I thought about it again, yes I did.
What’s that, you’re asking?
I thought about just posting the final score of this game as a one-line recap.
“The Cubs lost to the Athletics 5-4 in 10 innings,” the one line would have read.
But you come here for a recap of Cubs games, and by gum you are going to get one, and it’s not gonna be pretty.
This game didn’t start out pretty, either. Colin Rea got four ground balls in the first inning. That’s good! Unfortunately, there was also a walk sandwiched in there, and the A’s
beat two double-play relays, scoring a run on one of them for a 1-0 lead. Then Rea gave up a one-out double and two-out single in the second and the Cubs trailed 2-0. It might have been worse if not for this nice sliding grab by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].
To the surprise of many, the Cubs did actually come back. Suzuki began the comeback with this monster home run leading off the second [VIDEO].
One out later, Dansby Swanson doubled, but was stranded. In the third, Nico Hoerner led off with a double and Pete Crow-Armstrong launched this ball into the bleachers [VIDEO].
The Cubs had the lead!
The lead was extended in the fourth. Ian Happ led off with a double — already the Cubs’ fifth extra-base hit of the game.
That was also a milestone in Happ’s career [VIDEO].
Much more on Happ’s 1,000th career hit from BCB’s JohnW53:
Ian Happ’s fourth-inning double made him the 37th player with 1,000 hits in games as a Cub. Those 37 are just 1.6 percent of all 2,295 who have played for the Cubs.
The last with a 1,000th hit had been Anthony Rizzo, with the second of his two doubles at home against the Mets on Aug. 27, 2018. Rizzo finished with 1,311 as a Cub, to rank 20th, between Bill Nicholson (1,323) and Tom Burns (1,299).
The total hit count for the 38 range from Cap Anson (3,012), Ernie Banks (2,583) and Billy Williams (2,510), to Andy Pafko (1,048), Derrek Lee (1,046) and Hack Wilson (1,017). Starlin Castro fell just nine hits, with 991.
Happ is the 1,415th MLB player to reach 1,000 hits in a career — 6.0 percent of all 23,658 big leaguers. Four of them made exactly 1,000: Orator Shafer, 1874-90; Birdie Tebbetts, 1936-52; Dee Fondy, 1951-58; and James Carroll, 2002-13. Scott Brosius made 1,001 in 1991-2001 and Jim Hickman made 1,002 in 1962-74. Shafer, Fondy and Hickman are among 273 players with at least 1,000 hits who spent time with the Cubs — 19.3 percent of all 1,414, about one of every five.
And some postgame comments from Happ about what that all means:
One out after Happ’s milestone hit, this happened [VIDEO].
So this was a discussion among our group in the bleachers, and maybe with you too. Would you have sent Busch to try for an inside-the-park home run on that hit? He was slowing down at third, obviously due to a stop sign third-base coach Quintin Berry put up. But if running full speed? It would have taken a perfect throw to get him at the plate. Would have been close, to be sure, but… would you have done it?
Busch wound up stranded. That fifth run would have made a difference, obviously.
Rea settled down after those first two innings and allowed only two further baserunners, one of whom he picked off. He was removed with one out in the top of the sixth after just 69 pitches. Seemed a bit odd after he’d thrown 98 and 92 in his two previous starts and had an extra day of rest due to Monday’s off day. Hoby Milner finished the sixth without incident.
Jacob Webb threw a scoreless seventh so the Cubs went to the eighth with a 4-2 lead and relievers set up the way Craig Counsell drew it up — Caleb Thielbar for the eighth and Daniel Palencia for the ninth.
Unfortunately, Thielbar had a bad inning. He served up a 426-foot homer to pinch-hitter Colby Thomas leading off the inning, then a single and double tied the game 4-4. Phil Maton came in and I had visions of this 4-4 game suddenly becoming a 6-4 or 7-4 deficit. Maton did allow a hit but got out of the inning with the game still tied.
In the bottom of the inning, Alex Bregman led off with a walk but Suzuki hit into a double play. That turned out to be important, because Happ then doubled again, which would have given the Cubs the lead. It was the Cubs’ seventh extra-base hit of the game. More on that from John:
The Cubs’ seven extra-base hits (four doubles, one triple, two homers) among their nine total hits were their most in a game this season.
They had six (three doubles, three homers) among 18 hits in a 10-inning, 8-7 win at home over the Phillies on April 23, then six (four doubles, triple, homer) among 12 hits in an 8-4 win at home over the Diamondbacks on May 3.
Palencia threw a 1-2-3 ninth but the Cubs also went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. On to extras, then.
The A’s scored a run when placed runner Alika Williams scored on a single by Nick Kurtz off Ethan Roberts. Ryan Rolison had to come into the game to face Tyler Soderstrom with two out and a runner on first. He got the out, after a review [VIDEO].
Counsell sent Kevin Alcántara to be the placed runner in the bottom of the inning, running for Miguel Amaya, who’d made the last out in the ninth. Alcántara moved to third on a fly to center, then almost got himself picked off third. Didn’t matter when PCA struck out and Bregman flied to right to end the game.
Ugly, ugly facts:
- The Cubs’ run since their peak this year is now 5-18
- They dropped to 4-3 in extra innings
- They dropped to 9-7 in one-run games
The Cubs also dropped to fourth place in the NL Central, still 6.5 games behind the Brewers, who got two-hit by the Giants Wednesday. Everyone in the division lost Wednesday except the Cardinals, who defeated the Rangers. (And if you think this Cubs game was bad, the Pirates led the Astros 8-3 going to the bottom of the seventh and lost 11-9.)
Still lots of time left. One hundred games, to be exact.
But it would be nice to start winning. Like, right now.
Here are Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
The Cubs, now on an eight-game Wrigley losing streak (following that 15-game home win streak), will attempt to salvage the final game of this series against the A’s Thursday evening at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and J.T. Ginn will go for the A’s. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
