Yesterday’s loss was a tough one to stomach, for a variety of reasons, including the beatability of the opponent, the Cubs’ recent struggles, and, of course, the way the game played out.
The latter is the part that always seems to get to me, as a fan. Had Joey Votto’s three-run homer put the Cubs at seven runs in, say, the fourth inning – and Kris Bryant hit an otherwise meaningless two-run homer in the eighth inning thereafter – I probably choke this one down much more easily. But the emotional swing of seeing Bryant tie the game, only to immediately have the rug pulled out – in large part based on a Bryant error, no less – is rough. But this is what we signed up for, right? (Ha, only after typing that rhetorical remark did I see that Bryant said the same thing about signing up to play the game.)
The Cubs have had so many good wins this year, and overall picture continues to look so bright, that I do find myself able to get over these kinds of losses much more quickly than earlier in the year.
And it does hearten me to see Bryant’s and Joe Maddon’s attitudes about all of this after the game (Cubs.com, CSN). Bryant doesn’t accept any excuses on his behalf about how hard Jay Bruce hit the ball he missed, but he’s also not going to hang his head about the game. Baseball comes with so many games and so many moments that things like this are going to happen. In truth, Bryant played a great game overall yesterday, and zeroing in on one particular moment as losing the game for the Cubs, of course, would be insane. As we discussed yesterday, Bryant has been a freak of a rookie, and it’s all still very, very good.
As we’ve said before: Maddon does a great job of not letting his players buy into the extreme swings in one direction or another – too high or too low – which is what is needed for success over the course of a full season. Let the fans carry the irrational emotional baggage.
I would like to congratulate the Goldschmidt family on the arrival of their first child, and I would also like to encourage Paul to take his time being with his loved ones for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. (Tongue in cheek, obviously, but Goldschmidt did go to be with his family, and there’s a chance he will miss Friday’s game against the Cubs. There might not be a single position player on any team out there in the Cubs’ remaining schedule I’d more want to see the Cubs miss – other than Joey Votto, apparently.)
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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NEWSLETTER
Yesterday’s loss was a tough one to stomach, for a variety of reasons, including the beatability of the opponent, the Cubs’ recent struggles, and, of course, the way the game played out.
