Cubs drop fourth straight despite Happ's big game |
ST. LOUIS - When things aren't going your way in Major League Baseball, everything tends to pile on at one time. That is the case for the Chicago Cubs (27-26) right now, as they are not only in danger of falling below .500 but in danger of losing their grip on second place in the division.
After dropping a third straight game for the first time this season against the St. Louis Cardinals (26-27) on Saturday, the Cubs were looking to pick up a series split at Busch Stadium on Sunday night. Despite a massive game from Ian Happ, who is hoping to turn the corner with his two-homer night, it still wasn't enough as the Cubs fell to the Cardinals 4-3. Part of the Cubs' struggles this month has been their offense, which has struggled to score runs, as they have averaged fewer than 3.5 runs per game since April 27. Part of that has to do with an offense that has dealt with injuries, but the other part has to do with some of the pitchers they have faced. Sunday saw them face another strong pitcher in Sonny Gray, who has been just what the Cardinals needed after missing the start of the season with a Hamstring injury. Gray has also had success against the Cubs no matter who is in the lineup, and after five scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.60, that success continued as he improved to 7-2 on the season. Gray walked two and struck out eight while allowing just one hit. Opposing Gray was the surprising Javier Assad, who had yet to lose a game coming into this start. With an ERA below 1.7, you can see why he was unbeaten heading into this game, but Assad's success is far less conventional than most, as he allows plenty of traffic on the bases but does a great job of stranding those runners on base. For the most part, Assad limited the damage once again as he walked three, struck out eight, and scattered five hits across five innings. The problem was two of those five hits left the yard accounting for all four of the Cardinals runs in the game. The first of those home runs came in the third inning, and it came after both the Cubs and Cardinals wasted a golden scoring opportunity in the second inning. A one-out single from Alec Burleson put another runner on base before Paul Goldschmidt launched one over the left field fence to put the Cardinals on top 2-0. It's no secret that Goldschmidt has been struggling this season, but during this recent run where the Cardinals have won 10 of their last 12, Goldschmidt is starting to heat up, which is excellent news for their offense and bad news for everyone else. Facing a team like the Cubs could've been what he needed to get back on track, as Goldschmidt has crushed Cubs pitching for most of his career. Following that homer, the Cubs had a shot at getting at least one of those runs back in the fourth, only to have another costly baserunning mistake end the threat, which has been an issue for this team all season. With the Cubs still trailing 2-0 in the fifth and the top of the Cardinals lineup set to bat, Assad knew that if he could get out of this inning without allowing damage, he would keep the Cubs in a great position to win this game. Walking the leadoff hitter in Brendan Donovan is never a good idea, especially with Goldschmidt coming to bat two batters later. Like in his last at-bat, Goldschmidt wasted no time jumping on another Assad offspeed offering and took him deep for the second time in as many at-bats to put the Cardinals on top 4-0. That would be all of the offense for the Cardinals on the evening, but considering the Cubs mustered just one hit off Gray, four runs was looking to be more than enough. In what was now a game of the bullpens, the Cubs threw Drew Smyly out there for the first time in over a month as he found himself in a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half of the sixth, only to figure out a way to pitch out of that jam. One of the strengths of this Cardinals team has been the back end of their bullpen, but to the Cubs credit, they did plenty of damage against the back end on Saturday. That continued on Saturday with Andrew Kittredge taking the ball in the seventh. A one-out single from Nico Hoerner gave the Cubs their second hit of the game, only to have Happ follow that up with a two-run shot to pull the Cubs within 4-2. Ian Happ sends one out! pic.twitter.com/PRH1MKUEqr Whatever was said to the Cubs offense after the fifth worked as the Cubs connected for seven hits off the Cardinals pen and had them on the ropes late again. A pair of singles off JoJo Romero in the eighth had the Cubs in business in the eighth, only to have Michael Siani come away with a potential game-saving catch on Cody Bellinger. Romero would hit Christopher Morel to load the bases but managed to wiggle out of trouble by getting Hoerner to ground into an inning-ending forceout. After Smyly labored through two traffic-filled innings, Craig Counsell turned to hard-throwing Porter Hodge in the bottom of the eighth as he retired the side to send the game to the ninth. Looking to deliver his Mlb-leading 17th save, Ryan Helsley had a rough showing against the Cubs on Saturday, and things weren't much better in this one with Happ turning on a 101 MPH fastball to start the inning and taking it deep over the center field fence to pull the Cubs within 4-3. Second homer of the night for Happ! pic.twitter.com/69SipjbRUx For Happ, this was a game he desperately needed as he doubled his season total in homers and is looking to turn the corner the rest of the way. Following a pair of strikeouts, the Cubs offense kept the pressure on as Nick Madrigal and Mike Tauchman delivered a pair of singles to put the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first with Seiya Suzuki coming to bat. With a chance to deliver the biggest hit of his season, Suzuki got a pitch to his liking and drove it to the right-center field gap, only to have his line drive get caught on the warning track as the Cardinals survived once again 4-3. With the loss, the Cubs have dropped four straight and fallen 3.5 games behind the Brewers, who they open a series on Monday. Tauchman and Happ led the way with two hits, and Happ was responsible for all three RBIs. https://www.mlb.com/cubs/video/craig-counsell-on-ian-happ-getting-his-swing-back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDIz0nlBarY
