For the fourth straight game, the Chicago Cubs were dominated by the opposing starting pitcher – a starting pitcher who’d come into the game with thoroughly meh numbers on the season – and ultimately lost.
I know you. You will not take this well. I am only taking it passably. Because it’s frustrating.
Jon Lester was solid, even as he battled against a bizarre, uneven strike zone. The only damage he yielded in the game came on a Giancarlo Stanton that pretty much no one else in baseball could have hit (looked like a lazy fly ball to the opposite field off the bat), and a Marcell Ozuna homer that came after Lester had literally thrown four straight strikes in the zone, of which only one was actually called a strike. Pedro Strop ran into some two-out trouble in the 8th inning, giving up a couple, and that was that.[adinserter block=”1″]
But it’s the offense that was probably the real culprit in this one, failing to show up again. I am not angry or concerned about it necessarily – the Cubs are missing some pieces, obviously – but it is frustrating to watch. They managed to load the bases in the 9th with one out, keeping things interesting, but couldn’t bring in the runs.
The Cubs now have their first four-game losing streak of the year …