances up to 11% per FiveThirtyEight.

Duran, when he wasn’t on the ground after taking hits from Toronto FC players or making sliding challenges to stop their attacks, only fueled that storyline Wednesday with the kind of display the Fire have needed for most of 2022.

In the fourth minute, Duran gave the Fire a 1-0 lead after his pressure created a loose ball that went to teammate Chris Mueller. Mueller then played Duran in, and the young Fire forward used his speed to break free before beating Toronto goalkeeper Quentin Westberg with a cool left-footed finish.

The Fire (5-10-5, 20 points) doubled their lead in the 16th when Brian Gutierrez’s nifty aerial back-heel pass went to Duran just inside the offensive half. With plenty of work to do, Duran outmuscled and outran Toronto’s Chris Mavinga before scoring his second goal of the night, becoming the second-youngest player in team history to score twice in a match.

Whether or not Fire fans should get used to seeing Duran do this remains to be seen.

In October 2020, Duran was listed in The Guardian’s Next Generation 2020 as one of the 60 best young talents in world soccer, putting him firmly on the radar of some of the globe’s biggest teams. Duran has also been clear about his European aspirations, and performances like Wednesday won’t do anything to hurt his stock.

“It’s a city and a league that really help you grow as a player,” Duran told the Sun-Times in January. “They kind of buff you a little bit so you come out shining and as a player that is really helpful so I can come in here and grow as a person, grow as a player, do well and then from here make that leap to Europe.”

Sorting out Duran’s future will be one of many issues for the Fire this winter, but they had other things to worry about against Toronto FC as their season stands on the brink of disaster.

Wednesday night’s match was the Fire’s first since their crushing 3-2 loss to Columbus when they squandered a two-goal halftime lead. But unlike that game, the Fire were able to hold off lowly Toronto to earn their fifth win of the season and move out of last place.

NOTE: Midfielder Gaston Gimenez (yellow card accumulation) and defender Miguel Navarro (red card suspension) were not available. Mauricio Pineda started in place of Gimenez, and Jonathan Bornstein replaced Navarro.

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CLEVELAND — Eloy Jimenez left the White Sox’ game against the Cleveland Guardians Wednesday with tightness in his right leg after making a running catch in the sixth inning at Progressive Field.

Jimenez, who returned to the team July 6 after tearing a hamstring tendon that required surgery on April 26, ran hard to glove Jose Ramirez’ liner to left center field to end the sixth inning, stranding Myles Straw at third base and preserving a 2-0 lead.

Jimenez walked off the field alongside center fielder Luis Robert. After sitting down in the dugout, he went to the clubhouse with training staff.

Jimenez was playing in his eighth game since coming back from the injury, and this was his fifth in left field.

Lucas Giolito took a shutout into the seventh inning. The Sox scored two in the sixth against lefty reliever Sam Hentges on Jose Abreu’s RBI double and Andrew Vaughn’s RBI groundout.

Cleveland righty Aaron Civale left the game after the first inning with right wrist soreness.

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Have You Heard? Chicago Blackhawks make Meghan Hunter the fourth woman in NHL history to be promoted to assistant GM

On June 22, 2022, Meghan Hunter of the Chicago Blackhawks became the fourth woman in history to be promoted to assistant general manager.

This tweet from Frank Seravalli, an NHL reporter, on June 22nd marks the announcement of not only Hunter’s promotion but also Karilyn Pilch to the Director of Player Personnel.

Meghan Hunter has a long history of hockey under her belt already. Along with being a Wisconsin Badger women’s hockey alumni, she has been an assistant women’s hockey coach at Niagra University and the University of Maine, the Director of Group Sales at the London Knights Hockey Club, and if that wasn’t enough already she was the manager of the female national team for Hockey Canada.

According to ESPN, when asked about the decision to promote Hunter, acting GM Brandon Davidson responded, “Our goal is to be best-in-class in all we do, and organizing a structure and defining roles behind the scenes is an important step,” Davidson said in a statement. “I have a lot of faith and trust in this leadership team, along with the staff who works under them, and I look forward to working with our entire group to build a successful team on the ice.”

This isn’t the first of these promotions, and definitely won’t be the last in terms of staff changes for the Chicago Blackhawks.

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Cubs rookie Matt Swarmer is headed back to Triple-A, but this time with a bullpen role in focus.

