I’m going to start this recap of the Cubs’ 6-4 loss to the Reds Friday evening in an unusual manner — a stat from BCB’s JohnW53:
Clay Holmes walked five. He had walked at least that many in only two of his previous 51 career starts, both with the Mets, both vs. the Braves, both last year: six in 4.2 innings, then five in 3.2.
Right there is the difference in the game. Four of the five walks scored, including two in the Reds’ decisive three-run sixth inning.
The other walk that scored was to Elly De
La Cruz in the first inning, right after Carlos Jorge had led off with a triple. Then De La Cruz stole second, which turned out to be important, because that allowed him to take third when a sacrifice fly scored Jorge. De La Cruz then scored when Nico Hoerner couldn’t handle a ground ball.
The Cubs got one of those runs back in the second. With one out, Nico singled and went to third on a single by Michael Conforto. This single by Carson Kelly scored Hoerner [VIDEO].
The Cubs then loaded the bases when Dansby Swanson walked. There’s only one out here. But Chase Burns struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki to end the inning.
The Cubs then tied the game in the top of the third. With two out, Ian Happ homered, his 24th [VIDEO].
For Happ, that was the 198th homer of his career. That ties him with Hank Sauer for 10th place on the all-time Cubs home run list.
In the bottom of the third, yet another Holmes walk, to Jorge, began the inning. De La Cruz singled Jorge to third. Sal Stewart hit into a double play, but Jorge scored to give the Reds a 3-2 lead.
The game continued to go back and forth. Conforto singled to begin the fourth and Kelly walked. Swanson hit into a force play at third, and PCA flied to right, with both remaining runners advancing to second and third.
Suzuki singled in Kelly and Swanson to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead [VIDEO].
Holmes and the Cubs managed to hold on to this lead until the bottom of the sixth, when it all fell apart.
Holmes walked De La Cruz to lead off the inning and then an attempted pickoff misfired, with Holmes’ throw getting past Michael Busch. On the Marquee broadcast, Jim Deshaies mentioned that a similar play had worked in the last series between the teams at Wrigley. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t and De La Cruz wound up on third. Holmes retired Steward, but then walked JJ Bleday and Tyler Stephenson to load the bases.
Craig Counsell had seen enough at this point and brought in Javier Assad to face Eugenio Suárez.
In fairness, that’s a very difficult assignment for any reliever, to face a power hitter with the bases loaded. I feared a home run here, and instead it was just a single — but a damaging hit that tied the game
Assad then got Hector Rodriguez to hit into a force play at the plate, the second out of the inning. Could the Cubs get out of this jam still tied?
Well, you know the answer to that, which is “Nope.” José Trevino singled, scoring two runs, both charged to Holmes. I don’t have an exact count of inherited runners scored off Cubs starting pitchers this year, but “a billion” would seem like the answer. (It is obviously not literally “a billion,” but sometimes it feels that way.) The Reds led 6-4.
In the eighth, the Cubs got a pair of runners on base with two out when Kelly was hit by a pitch and Swanson beat out a slow roller. That brought up PCA — could there be some MVP-type heroics?
Well, you know the answer to that, too. Tejay Antone struck PCA out to end the inning [VIDEO].
It should be noted that the Cubs got a scoreless eighth from Jacob Webb, which ordinarily wouldn’t be worth making mention of in a recap like this, but Webb’s been so bad recently that, well, at least that was good.
The Cubs had one last shot at things in the ninth. With two out, Michael Busch walked, bringing up Happ.
Then this happened [VIDEO].
I am at a loss to understand why Busch did that. Yes, as JD pointed out, they weren’t holding him on — but Busch is not a fast runner, and why would you take the bat out of Happ’s hands at that point in the game? Happ had already homered and as we know, he has always hit well at GABP. That one was inexplicable to me.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Fortunately for the Cubs, the Mets did them a favor Friday evening by defeating the Phillies. The tiebreaker situation got a bit more complicated, though, because the Padres defeated the Marlins. Thus all three teams are now tied for the top wild card spot. Since the Cubs have the tiebreaker over both teams, if they did end up in a three-way tie, the Cubs would take the top spot. The Phillies swept their season series over the Padres 6-0, so they’d get the second spot in this scenario.
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks lost to the Yankees, so the Cubs’ magic number for clinching a postseason berth was reduced to 3.
Notable: This was the first game all year when PCA and Alex Bregman combined to go 0-for-10. They had been 0-for-9 once previously, July 18 vs. the Twins. PCA struck out three times. More on that from John:
This was Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 15th game of the season with at least three strikeouts. Seiya Suzuki’s was his 13th. Happ has 11 and no one else more than eighth.
Twelve different Cubs have done it at least once, for a total of 66 times.
PCA had eight such games a year ago, tied with Michael Busch for fourth. Suzuki and Dansby Swanson had 10; Happ, nine. Twelve players did it 62 times.
There are, as you know, times when PCA seems unstoppable — and other times he looks lost, like this game. Fortunately, the latter is much rarer. But the bottom line is that the Cubs have to have better pitching, both starting and relieving. And better RISP batting, as they went 2-for-10 in this game.
The Cubs will look to even up the series Saturday evening in Cincinnati. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Nick Lodolo will go for the Reds. Game time is again 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
