NEWSLETTER
The first inning was such a perfectly awful mix of the Cubs’ batters getting overpowered on three strikeouts, the Cubs defense farting away outs and extra bases, perfectly-place balls going for hits, and then an overturned double-play (during the commercial break!) that lead to another run. It set the tone for the night. A bad tone. A tone that sounded like the second straight night getting blown out by the Brewers.
The bats once again just had nothing at all doing, including a career high three strikeouts from Nick Madrigal, which really stood out. He just doesn’t do that, so it kinda summed things up with this offense right now. Struggling.
Seiya Suzuki is in that “adjustment” phase we talked about at length before he was hot to start the season – it was always coming, even if it took the league figuring him out a bit – and I will have PLENTY of patience for it. But the thing where he takes strike three right down the absolute middle even after a long at bat is really weird, and it’s gonna have to stop soon-ish. We talked recently about how is passivity could start working against him, and it sure seems like it’s happening. (I can’t tell if he is just guessing wrong sometimes, or if he’s just let discipline become passivity because the pitchers are different than he’s used to seeing (so he’s questioning his own swing decisions in the split second when he needs to trigger)).
Justin Steele had some individually well-executed pitches, as he does, but he was also very inefficient (as he sometimes is). Partly the defense’s fault, partly his own:
Justin Steele had some good stuff working tonight (10 whiffs on 74 pitches), and his defense let him down repeatedly. So really not a terrible outing when you see the context. That said, some of the inefficiency was due to wildness. pic.twitter.com/P0vpDJEkvy
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) May 1, 2022
We know that there was always a possibility that Steele was going to be best as a short burst guy (like what Keegan Thompson has been this year), and this year so far I have wondered about how he seems to be wearing down at that 50+ pitch mark. Tonight might be a bit excusable because of the very long and stressful first inning (defense’s fault, not really his), but it’s been a trend that goes beyond just tonight.
Locke St. John’s Cubs debut was at least interesting to see visually – his delivery isn’t quite sidearm, but it’s like three-quarters with funk, and coming from the extreme third base side of the rubber, which is weird for a lefty? Maybe it’s just the success that Scott Effross has had with his unique extreme brand of funk, but I was intrigued. Brewers didn’t look comfortable. Strikeouts. Bad swings. Oh wait. That was just the first four batters, which is when I started typing this paragraph. After that he gave up THREE STRAIGHT barrels, including two homers, one of which was to Christian Yelich, who is terrorizing the Cubs after previously being so very broken.
This is the 1st time Christian Yelich has homered in back-to-back games since Aug 6-7, 2020
Last time in 3 straight was 2019…in case relevant tomorrow
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 1, 2022
