I’m running out of recap ideas here, folks, help me out?
Every day, the Cubs find a new way to lose. Wednesday, it was a 3-2 loss to the Rockies in walk-off fashion at Coors Field. The Cubs have eight walk-off wins this year, but this was just their second walk-off loss (the other was to the White Sox May 17 on the South Side).
This after Shōta Imanaga manages to throw five shutout innings, not allowing a home run. It was the first time since May 2 that no one went deep on Shōta. So, yay?
Once again,
the offense was impotent. Over the first eight innings the Cubs had just three hits. There were facts coming from both me and BCB’s JohnW53 had the Cubs held on to that 1-0 lead, because that sort of thing — winning 1-0 in Coors Field, and winning with just three hits — is pretty rare.
Alas, that did not happen.
Here’s how things did happen in this one.
Imanaga threw a lot of pitches in the first inning — 22 of them — and that set the tone for him. He wound up leaving after five, and maybe if he has a more efficient first, he could have gone six, which might have set up the bullpen in a different way.
Meanwhile, the starter with the worst ERA in MLB, Michael Lorenzen, who entered the game with an 8.01 ERA in 60.2 innings (and over 9.00 at home), retired the first nine Cubs he faced on just 32 pitches. This is the way things have been going for the Cubs recently. As noted by Jim Deshaies on the broadcast, it was clear the Cubs’ game plan against Lorenzen was to be aggressive early in the count. Clearly, this did not work. Nothing is working for Cubs hitters right now.
Pete Crow-Armstrong broke up any bizarre thoughts of a no-hit bid by Lorenzen by leading off the fourth with a triple [VIDEO].
Moisés Ballesteros batted next and scored PCA on this groundout [VIDEO].
The Cubs thus had their first lead since Saturday. And in that game, they led only on the last play of the game. They didn’t have a lead all day Friday, either, and last Thursday in the walk-off win against the A’s, again the Cubs didn’t lead until the last play of the game.
That, my friends, is an offense that, per Monty Python, is:
I mean, if you can’t laugh at this, what can you do?
Oh, yes, back to baseball. The Cubs defense helped out Imanaga. Check out this nifty play by Dansby Swanson in the fourth [VIDEO].
Imanaga did something that’s been pretty rare for any Cubs pitcher. From John:
Shōta Imanaga became just the fourth Cubs starter to not allow a run in at least five innings at Coors Field.
The last had been Cole Hamels, who went seven innings on June 12, 2019. This was the Cubs’ 19th game at Coors since then. It was their 110th overall.
The two before Hamels were Mark Prior, on Aug. 5, 2004 (six innings) and John Lackey, on May 9, 2017 (seven).
Imanaga struck out seven [VIDEO].
And a bit more on Imanaga’s outing [VIDEO].
Phil Maton entered to throw the sixth. This did not fill me — or likely, you — with confidence. Maton gave up a couple of hits and departed for Caleb Thielbar, who finished off that inning and the seventh without the Rockies scoring.
The Cubs still could not get any more runners across the plate.
Jacob Webb, who’s been the Cubs’ most reliable reliever lately, entered to throw the eighth. This is exactly how Craig Counsell has arranged his bullpen.
Everything was done right, and everything went wrong. With one out, pinch-hitter Edouard Julien singled. That brought up TJ Rumfield, who homered. Webb had not given up a home run since April 27, to Gavin Sheets of the Padres. In the interim he’d thrown 17.1 innings in 15 games and faced 71 batters with no one going deep and an ERA of 0.51. He hadn’t allowed a run in his last 11 outings.
What are you gonna do? It was the right guy in the right situation and it just didn’t work.
The Rockies lead did not last long. Ian Happ absolutely demolished a baseball leading off the ninth [VIDEO].
That ball went a long, long way [VIDEO].
Seiya Suzuki followed with a single. A rally?
Nope. Nico Hoerner hit into a double play and Michael Conforto struck out.
Daniel Palencia, another usually reliable reliever, tried to send the game to extras. Obviously, he did not. A walk, a single, a single and the game was over.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments. He looks and sounds utterly defeated. [VIDEO].
The Cubs, as hinted in the headline, dropped all the way to .500 after being 15 games over at 27-12. Since then: 7-22. Yeah, it’s bad. How bad? BCB’s JohnW53 has the gory details:
This is the 19th of 65 seasons in the National League’s Expansion Era in which the Cubs reached 15 games above .500 at any point — 29.2 percent, fewer than one third.
It is only the fourth of the 19 in which the Cubs later fell back to .500, and they did it this year in the fewest games of the four: 29, from 27-12 to 34-34.
It took them 37 games in 1973, from 45-30 to 56-56; 54 games in 1985, from 34-19 to 54-54; and 109 games in 1977, from 34-19 to 81-81.
The dates on which the Cubs reverted to .500 were Aug. 6 in 1973, Aug. 11 in 1985 and Oct. 2 in 1977.
In the 18 seasons before this one in which the Cubs reached 15 games above .500, they finished an average of 17 games above. They wound up seven below in 1973, 13 below in 1985 and zero in 1977.
One last note from me on that fall to 81-81 in 1977: The Cubs had to lose their last five games to accomplish that “feat.”
Is there still time to turn this around? Of course there is. There are 94 games remaining. Will this Cubs team do that? There haven’t been any signs of this. Some of you will say, “Just break the team up and sell.” Now you tell me which of the Cubs veteran players, all of whom are slumping badly, would be of any interest to any other team? Ian Happ, maybe, but as you know:
I suppose he might waive that, but what would the Cubs get in return?
All they can do is pick up the pieces and try again Thursday. Before I get to the details of Thursday’s game, here’s the song the headline to this article comes from:
Perhaps the Cubs can begin the climb back from .500 starting Thursday in Coors Field. Edward Cabrera will start for the Cubs and Ryan Feltner goes for the Rockies. Game time is 2:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
