Cubs comeback falls short against Guardians |
CLEVELAND—Once upon a time, not all that long ago, there was a baseball game in Cleveland known as the greatest game ever played. It was a warm and rainy Wednesday night, November 2, at Progressive Field in Cleveland, as the Chicago Cubs (59-61) and the then Cleveland Indians (70-49) met for game seven of the 2016 World Series.
In a back-and-forth affair that night, the Chicago Cubs came out on top in extras, ending 108 years of pain and suffering. Returning to Cleveland certainly has its memories, but these teams have taken drastically different paths over the past eight years. The Cubs have been stuck in neutral since about 2019 and still have no clear direction on where to go or what to do. On the other hand, the Guardians have emerged as one of the best teams in baseball this season. They have done that with one of the smallest payrolls in the game, and it's a level the Cubs are trying to get to. Looking at this season, the word roller coaster comes to mind, as this has been nothing short of a wild roller coaster ride. Monday night was the exact definition of that, as the Cubs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, allowed eight unanswered runs, battled back to tie things up, and lost on a Josh Naylor single in the eighth, 9-8. This series was the one game where you had to think the Cubs were the favorites, as Shota Imanaga took the ball against Ben Lively. Neither pitcher was sharp, with Lively only lasting 3 2/3 innings and Imanaga five innings, but the relentless offense from the Guardians took what was a game the Cubs had control of and flipped it on its head. While neither team could scratch across any runs in the first two innings, the Cubs had the best chance as they wasted a pair of second-inning walks. Chances like that don't come around too often against this Cleveland team, so when they do, you need to make sure you cash in. The Cubs did that in the third inning with Miguel Amaya starting things off with a single before coming home on an Ian Happ two-run blast to put the Cubs in front 2-0. With love, from Ian 🎁 pic.twitter.com/87wYFZ5gYq For Happ, this was a 30th birthday to remember as he connected for his 20th homer, reached base four times and even delivered an outfield assist. The Cubs had a chance to tack on even more runs, but Lively pitched out of a two-out, two-on situation to keep things close. While Lively struggled to find his groove on the mound, Imanaga wasn't, as the left-hander retired the first eight batters he faced before allowing a single. However, with Happ gunning Austin Hedges down and trying to stretch that single into a double, Imanaga technically retired the first nine batters he faced. One inning after grabbing the lead, the Cubs added to it as the Pete Crow-Armstrong homer extended their lead to 3-0. The slowest you'll see PCA run all season: pic.twitter.com/Aj7vRVp7Ba Considering how good Imanga has been this season, especially when facing a team for the first time, you had to like their chances, but the Guardians offense was about to get rolling. Despite Imanaga's strong rookie season, one of the knocks against him has been how fast he can unravel when things don't go his way. With a leadoff walk to Steven Kwan followed by an error, Imanaga was facing his first jam of the night. Then came a borderline pitch that was a strike only to be called a ball, as Josh Naylor saw an extra pitch and delivered an RBI single for the Guardians' first run of the game. Missed strike three call with two outs (pitch #4) results in FOUR runs for the Guardians. pic.twitter.com/OelJ50oExv “Shota threw some really good pitches today,” Happ said. “He made a really good pitch against Naylor that wasn’t called and it leads to kind of the bigger inning. There’s a lot of things to take away from that that were positive. He’s been so good for us all year and that’s not going to change.” At that moment, you started to see Imanaga come unglued as Jhonkensy Noel launched his first of two homers in the game to left field, and just like that, the Guardians led 4-3. That was just the start of what was eight unanswered runs for the Guardians as Kwan tacked on a two-run homer in the fifth to extend their lead to 6-3, with David Fry adding a single to make this a 7-3 game and chased Imanaga after five innings. “We were up three runs,” Imanaga said. “If I could've kept it to three, and kept us in the game, I knew our offense would come through. They’ve been doing an amazing job.” The left-hander was charged with seven runs in his five innings, but with Isaac Paredes committing a massive error, only three were earned, so his final line looks a little better. What was now a battle of the bullpens, you had the best bullpen in the majors over the past month in the Cubs, going up against the best bullpen in baseball all year in the Guardians. With Noel taking Nate Pearson deep in the sixth to open up an 8-3 lead, something had to give, and this game seemed over. However, with several of the Guardian's go-to arms unavailable, the door was open for the Cubs, and they began to creep back into things in the seventh. What started with a leadoff walk by Happ turned into a two out rally as a one-out single from Seiya Suzuki was followed by a Paredes hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. Looking to cash in with a massive hit was Nico Hoerner who managed to keep the inning alive with an infield single pulling the Cubs within 8-4. That set the stage for Dansby Swanson who continues to see the ball well as he laced one into the left field corner for a bases clearing double as the Cubs were within 8-7. Dansby clears 'em and we've got a ballgame 👀 pic.twitter.com/9AkQGQZAIh Still trailing by that score in the eighth, the top of the Cubs order continued to set the table with Happ working another one out walk to get on base while the Patrick Wisdom double set the offense up with an excellent opportunity to take the lead. Although that didn't happen, they did manage to tie things up on the Suzuki sacrifice fly as they rallied from five down to make this an 8-8 game. All tied up! 👏 pic.twitter.com/mTXFWIsDqH On for his second inning of work was Julian Merryweather and this is where the game shifted. A questionable decision to say the least by manager Craig Counsell, Merryweather hasn't been sharp since coming back from the IL and after Jose Ramirez led things off with a double before advancing to third on a single Merryweather was in danger of letting this get away. A few pitches later, he did let things get away. Naylor came through with a chopper over the head of Paredes at third to push home the winning run, and the Guardians retook the lead 9-8. Counsell then made the move to Jorge Lopez in the pen, and he finished off the inning without further damage, leading some to believe the move should've been made sooner. Trailing by one and down to their final three outs, for the Cubs to win this game, they would have to do so against one of the game's best closers, Emmanuel Clase, who was on to pitch for the third straight day. Anytime that happens, you tend to worry about a closers stuff not being great, but there is a reason why Clase has an ERA of 0.65 this season and is in the Cy Young conversation as he made quick work of the Cubs to record his 36th save and closed out the hard-fought 9-8 win. “Any game you don’t win, it’s a missed opportunity,” Happ said. “We played good baseball today. Sometimes that happens. That’s a really good team that we just played.” “We were up 3 runs and if I could have kept it to 3 and kept us in the game, I knew our offense would come through.” "I think it could have been either way, but I think that makes baseball interesting."
Shota Imanaga on today’s game. pic.twitter.com/d5ge2OdY6d
Shota Imanaga on the 4th inning at-bat against Josh Naylor. pic.twitter.com/UfKO8Lc3za