“There’s growth there,” manager David Ross said of his impression of Swarmer. “He’s still very young in his career. And he’s got to evolve like everybody else, come up, learn how hard it is being able to land that slider for a strike consistently out of the bullpen.”

Optioning Swarmer to Triple-A after the Cubs’ 4-2 loss to the Orioles on Tuesday cleared space on the active roster for the Cubs to activate lefty reliever Daniel Norris (left index finger strain) off the 15-day injured list on Wednesday.

Swarmer, 28, climbed through the Cubs’ farm system as a starter, and he debuted in late May as a rotation fill-in. He had mixed results in five starts and then transitioned into a relief role.

“I was definitely surprised at first,” Swarmer told the Sun-Times a couple weeks ago. “But it’s just a game of adjustments. I’ve got to just get ready faster for these relief appearances.”

Swarmer mostly deploys a two-pitch mix, which is more common for relievers than starters at the major-league level. But his ability to manipulate his slider makes it behave almost like two different pitches.

“That’s his money pitch,” Ross said. “He’s got to be able to land that [in the strike zone] at will. And sometimes when you can’t do that, you’re going to get exposed, especially against teams that don’t chase outside of the zone.”

He’ll have the chance to develop that part of his game in Triple-A.

Hendricks will be a while

It will be “a little bit” before veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks returns from the 15-day injured list, Ross said. He didn’t have an exact timeline but estimated that Hendricks (right shoulder strain) would need at least two to three weeks of rest and rehabilitation before he even started playing catch.

Hendricks is one of two veteran Cubs starters still on the mend as the All-Star break approaches. Lefty Wade Miley continues to progress in his throwing program – he was scheduled for light catch on Wednesday – after shutting it down in recent weeks.

Roberts undergoes Tommy John

Rookie right-hander Ethan Roberts underwent successful Tommy John surgery on Wednesday in Arlington, Texas, the team announced.

“He’s such a good kid,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said last month, when the Cubs announced that Roberts was heading for surgery. “He’s going to come back from this great, and we still expect really big things from him in the future.”

Roberts claimed a spot on the Opening Day Roster, but in late April he landed on the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder. On his road back from the injury, in his first rehab outing, Roberts tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow.

Madrigal slowed

Cubs second baseman Nick Madrigal (strained left groin), after leaving his last rehab outing with groin tightness, is set to remain in Chicago this week. He’ll use the time before the All-Star break to build up extra strength and volume, the team said.

“I think he caught it in time,” Ross said. “I don’t think there’s anything really pressing that he has to take a ton of time off [for].”

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The Blackhawks will not be an offensive juggernaut next season. But at least after Wednesday, they’re on track to ice a full and roughly NHL-caliber roster of forwards.

For starters, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews appear increasingly likely to stick around.

Their agent, Pat Brisson, told TSN’s Pierre LeBrun on Wednesday that “while they’re not necessarily in agreement with the direction the team is taking, they will let the dust settle first and then patiently make the best decisions…[for] their respective careers.”

Toews was practicing in high spirits Wednesday morning at Fifth Third Arena with Hawks skills coaches, Connor Murphy, MacKenzie Entwistle and several other Chicago-based NHL players.

And finally, very few teams are still flush in salary cap space after Wednesday’s activity. That reality means Kane and Toews’ contracts will be difficult to move this offseason even if they do eventually request trades.

In-season next year, most likely at the trade deadline, now appears to be the most plausible time for their Chicago departures.

So pencil Kane and Toews into the first line of a theoretical depth chart. On their wing, the Hawks could either deploy either Domi or Athanasiou, who have both shown upper-end scoring potential in years past, or top rookie Lukas Reichel.

Reichel presents an interesting decision. The Hawks won’t want their top forward prospect toiling away with inadequate wingers on an awful team. He’ll develop best either playing wing alongside Toews and Kane or starring at center in the AHL for yet another season.

Tyler Johnson and Blackwell will be the Hawks’ second- and third-line centers, which will be one of many major weaknesses in this depth chart.

Domi, Athanasiou, Taylor Raddysh, Sam Lafferty and –once he’s re-signed — Philipp Kurashev will presumably rotate around Johnson and Blackwell’s wings. The Hawks would love to see Raddysh and Lafferty maintain the momentum from their encouraging March and April performances.

