NEWSLETTER
It’s been a minute since I’ve had one of these games that just grinds me to a pulp, but today’s sure did.
The Cubs got out to an early lead, though squandered a couple opportunities to really blow the doors off the thing early. The Cubs then lost that early lead, not solely through their own screw-ups, but by way of the Brewers scoring, repeatedly, on some really dinky-ass hits. Meanwhile, the Cubs had multiple quality shots that found gloves. It’s just how it felt to me.
Then, after Steven Souza tied things up in the 8th, the Cubs had a chance to walk it off in the 9th. But Kris Bryant’s leadoff single went squandered, the Brewers scored twice in their half of the 10th, the second of which came on yet another dingleberry nothing groundball. The Cubs scored the freebie run in their half, but not another. Game over. Urge to fight rising.
Colin Rea’s start was mostly fine, all things considered for a fill-in guy, but it felt like it underscored why he might be best in relief. When starting, he doesn’t get that extra couple MPH on his fastball, and his cutter didn’t quite seem to have that swing-and-miss quality. So he was going for efficient contact, which can be great, as it was for a few innings, but then some of those balls are going to find grass, as they did in the 4th. More on Rea and his role in the days ahead. Nothing that happened today lessened my thinking that he’s a big league contributor, but it reinforced my very early feelings that he’s a guy who plays up enough in relief that he should stick in the pen.
Decent work otherwise by the bullpen today in a long outing (which sucks with two doubleheaders coming). Jeremy Jeffress’s second inning of work was the exception. I guess Casey Sadler’s inning wasn’t great either, but he was hurt by a Jason Kipnis error.
On the whole, the Cubs had plenty of chances to make up for the Brewers’ BABIP luck today, so there’s plenty of blame to go around in addition to the whiny excuses.
Oh well. Moving on.
