Another one-run loss for the Cubs, who are the best in baseball at losing one-run games.
Jeff Samardzija had decent stuff tonight, for the most part, but good at bats by the Red Sox drove up his pitch count, and, by the end of the 5th inning, he was already at 95 pitches. Luis Valbuena provided all of the Cubs’ offense on a three-run homer.
Alfonso Soriano was excoriated by the fans after failing to run out a liner that was dropped by Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks. Soriano was thrown out easily, though he may have been thrown out had he run hard out of the box, anyway. That said, dude has to stop doing stuff like that if he wants the fans on his side. He does everything else right, believe it or not.