Well, the Cubs got the tying run to second base in the 9th inning, but not even Matt Duffy could bring it home tonight.
As good as Jake Arrieta looked in the first two innings, it dissipated over the next three, and the four runs he gave up were all the Nationals would need. The bats didn’t quite have it tonight, and it didn’t help to be without Anthony Rizzo.
The Cubs loaded the bases against Scherzer in the fifth, plating a run in the process, and giving them their best scoring chance of the night. But then Willson Contreras struck out and David Bote popped out to end that opportunity to really change the game. From there, it was just kinda playing out the string until the 9th inning, when the Cubs at least got a dinger from Javy Báez. But just not quite enough.
Tommy Nance looked so good again tonight that it made Dave Martinez want to chuck a base (OK, so the one-to-one correlation there isn’t quite accurate, but Nance DID look really good and one of his strikeouts DID lead to Martinez chucking a base). The whole bullpen did its thing again tonight, because, as we’ve discussed, it’s a dang good group.
Try to win the series tomorrow.