Some losses are worse than others. This one was really quite terrible. The Cubs are trying to stop a losing streak. They got a dominant start from Justin Steele. They had a 4-0 lead. And they lost the game in extra innings. They even put the tying run on second base before the final out just to rub it in.
There are parts of this game where I’d be ripping heavily on the Cubs (bats went quiet after early scoring, the defense was terrible again, how are you gonna let Rowan Wick talk you into leaving him in the game when he gets obliterated on the pitching arm by a line drive, etc.). But I’ll save something soft for up top: generally speaking, the bullpen has been so absurdly good this year for the Cubs that today, when they blow one, I can shake that part off pretty easily. It happens, even to the great bullpens, and when the defense lets you down in the process … shrug. I can’t be mad at the bullpen right now.
But that other stuff in the parenthetical? Yeah. I’m mad. This is little league shit:
The batter scored on this play. 😐 pic.twitter.com/bFAHIVApWf
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 21, 2022
By the way, that was right after Wick got clobbered on the arm.
Naturally, the Cubs would go on to score two runs in the bottom of the 10th, meaning that the free run the Cubs gave the Diamondbacks was the winning run. Cubes.
Even worse than the loss, Willson Contreras left the game with a tight hamstring, so we’ve got that to worry about, too. I’m also not convinced Wick is gonna be fine, or that Christopher Morel (who went knee-to-knee on a slide in the 9th) is totally fine, either.
Today just sucked. Horribly. Except maybe for the SchWisdom homers and, of course, this: