After matching their season-high 10-game winning streak, the team has now followed with a season-high four game losing streak. Spoiler alert, the last (full) season where the Cubs didn’t have a losing streak longer than four games was back in 2003. I didn’t take pen to paper (or make a spreadsheet), but the Cliff’s Notes are this. In the seasons where the Cubs are at least decent, the longest losing streak tends to check in right around five. When the Cubs are bad, that losing streak tends to be
several games longer. As I’m pretty confident this is a good Cub team, I’d feel comfortable betting that the Cubs win at least one of their next two games. This is the hard-hitting analysis you come here for. Right?
Here’s the thing, if you were making Bingo cards, not just for the Cubs, but any MLB team, one of the spaces would be “whole team slumps for multiple games simultaneously.” This is the least fun period of time for any team. “Bullpen blows multiple games consecutively” is at least fun for a bit. Save for some pitching highlights, these four games have been brutal. The whole offense has completely vanished. This stretch has really tanked the Cubs season numbers. I mean, they’ve fallen from first place in the whole league in on-base percentage to second. Their on-base plus slugging still sits in the top five. That is to say that even with this painful stretch built into the recipe, they are still an elite offensive team.
This is definitely unfortunate. It’s doubly unfortunate when Shōta Imanaga is as excellent as he was Wednesday night. You really hate for that start to go to waste. You hope, at least, that maybe a well-rested bullpen lets you go after Thursday’s game a little more aggressively and it helps you snap this skid against a terrific Braves team.
My son asked me several times this year, largely in jest, if I ever got tired of writing about win after win. I will say this. I never actually heard any of the sports talk or print media people actually say that they preferred a little losing from time to time. I think some of that is overblown. Sure, sometimes, amidst a skid, certain storylines become available that might generate a little extra attention. I suspect most of them really hope for their local team to make a deep run every year and that maybe they’ll get to go to some big games and cover them. For me? I’ll take a win every single day and I’ll find something to talk about. I promise. So any time they want to get a long winning streak going, I’m here for it. I’d certainly like to write about one championship team before I’m done doing this.
Three Positives:
- Shōta Imanaga pitched into the eighth inning, throwing less than 100 pitches. He allowed five hits, no walks and just two runs. Pitching for this team, that’s almost always going to be enough.
- Alex Bregman had two of the four Cub hits.
- Ian Happ drew a pair of walks. It’s not flashy, but he’s tied for seventh in walks among all MLB hitters.
Game 43, May 13: Braves 4, Cubs 1 (27-16)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.242). 7 IP, 24 BF, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 R, 6 K (L 4-3)
- Hero: Nico Hoerner (.023). 1-4, RBI
- Sidekick: Ian Happ (-.002). 0-2, 2 BB
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Phil Maton (-.295). IP, 5 BF, 3 H, 2 R, K
- Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.185). 0-4
- Kid: Moisés Ballesteros (-.115). 0-4
WPA Play of the Game: Mike Yastrzemski batted with runners on first and second and one out in the eighth inning, the game tied. He doubled and a run scored, though the Cubs did throw the other runner out trying to score. (.189)
Cubs Play of the Game: Nico Hoerner batted with runners on first and second and one out in the fifth. He singled and the Cubs tied the game. (.134)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Game 42 Winner: Alex Bregman received 89 out of 107 votes.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
- Michael Busch/Shōta Imanaga +13
- Michael Conforto +12
- Dansby Swanson -8
- Matt Shaw -9
- Seiya Suzuki -17
Current Win Pace: 101.72 wins
Up Next: The third and final game of this series Thursday night. I’ll start by booing the Braves for scheduling a night game for the Cubs on travel day. They are at least travelling back to Chicago to play the White Sox on Friday night on the south side. Still, it’s always nice to be able to play and get out of town early.
Ben Brown (1-1, 1.82, 29.2 IP) makes his second start of the season (25th career) after a very successful stint as a multi-inning reliever for the team. Last time out, he surprised me by going one more inning than I thought possible for him on three days rest. He threw four no-hit and scoreless innings against the Rangers in the last game won by the Cubs. With the off day Monday, he has a full five days of rest between starts. He threw 46 pitches last Friday, a number he’d topped twice out of the pen coming out of spring training. I’d think you’d probably let him try to get up around 60 in this one. As noted in the open, the Cubs have a pretty rested pen heading into this one and can deploy it aggressively to chase a win here.
37-year-old Chris Sale (6-2, 2.20, 49 IP) makes his ninth start of the season. Those are some old school numbers. A decision in every appearance and more than six innings per start. Age doesn’t appear to be slowing down the former 13th overall pick by the White Sox in 2010. He was a tough luck loser in his last start, allowing two runs on five hits and no walks in seven innings in Los Angeles against the Dodgers last Friday. In less than a week, this will be the second opposing starter who will be one day printed on Hall of Fame ballots and have at least some discussion. Simply put, this doesn’t get any easier.
Find a way to sneak out of Atlanta with one and stop the skid.
Go Cubs.
