We had to update the site’s publishing software to a new version last night, and although I haven’t yet noticed any immediate issues, it’s possible there will be bugs/conflicts/etc. If you notice anything really messed up in the coming days, please holler at me in the comments (tag me if you can, because that’ll make sure I see it in the back end).
Insert hacky joke about the Cubs’ last two games being full of bugs or needing a software update or some such thing …
Which rough-ness to focus on first: the abysmal pitching this weekend, or the fact that it took 48 at bats for the Cubs to finally get a hit with a runner in scoring position? OK, I’ll start with the pitching. With some better defense, maybe Keegan Thompson’s outing yesterday goes a few innings and only features three or four runs given up. Granting that, it’s not like he looked right, though. For now, he’s chalking it up to mechanical issues, rather than it being a particular issue with him starting versus relieving (Sun-Times):
“I think mechanically we’re not there again,” Thompson said. “So just going back to work in the bullpen between outings and making sure we get things corrected.”
Thompson had been dominant to start the season with a 1.58 ERA in his first eight relief appearances and three starts. In his last three starts, Thompson has allowed 13 earned runs in nine innings, each start shorter than the last.
He said he wasn’t sure if his mechanical issues this time were the same as in his three-inning start in Baltimore last week.
“We’ll have to look at video and see,” Thompson said, ‘‘and just flush this outing and work on the next one.”
He could be right, of course, unless there’s something in the prep and execution for starting that is throwing off his mechanics. Either way, it’s hard to watch a guy who was so dominant in a multi-inning relief role (and in his early starts) struggle as badly as he has the last couple times out. I just have to remind myself that this is all part of an important process: you’re trying not only to figure out what Thompson can and cannot be, but you’re also trying to give him a chance to develop into a starting pitcher by the time the season ends.
I tend to think, particularly with the rampant injuries throughout the rotation, that the Cubs aren’t going to be super quick to pull the plug on Thompson starting because of a couple bad outings. It’s conceivable that he’ll move back out of the rotation if/when Marcus Stroman and/or Wade Miley and/or Drew Smyly return from the IL, especially if the Cubs decide by then that they want Alec Mills taking some pre-Trade Deadline starts (in case they want to show that he can still pull off that part of the swing role).
It’s not good when the best pitching moment of a game is a bit of home run absurdity, but this is actually kinda wild:
This 35.1 MPH Frank Schwindel pitch is the slowest (known/measured) MLB pitch to ever get hit for a home run! pic.twitter.com/oSO3sLnUyo— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 12, 2022
Schwindel allowed just that one run in his inning of work, the fewest runs allowed by any of the Cubs’ five pitchers on the day. That also seems not good!
So much lovely history:
For only the 8th time in franchise history, the Cubs have recorded multiple games with 18 or more runs allowed within a season.
They've also did it 3x in 1975 and 2x in 2010, 1999, 1977, 1974, 1957 and 1922.#Cubs allowed 18 runs today at Yankees and 20 runs May 26 at Reds.— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) June 12, 2022
As for the hitting side of things, one hit with runners in scoring position in the last 49 tries is some wow-worthy stuff (thanks for ending it, Ian Happ!). It’s so bad that we’re not quite sure where 0-48 winds up, historically speaking. But it’s at least been decades! Per NBC, it’s the longest streak in Cubs history, and Cubs historian Ed Hartig couldn’t find a longer streak in baseball going back at least 70 years. So much history for the Cubs this weekend. Um. Lol?
Happ, who also homered and tripled in the game, continues the best season of his career. He’s now hitting .275/.378/.466/134 wRC+ on the season, with an absolutely remarkable 19.6% K rate.
Happ, 27, is under team control for one more season via arbitration after this year, is going to be a very interesting Trade Deadline conversation (I suspect he’ll fall into the “hey, the Cubs will listen, but they’re not pushing” category), and also a very interesting extension conversation after the season. Happ has said that he’d love to stay with the Cubs for as long as he can, and obviously you’d love to keep this version of the bat around for a long time. The tricky part is the coming wave of corner outfielders in the farm system, and the overall ability to more easily replace a left fielder (via promotion, or trade, or free agency) than other spots. Not a conversation for today, but it’s probably gonna come up in conjunction with trade rumors in July.
David Ross trying to talk his way through an 18-4 drubbing, and it feels like you can just sense that he is bumming. He’s not necessarily wrong, though, on how an early big deficit can turn into a laugher because of the way the bullpen gets used:
To leave you on a much happier note, this is absolutely outstanding in every way:
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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