MILWAUKEE — If you’ve enjoyed watching the emotion Cubs left-handed reliever Ryan Rolison has shown lately, you can thank his wife, Lauren. When Rolison came home from work one night, she shared a brutally honest opinion of her husband’s pitching.
“You’re kind of boring to watch,” she said.
“That was a wake-up call for me to flip the switch and get back to what I’m capable of,” Rolison told the Sun-Times on Monday. “Talking to her and some of the pitching coaches, we’re emptying the tank now. It’s playoff-push time. I’m thinking you’re going to see a lot more fire.
“I think that I pitch better when I have a little edge to me, a little fire. I was sick of the way I was throwing the ball.”
But there’s more to Rolison’s recent success than letting his emotions out. Though he’s putting up good numbers overall, Rolison said he had been frustrated with his performance since the All-Star break, particularly against right-handed hitters.
“[They] were killing me on some pitches,” he said. “With them, I feel like I got too predictable. So we went back and broke down some of the numbers of what my sequences are for them, mixing in some other pitches. We’ve seen progress with that the past few outings.”
Those include earning a save against the Brewers last week with a perfect ninth inning in which Rolison induced a weak groundout from righty Andrew Vaughn. He also earned a win — his eighth — against the Marlins over the weekend, striking out righty pinch hitter Agustin Ramirez, though he did allow a double to Esteury Ruiz, another righty pinch hitter.
“I’ve been pretty good all year against lefties, but if I can limit slug against the right-handed hitters to get to a lefty …,” said Rolison, who figures to get more looks in high-leverage spots. “Throwing the ball with confidence, trusting my stuff in the zone, has been the biggest thing. Not trying to be perfect out there and just being very aggressive in the zone.”
Rolison said he’s a different pitcher this year than he was as a rookie last year with the Rockies, and the numbers show that. This year, he has a 2.89 ERA in 56 innings. Last year, he had a 7.02 ERA in 42 ⅓ innings.
“It kind of looks like two different pitchers, from confidence to arsenal, from velocity,” Rolison said. “I’ve thrown my sinker a lot in the second half, and it’s been really successful against left-handed hitters. I think that you’re going to see a lot more sinkers to righties.”
And a lot more emotion to everyone.
Swanson nearing ramp-up
Shortstop Dansby Swanson continues to progress in his recovery from a strained left oblique.
“Everything is good with Dansby,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We are probably getting closer to hopefully putting a final schedule together. I think he will progress to the higher-velocity hitting as we get home this weekend. Then I think we’re ready to start talking about playing in games.”
Swanson left the game Aug. 16 with the injury. If he were to return next week on the homestand, he’d miss almost exactly a month, at the low end of the time he was projected to miss.
Notes
The Cubs’ trip from Miami was affected by the crash of an Amazon cargo plane that overran a runway and killed five people, forcing a ground stop. Their charter was diverted to Fort Lauderdale, and travel director Vijay Tekchandani worked some magic to get everyone’s luggage moved from Miami.
• Left fielder Ian Happ returned to action Monday after being scratched Sunday because of a bruised knee. He pinch-hit for Tyrone Taylor in the sixth and stayed in the game. Happ didn’t start because the Brewers started a left-hander, Robert Gasser.
• Right-hander Shelby Miller pitched in back-to-back games for the first time in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, combining for one inning Friday and Saturday at Triple-A Iowa. Counsell said Miller came out of it feeling good.
