SAN FRANCISCO — You know, the Cubs really should have won this game. A 4-3 loss to the Giants went into the books, the first time all year the Cubs have been swept in a three-game series.
First inning? A run in, runners on first and third with one out — Nico Hoerner hits into a double play.Third inning, runner on, one out — Ian Happ strikes out, Kyle Tucker caught stealing, inning over. Eighth inning: Matt Shaw on second with a double, Michael Busch hits a ball that if it’s a couple of feet higher,
it’s a run-scoring single. Instead, Casey Schmitt grabs it and doubles Shaw off second.
Sigh.
Let’s rewind to the beginning. With one out in the first, Tucker doubled down the left-field line. He scored on this single by Happ [VIDEO].
Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with a single, with Happ taking third. Still only one out, even a fly ball gives the Cubs a second run.
But Nico hit into a double play, inning over.
The Giants took the lead in the bottom of the first. Shōta Imanaga’s control is usually impeccable, but he issued a one-out walk to Rafael Devers. Willy Adames followed with a home run to make it 2-1 Giants.
The Cubs got that run right back in the third. With one out, Dansby Swanson went deep [VIDEO].
The game remained 2-2 into the sixth. As previously noted, the Cubs ran themselves out of a scoring possibility in the third. Tucker was on first with one out when Happ struck out. Tucker was caught stealing to end the inning [VIDEO].
Right after that play, Craig Counsell got himself tossed for arguing balls and strikes [VIDEO].
In the fourth, Hoerner singled with one out. Then he got himself picked off, and Owen Caissie struck out to end the inning.
Happ helped keep the game tied with this catch to end the bottom of the fourth [VIDEO].
Michael Busch gave the Cubs a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth with his 25th home run [VIDEO].
More on Busch’s blast from BCB’s JohnW53:
Michael Busch’s home run made him the third Cub this season to hit 25 (along with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki). The Cubs had not had more than two reach 25 in any season since 2019, when they hit four, tying their team record, set in 2004. The four in 2019 were Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber. In 2004, they were Moises Alou, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Sammy Sosa. The Cubs have had three in 10 other seasons, most recently 2017 and 2018.
Adames matched that in the bottom of the inning, his second home run off Imanaga on the afternoon. Apart from the two homers, Imanaga threw a really nice game. In fact, seven innings, five hits, three runs — a team should win about 75 percent of starts that end that way. Sigh. This game wound up as one of the other 25 percent.
As noted above. Shaw doubled with one out in the eighth. That brought up Busch [VIDEO].
A foot or two higher and that’s a run for the Cubs and the inning is still going. Instead, no runs scored. I wouldn’t blame Shaw for being doubled off — that took a really good catch by Schmitt. About that play, from John:
That double play that Michael Busch lined into in the eight inning was just the Cubs’ second of the season with a runner only on second base.
The first was April 20, at home vs. the Diamondbacks, when Ian Happ lined to the shortstop with nobody out in the 11th inning and Jon Berti was doubled off. One out later, the Cubs lost, 3-2.
Brad Keller threw a scoreless eighth. Tucker walked to lead off the ninth, and one out later it looked like PCA might have a hit, but Jung Hoo Lee made this nice sliding catch [VIDEO].
What are you gonna do? Tip the cap to the other team, they made a nice play.
Daniel Palencia, who had not pitched since Sunday, entered to try to preserve the tie. He got the first out on an easy ground ball to third, but the next three Giants singled and that was that. Personally, I am very happy the Cubs don’t have to play the Giants again this year — San Francisco took five of six from the Cubs and honestly, they are not that good. The ballpark’s nice and Giants fans are friendly. But I can wait till next year to come back to Oracle Park.
The Cubs were just 1-for-3 with RISP and left only two runners on base. The double plays account for a lot of that; it just seemed like they had a lot of chances and didn’t come through.
One last note from John on this unfortunate sweep:
This was Shota Imanaga’s 10th quality start. The Cubs are 5-5 in those games and Imanaga is 4-3. The Cubs are 34-9 in all QS by other pitchers.
Imanaga deserved better. He struck out five [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Shōta’s outing [VIDEO].
The Cubs didn’t lose any ground to the Brewers, who also lost Thursday. The Cubs remain 6.5 games behind the Brewers and one game ahead of the Padres for the top wild card spot. The Padres were idle Thursday.
So a road trip that started out so well with the three-game sweep of the Angels now stands at 3-3. The Cubs will have a chance to improve on that this weekend with a three-game set against the Rockies, but the Rox are a better team now than the one the Cubs swept at Wrigley Field in May, plus the Cubs have had trouble there in recent years. Over the last 11 seasons — since the Cubs returned to contention in 2015 — they are 19-12 against the Rockies at Wrigley, but just 12-16 in Denver, and lost two of three each of the last two years.
Let’s hope that changes this weekend. Cade Horton, who’s been one of the best pitchers in the league for the last month or so, will start the series opener. Germán Márquez goes for the Rockies. Game time Friday is 7:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
