NEWSLETTER
It’s always a bummer when you have the chance to sweep a division rival and you fall short in the finale. Not quite an outrage or something that’s gonna make me chuck my drink. But bummer feels like the right word. Especially when it involves the bullpen blowing a lead.
The Cubs got off to a hot start, with Seiya Suzuki launching his first homer, a three-run shot in the first, and then the bats when pretty quiet.
Marcus Stroman was exactly what you wanted him to be today, giving the Cubs five innings of one-run ball. He gave up a monster homer to Willy Adames, but was otherwise not really in any peril for his day. He left at just 79 pitches (after going groundout, groundout, strikeout in the 5th), and there will be some debate about whether David Ross should’ve let him go another inning. The counters, though, are that it’s still very early in the season, the third time through the order was underway, and maybe Stroman already knew that was his final inning so he was emptying the tank. We don’t know for sure.
I mention all of that, of course, because Jesse Chavez came in and immediately gave up a walk, a double, and a homer, turning a 3-1 Cubs lead into a 4-3 deficit.
The Cubs managed to tie the game back up in the bottom of the inning thanks to an error and two wild pitches, but Daniel Norris gave that run right back in the 7th on a rocket Mike Brousseau homer. We’re in that phase of the season where David Ross and Tommy Hottovy are going to be figuring out the best guys for the various roles. It’ll take some time, and there will be some pain in the interim. We’ve seen this before.
The Cubs then very nearly tied it right back up in the bottom of the 7th – Nico Hoerner would’ve scored on a Jonathan Villar bouncer, but a headfirst slide into first probably slowed Villar down just enough for the replay to go against them. There are *extraordinarily rare* circumstances where the headfirst slide at first can get you there fractionally faster, but you basically have to pull it off perfectly. Not sure Villar did, as there was a bit of a flop and bounce.
From there it was Devin Williams and Josh Hader, and that was that.
