NEWSLETTER
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Cubs played some sloppy defense, Javier Assad was good, the offense couldn’t get much going against a pitcher they should’ve hit just fine, and Adbert Alzolay gave up a game-winning home run to a left-handed batter.
Shrug. Sigh. Etc.
I don’t feel any particular emotion very strongly after this loss. I was a lot more frustrated on Sunday night, for example. But this has been a pretty tiring stretch. Like, even last night’s win, while nice, came after the Cubs were no-hit into the 8th inning. An the Cubs have scored just 9 runs total over their last four games. It stinks. They’re missing Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki so badly.
Now, I could very easily find some positives for you. Mike Tauchman had another two hits (including a double), Christopher Morel looks like he may be starting to come out of his slump, and Javier Assad delivered yet again: 5.0 IP, 5H, 1ER, 0BB, 1K (that was the best part).
But it’s a lot easier to find the negatives. Patrick Wisdom played sloppy defense and didn’t contribute meaningfully against a lefty pitcher, Dansby Swanson had another throwing error (partly Wisdom’s fault, but still …), Nico Hoerner’s little skid continued (2 hits in his last five games) with an 0-4 performance, Ian Happ looks completely lost at the plate, Swanson does too. And, of course, Alzolay struggled in the exact same way he has all season and it led to an eventual loss (not that you should expect to win many games by scoring 1 run before the ninth inning). I don’t know. I don’t have much more for you than that tonight. Just a ho-hum loss for a team missing a whole lot of firepower from its offense.
