Cubs News: Swanson, Morel homer in another tough loss to Cards |
CHICAGO - Whenever the Chicago Cubs (17-19) and St. Louise Cardinals (13-24) get together, you can always count on two things. First, the records of the two teams will never matter, as these are two of the most hated rivals in baseball. Second, expect the unexpected, with most games coming down to the wire.
That is what the fans have seen the past two nights at Wrigley Field, with the Cubs just trying to survive this rough patch they are in. At this point, it is almost comical that the Cubs find new ways to lose close games, which is a concern. Anytime you have a plus 40 run differential and are sitting under .500, there are a lot of questions to be answered. Some of those questions can easily be figured out as you can point to the lack of clutch hitting and the back end of the bullpen as the reasons for some of these losses. Other times, you have to look at the manager for their in-game decisions, and David Ross has struggled when it matters most late in games. After taking over for Jameson Taillon, who delivered another rough outing, Javier Assad played long man and did his job. He gave the Cubs five scoreless innings of relief to keep the game close, but it was in the ninth inning when things came unraveled. Anytime you stick with a reliever for this long, you are playing with fire, and Ross didn't have anyone warming up to begin the ninth. That proved costly as the Cardinals hammered Assad to start the ninth and pushed across two runs to take another series from the Cubs 6-4. Getting back to Taillon for a little bit. I know there will be concerns about the start of his season, but it is starting to be like a lost year for him. He looked like he was turning the corner after a great start against LA, only to hit the IL with a groin injury shortly after. Since his return which is now two starts, Taillon has been on a limited pitch count, making you wonder if he was rushed back to get in the rotation. No one will argue the stuff that Taillon has as he struck out five and walked two in his outing. However, when you give up four runs in just 2 2/3, the results will not be great, as the 2023 season has been a nightmare for him. The good news is that Cardinals Ace Jack Flaherty has been equally as bad this season and continued to struggle on Tuesday. With an ERA north of 6.00, he is the type of pitcher you need to kick while he is down, and the Cubs certainly had their chances. Flaherty got through five innings, but with five walks and three strikeouts, it wasn't an easy five innings. He did manage to limit the damage by allowing three runs as the Cubs let several chances get away. Taillon has been getting off to slow starts this season, as he tends to figure it out by the second or third inning. That continued to be the trend in this one, with Nolan Gorman taking him deep in the first for the early 1-0 lead. That was the first of three Cardinals homers in the game, as they seemed to be showing signs of life at the wrong time. With Nico Hoerner out of the lineup for what the team calls a day-day hamstring injury, Nick Madrigal moved into the leadoff role and promptly led off the bottom of the first with a single. Madrigal would then have to use his speed on the bases as Dansby Swanson connected for another RBI double to bring things back to even 1-1. .@LieutenantDans7 scores one! pic.twitter.com/PaZLHgNe9b Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki added walks to load the bases with one out, only to have Eric Hosmer ground into an inning-ending double play. You could make a case that the game was lost on that double play by Hosmer as the Cubs let a golden opportunity slip through their hands. Following a scoreless second from both pitchers, the Cardinal's offense erupted in the third to chase Taillon, and that all started with a one-out homer from Lars Nootbaar to make things 2-1. Singles from Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt followed that up as the Cardinals loaded the bases. Looking to get out of the inning without further damage, Taillon completely lost his control. He walked Willson Contreras to force in a run and gave way to Julian Merryweather. Merryweather would also walk in a run before ending the inning, but the damage was done with the Cubs trailing 4-1. As if a leadoff single to begin the game wasn't good enough, the Cubs top of the order continues to do the brunt of their damage as Madrigal started the bottom half of the third with a leadoff double. He would then score a second time, with Swanson picking up the two-run shot to make things 4-3. Dansby Dinger 🤌@LieutenantDans7 pic.twitter.com/gtyY1VwH2B Up to this point, Swanson was the offense in this series, as he drove in all four of the Cub's runs thus far. Once Assad entered in the fourth, the game completely changed for both sides as he shut the Cardinals out for five innings, giving the offense a chance to rally. What the Cubs would do with that chance was on them, but grounding into double plays doesn't help. Neither does leaving the bases loaded in the fifth when Swanson doubles ahead of walks from Ian Happ and Cody Bellinger, only to have Seiya Suzuki fly out to end the threat. Suzuki is starting to be concerning for Cubs fans as he looks completely lost at the plate. