A gut punch loss after a gut punch day. Sounds about right.
The Diamondback came back late to tie the Cubs, and then hit a walk-off single in the 9th to win it. Fun games when you’re on the other side, but boy do they frustrate you when it’s your team walking home after a loss.
All things considered, you’ve got to feel like that was a really encouraging start from Jason Hammel. The slider looked really good, and he was mostly down in the zone. You don’t want to be giving up three walks over six innings, but the zone was intermittently a little tight tonight (for both sides), so it could have easily gone another way on a couple of those.
[adinserter block=”1″]And, of course, one earned run (on a might’ve-been-an-error single and then a Paul Goldschmidt hit, no less) over six innings is something you’ll take every dang day.
The Cubs’ two runs were mostly a freebie from a temporarily wild Robbie Ray, and the Cubs ran themselves out of a chance to tack on in the middle innings when an Anthony Rizzo grounder turned into an unusual double play – a throw home to stop Dexter Fowler, who’d drifted too far off third, a rundown, a tag of Fowler, and then a throw to first to nail Rizzo, who had, himself strayed from first.
It mattered late, because the Diamondback scored a run in the 8th to tie things up after, once again, Segura and Goldschmidt combined for a run when the Cubs decided to let Pedro Strop challenge Goldschmidt with two outs instead of walking him and taking their chances with David Peralta. Didn’t understand it, if I’m being perfectly honest, and not just because it didn’t work out. Then the walk-off happened in the 9th.
It wasn’t just about the late runs, though …