Another damn 2-1 series loss. Mike Olt and Junior Lake had nice games at the plate against a righty, which is nice. Anthony Rizzo went deep for the second time, and the Cubs were fighting until the end. There are your positives. A loss, though, is the reward.
Rail if you like, but Edwin Jackson didn’t look too bad today. In the first two innings alone, he had five strikes called as balls, which forced him further into the zone (and netted a walk and a single that should have been strikeouts), and he got hit a fair bit early. Despite that, and despite an inflated pitch count, he came out after a mid-game rain delay and still managed to throw six innings while giving up four earned runs and striking out five. I can’t stop folks from continuing to crave their pound of flesh, but this was not a bad Jackson performance. It wasn’t good, but I’m not sure how anyone watching – and paying attention to his pitches – could say it was a bad outing.
What really stings is what happened after Jackson left the game …