TORONTO — Cubs left-hander Justin Steele’s consistency this season makes it easy to forget how new he is to the majors.
After his start Saturday, he had the second-best ERA (2.79) among qualified National League pitchers, trailing only the Padres’ Blake Snell. And, for what it’s worth, he was tied for the most victories in the majors (13) with the Phillies’ Taijuan Walker.
Now remember that this is only Steele’s second full season as a starter.
‘‘His maturity, his growth, his career just continues to evolve,’’ manager David Ross said after the Cubs’ 5-4 victory against the Blue Jays kept them 2.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central. ‘‘And you see him getting better every time out. That slider — [the] depth in those first two strikeouts — really stood out to me.’’
Steele already had surpassed his previous career high in innings, which he had set last season with 119. After holding the Blue Jays to three runs in five innings, Steele’s total this season is 126.
‘‘I definitely learned a lot from last season and even the season before,’’ he said. ‘‘And I put a lot of work into this offseason in preparing my body to go 162 [games] and hopefully more. I feel like I’m in a good spot right now.’’
Steele’s average fastball velocity had been ticking down recently, but it was back up to 92.5 mph Saturday. And he struck out Whit Merrifield and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first inning on that slider Ross mentioned. Both were down and in, moving toward the right-handed hitters’ back foot. Catcher Yan Gomes had to block the last pitch to Merrifield, and he still swung.
‘‘Felt really good with it as far as throwing it for strikes when I needed to, getting it [to the] back foot, on the plate, just moving around the zone,’’ Steele said.
Between the Cubs’ day off Thursday and Javier Assad making another spot start in place of injured Marcus Stroman on Friday, Steele got an extra day of rest this turn. The Cubs have even more flexibility coming up to build in a little extra rest if they want to do so. They have two days off this week, and Stroman is penciled in to return Wednesday.
Now would be the time to do it — before they make their final push for a playoff berth.
Those days off will be a welcome change for the pitching staff as a whole. The three pitchers at the back end of the bullpen — Julian Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr. and Adbert Alzolay — are throwing in high-leverage situations more consistently than they’ve experienced before. Merryweather has just about doubled his previous high in major-league innings pitched this season.
‘‘We all lean on each other a lot,’’ Merryweather said after throwing a scoreless eighth inning. ‘‘We kind of talk about, ‘Hey, how are you feeling? How are you feeling today?’ and find ways to get our bodies ready each day. And you see when the game’s on the line, we have our guys in there where everyone’s ready every time.’’
The bullpen has settled in as a reliable unit with consistent roles. Alzolay has converted 12 save opportunities in a row.
‘‘They’ve just been doing an unbelievable job out there, coming in and shutting the door, keeping the game where it’s at,’’ Steele said.
Steele himself has been consistent all season. Whereas one of his main goals at the beginning of last season was pitching deeper into games, he has had only two outings of less than five innings this season and has put himself in the Cy Young conversation.
He has done so with mostly two pitches, his four-seamer and slider. But he has been playing around with other secondary pitches.
‘‘I think there’s even more there,’’ Ross said. ‘‘You’re gonna see him continue to be even more efficient at times, and I just think there’s still tricks and stuff that he hasn’t even tapped in on yet.’’
