NEWSLETTER
Things started off so nicely with that Cody Bellinger three-run home run. Sigh.
Staked to that three run lead, Drew Smyly came out and immediately walked the first Reds batter. It was one of those things where it just FELT like you predict ugliness was to follow. And it did, in the form of cheap hit after cheap hit (we’ve very recently been through this before: don’t walk guys, and the cheap hits don’t hurt as much; and also, that’s the risk of a contact-management profile). The lead vanished as quickly as it took shape, and it happened again when the Cubs briefly took the lead again in the 5th. Three runs in the top of the inning, three runs in the bottom of the inning. Can’t have that.
Also, just broadly speaking? This year’s Cubs team cannot be losing games where they score 6+ runs. Regardless of opponent (though it’s even worse tonight). Just can’t do it, or this whole thing falls apart very quickly. Waaaaay before the trade deadline.
The Cubs got the first two batters of the inning on in the 7th as they tried to come back, but then Patrick Wisdom was trying to bunt for some reason (if he’s too hurt to swing, why was he still in the game? but then he swung in his next AB, so what the heck?), and then Eric Hosmer was left in to face a lefty (he doesn’t have huge splits, but you do have bench options). Instead it was Edwin Rios, the next batter, who got pinch-hit for by Luis Torrens. I don’t get that one, especially since Torrens can play first base. And not that he’s been a world-beater with the Cubs, but Nick Madrigal was available on the bench if you needed him to face a lefty and come into the game at third base (instead he later pinch ran for Hosmer?). It was odd. All of it was odd.
Naturally the Cubs put two more on in the 9th just to give us the fake rally, but Miles Mastrobuoni’s line drive up the first base line was caught by a lightly-leaping Jason Vosler. Awful loss over.
