What am I supposed to say after a loss like that? I know it’s my job to get into what happened and why, and maybe to package all of it into some meaningful message about the long-term outlook of the franchise … but the Cubs don’t deserve that. Not tonight.
This loss marked the seventh time this season the Cubs allowed an opponent to score at least 10 runs and the third time they’ve let a team score at least 18 runs. It was also their ninth loss in a row. And all of this in front of Jennifer Garner and Alfonso Soriano …. For shame. For shame.
There were a few bright spots, including Christopher Morel’s homer, Ian Happ’s four times on base (including three hits), and Eric Stout’s four Ks in 1.2 IP, but, I mean … whatever. Frank Schwindel pitched AGAIN. It’s not charming anymore. It’s not fun. It’s embarrassing.
I’m so tired of this. And the Cubs – as an organization – should be ashamed.
***Exhale***
I want to move on, but we need to at least briefly touch on Caleb Kilian’s second big league start before going to bed. But do please expect a deeper conversation about it tomorrow.
The short version is that Kilian had almost no control right out of the gate tonight, walking five batters total, hitting another, and uncorking a wild pitch en route to 5 earned runs over 4.0 IP. It was 95+ degrees at the start of this game (heck, it was 90 degrees at the end of this game), and the Padres lineup is no joke, but it was not a good outing. It seems likely that Kilian was over-throwing a bit, perhaps losing his release point, but we can take a deeper look at the data on that tomorrow.
And that’s all I have for you. The Cubs are 23-39, just 2.0 games ahead of the 2012 team that lost 101 games.