Enhanced Box Score: Reds 5, Cubs 3 – July 6, 2016
As I sit here typing in a McDonald’s parking lot on my way to Chicago, I can’t help but think, “Surely this is the low point of this stretch for the Cubs. Getting beat in two of three at home by a truly brutal Reds team, completely shut down by one of the worst bullpens in baseball history, and failing in so many phases of the game … this is it, right?”
Then I remember why I’m in this parking lot. Losing the makeup game tomorrow night to the Braves … that would be even lower.
And then losing a couple or a few in Pittsburgh to a streaking Pirates team?
Ugh. Don’t go there, Brett. Not yet.
Adam Warren pitched reasonably well in his fill-in start, but it was bullpen stalwart Trevor Cahill – the guy who was supposed to be the sixth starter, if you’ll recall at the outset of the season – who served up a three-run homer in the seventh inning to give up the lead. That lead wasn’t especially large, though, as the Cubs’ bats didn’t generate much offense on a day that was actually really conducive to offense.
If I’d told you this morning that Warren would fill in by allowing just one run through five innings, you’d feel pretty good, right? I certainly would have. Sigh.
Just a no good, rotten day, my friends. Where it goes from here, I can’t quite say for sure. I still think the Cubs are mighty talented, at least.