On the fourth line, Entwistle and Boris Katchouk are fairly sure bets, while Mike Hardman, Reese Johnson and Josiah Slavin will compete for playing time.

Prospect updates

Despite the off-ice buzz, Hawks development camp continued as normal Wednesday, with the prospects participating in on-ice testing drills.

Among the Hawks’ stacked group of defensemen, Ethan Del Mastro and Louis Crevier have flown somewhat under the radar, but they’re worth keeping eyes on.

Both have already signed entry-level contracts, defying the odds for players in their draft positions: Crevier was taken in the seventh round in 2020, Del Mastro in the fourth round in 2021.

Both also have tremendous size: Crevier measured in at 6-8, 219 pounds — and he’s hoping to eventually bulk up to around 235 –while Del Mastro measured in at 6-4, 209 pounds, and said that’ll be roughly his permanent weight.

Del Mastro, in particular, is developing at an exciting rate. After tallying seven points in 57 games for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads in 2019-20, then not playing in 2020-21 due to COVID-19, he exploded for 48 points in 68 games as Mississauga’s captain this past year. He’ll return next season as one of the OHL’s top defensemen.

“I showcased a little more offense and poise with the puck, for sure,” he said. “It’s something I’ve always had in my game. It’s just been about showing it.”

Added Mark Eaton, who’s running the camp for the Hawks: “[Ethan is] filling out, getting stronger and learning how to use that size and reach to his advantage. The sky’s the limit.”

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The Bears have hired Mike Wiley, Jr. as director of player development and mental skills, the Bears announced Wednesday. He will report directly to new general manager Ryan Poles.

Wiley most recently a mental performance coach at Courtex Performance from 2019-22. He has worked as a mental performance coach for Loyola University’s track and field team (2015), Indiana State and Lincoln Memorial University’s men’s basketball teams and the Lipscomb University women’s basketball team.

Wiley is the latest adjustment to the Bears’ football operations staff under Poles, Previously, LaMar “Soup” Campbell was unexpectedly fired as vice president of player engagement around July 1. Campbell was part of the five-person committee that conducted the general manager search and hired Poles.

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The Blackhawks entered the first day of NHL free agency Wednesday needing several experienced forwards to fill out their roster.

They did just that by signing three middle-aged, middle-of-the-road guys in Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou and Colin Blackwell.

Domi and Athanasiou, both wingers, inked identical one-year contracts with $3 million salary-cap hits. Blackwell, a center, signed for two years at $1.2 million per year.

The three of them promptly became the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-highest paid forwards on the Hawks’ books, but they likely won’t be in Chicago for long. It wouldn’t be surprising to see general manager Kyle Davidson try to flip them to contenders for assets at the trade deadline as the Hawks long-term rebuild continues.

Domi, 27, recorded 39 points in 72 games for the Blue Jackets and Hurricanes last season. The son of former NHL enforcer Tie Domi, he has never quite lived up to his draft position (12th overall in 2013) or his 2018-19 breakout season in Montreal (72 points), but he remains a solid middle-six winger.

His fiery competitiveness is his most well-known trait, although he does have some playmaking skill. It’ll be interesting to see him on the same team as Connor Murphy, whom he attacked in a bizarre 2021 in-game incident in Columbus.

Athanasiou, also 27, recorded 40 points in 75 games for the Kings over the last two seasons, missing a large chunk of 2021-22 with an injury. He, too, enjoyed his best career season in 2018-19, when he hit the 30-goal milestone with the Red Wings.

His burning speed is his most well-known trait, checking off the other box — in addition to competitiveness –that Davidson has frequently mentioned as priorities in player evaluation. He’s arguably one of the five fastest players in the NHL.

Blackwell, 29, tallied 20 points in 58 games last season for the Kraken and Maple Leafs, switching teams as part of the blockbuster Mark Giordano trade. A late bloomer who didn’t break into the NHL until 2019, he’s decent on faceoffs –his career faceoff rate is exactly 50% — and experienced with penalty-killing.

On the goaltending side, the Hawks signed Alex Stalock to a one-year contract with $750,000 cap hit. It’s unclear if he’ll enter next season as the backup to Petr Mrazek or if another goalie addition is incoming.

Stalock, 34, struggled mightily last season, posting an .869 save percentage in 17 AHL appearances and .786 save percentage in one NHL game for the Sharks, after missing the 2021 season with myocarditis. He’d previously been a solid backup, going 36-29-11 with a .908 save percentage for the Wild from 2017 to 2020.

