This one, I am sure, you had fairly high confidence in the Cubs’ chances, what with Clay Holmes on the mound. Holmes had an ERA of 0.36 over his last four starts and had been solid all year between the Mets and Cubs rotations.
Welp. Holmes not only had his worst start as a Cub, it was the worst of his entire career, allowing eight runs in 4.1 innings. Despite Pete Crow-Armstrong smashing his 40th home run of the season, the game wound up a blowout, 10-3 in favor of the Marlins.
This game was close,
for a while, at least. No one scored in the first, and then the Marlins pushed across a pair in the bottom of the second. Holmes had trouble with command the entire afternoon, throwing only 46 strikes in 80 pitches, and there was a walk involved in that two-run Marlins rally.
The Cubs got one of those runs back in the top of the third. Carson Kelly led off with a single and Tyrone Taylor’s double moved him to third.
PCA’s sacrifice fly scored Kelly [VIDEO].
The Cubs then tied the game up in the top of the third. Alex Bregman led off with a walk he received from a successful ABS challenge [VIDEO].
Michael Conforto followed with a single, with Bregman taking third, and it looked like it might be a crooked number inning for the Cubs.
Only one run scored, though, when Nico Hoerner hit into this double play [VIDEO].
The Marlins took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a home run by Heriberto Hernandez. It would have been worse if not for Taylor stealing a home run from Otto Lopez [VIDEO].
That’s when PCA decided to match that, hitting home run No. 40 in the top of the fifth [VIDEO].
As you surely know, that’s the first 40-homer season by any Cub since Derrek Lee hit 46 in 2005 — and it was done on D-Lee’s 51st birthday!
PCA also becomes just the second Cubs left-handed hitter to hit 40 home runs in a season, joining Hall of Famer Billy Williams, who hit 42 in 1970. More on Billy from BCB’s JohnW53:
Billy Williams, the only left-handed Cub to hit 40 homers until PCA achieved the feat today, smacked No. 40 on Sept. 18, 1970, as the third batter of Game 1 of a doubleheader at Montreal, off Bill Stoneman. Today’s game was the Cubs’ 8,831st since then.
Here are the numbers behind PCA’s 40th [VIDEO].
And here are even more numbers behind that milestone home run [VIDEO].
So it’s 3-3 heading to the bottom of the fifth, still a competitive game, until Holmes put it out of reach. A leadoff walk — hate those! — single and walk loaded the bases, and Holmes hit Griffin Conine to make it 4-3. That was followed by a two-run single and fly out, then another single making it 7-3. Colin Rea then entered the game and allowed another RBI single, with the run charged to Holmes.
It was clear that Holmes just didn’t have it in this game — command was poor, with the three walks being the most in any of his Cubs starts. It happens. I’m sure he’ll be fine going forward.
Rea pitched through the seventh, allowing two more runs on a home run by Javier Sanoja, helping to save the bullpen. Daniel Palencia was given the bottom of the eighth and he allowed a one-out walk followed by an inning-ending double play. That’s good, a scoreless inning in a low-leverage situation, but Palencia’s velocity is still down a tick or two. None of his 16 pitches hit 100 miles per hour and he threw only six strikes among the 16. So I’d say Palencia is still a work in progress.
As the saying goes: “Flush this one and move on.” The Cubs did take two of three from a team that entered this series at 42-27 in its home park, so that’s something, anyway.
The Cubs lost no ground in the wild card race, as the Phillies also lost Sunday, 5-4 to the Braves after having a 4-1 lead heading to the eighth. So the Cubs still lead Philadelphia by half a game for the top wild card spot. The Cubs have 18 games remaining, the Phillies 19. For whatever it’s worth, the Brewers also lost Sunday. The Cubs trail them by seven games, so the NL Central is probably out of reach, but it’s important to note that the Brewers lost twice to the Reds over the weekend, and Kyle Harrison got hit hard again Sunday, the second straight start he’s been hit. So perhaps there are some cracks in the Brewers facade.
The Cubs will find that out first-hand starting Monday, when they begin a three-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee. Interestingly, all three pitching matchups in the upcoming series will be rematches of the last three games of the four-game series at Wrigley Field last week. That begins with Matthew Boyd against Robert Gasser Monday afternoon. Game time Monday is 1:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
