Another day, another miserable experience watching the Cubs do some good things, some bad things, some stupid things, get some bad luck mixed in, and overall just enough to lose. I am just so freaking unhappy, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s very difficult to properly analyze a game. I just sit and seethe as I try to type.
Javier Assad was solid again today, but the bullpen couldn’t quite hold things down from there. That put the Cubs down two in the 9th, and their rally came up 90 feet short (WHY WHY WHY did you send Madrigal on that play?!?!).
The Cubs may have lost anyway, but I can’t in good conscience get through this without mentioning the BRUTAL calls that went against the Cubs in this one. While they were not the entire predicate for the runs in the 4th inning, Assad was the victim of two really bad missed calls in at bats that resulted in run-scoring singles. Later, Seiya Suzki got called out on a pitch waaaaay above the strike zone (in an inning where the Cubs would go on to load the bases and score just once). Later, with two on and no outs, Nick Madrigal clearly (to my eye on replays) got hit on the hand by a pitch, but somehow the foul ball call was confirmed. He bounced out, and then Suzuki doubled. What might have been. Umps definitely effed the Cubs in this one, even if you want to say the Cubs also failed in a lot of ways.
There was a bunch of other enraging stuff in this one, but I gotta take a breath.
Ian Happ, the Ankin Law “Making It Personal” Player of the Game, was responsible for three of the Cubs’ four runs in this one, hitting a two-run homer and then working a fantastic plate appearance against a stud reliever to work a two-out, bases-loaded walk.