The Hawks also inked minor-league forwards Luke Philp and Brett Seney to one-year, two-way contracts worth $750,000 each.

Philp and Seney each scored more than 40 points in the AHL last year and will help support Hawks prospects with the Rockford IceHogs. Seney, with 55 games of previous NHL experience, could be an injury-related call-up if necessary.

Elsewhere around the NHL, Dominik Kubalik signed a two-year contract with the Red Wings at $2.5 million per year –significantly less than the $4 million qualifying offer the Hawks would’ve had to give him to retain his rights.

Collin Delia and Wyatt Kalynuk both signed with the Canucks, and Erik Gustafsson and Henrik Borgstrom both landed on the Capitals. Dylan Strome, Calvin de Haan and Kevin Lankinen haven’t yet found new teams.

Wednesday’s moves leave the Hawks with an estimated $10.6 million in remaining salary cap space with restricted free agents Philipp Kurashev and Caleb Jones left to re-sign.

The Hawks have considered taking on another team’s bad contract to receive a “sweetener” asset, and that remains a possibility even though the Flyers –previously seen as the best match — declared themselves finished for the summer.

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Spending more time at home has certainly made life easier for some Illinoisans.

Less gasoline used, as prices soar at the pump. No more need to worry about office-appropriate outfits. Additional hours with loved ones.

But for those who have been stuck inside with an abusive family member, the “new normal” brought by the pandemic has only exacerbated the attacks. Across Illinois, the problem is getting worse.

Calls to domestic violence hotlines increased in Chicago and the state last year, according to a report released this week by the advocacy organization The Network. Even more grim: Murders and shootings tied to domestic violence incidents in the city increased nearly two-thirds in 2021 from 2020, the “Measuring Safety: Gender-based Violence in Illinois” study revealed.

What makes an already-frightening situation even worse is that limited social interaction — a byproduct of precautionary measures against COVID-19 — and an unpredictable economy have created more obstacles for domestic violence victims to get help, as the Sun-Times’ Andy Grimm recently reported.

Victims deserve to be taken seriously. In many cases, their life may be at stake. Yet in some cases, they simply feel as if police are dismissive of their complaints.

A major step that law enforcement officials can do to gain some of that needed trust is to ensure that firearms are taken out of the homes where domestic violence has taken place — and could occur again.

A domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed when their abusive partner can get his or her hands on a gun, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

So not surprisingly, domestic violence is the most common reason for an Illinois gun owner to have his or her FOID (firearm owner’s identification) card revoked.

That’s just a first step. Unless a weapon is surrendered, potential victims are still at risk — and it happens far too often. While Illinois State Police rescinded more than 11,000 FOID cards in 2021, in only about 4,200 of those cases did gun owners surrender their weapons to authorities, The Network found.

That is unacceptable.

When residents have their FOID card revoked, they are supposed to surrender their card to the local police, get rid of their weapons and complete a Firearm Disposition Record form within a 48-hour time period.

But those prone to violence may not be inclined to transfer their firearms elsewhere — which means it’s up to law enforcement authorities to make sure others are safe from those who can no longer legally own a weapon.

Law enforcement agencies where the FOID card revocations take place must be diligent about conducting the necessary follow-up checks and coordinate their data with state police officials. State police only started tracking who actually got rid of their guns in 2015, after they were questioned about revoked FOID card protocol by the Sun-Times.

Routinely failing to confiscate guns from people who have had theirFOIDcards revoked has potentially deadly consequences.

Nearly a decade ago, Sheriff Tom Dart, frustrated by this inaction, put together a unit to seize guns from residents whoseFOIDcards were revoked in suburbs and unincorporated areas in Cook County.

Last year, this team retrieved 168 weapons and handled nearly 800 FOID revocation cases, making sure that both the card and the weapons were no longer in the possession of the person who had his or her card revoked. So far in 2022, the sheriff’s department seized 75 guns and completed 426 revocation cases.

Dart, in 2013, said he had hoped to “eliminate tragedies” by creating the team that seizes weapons from residents who had their FOID cards revoked.

More of these deadly scenarios can easily be avoided if police in other jurisdictions and state police keep communicating, and make it a priority to take guns away from those who shouldn’t have them.

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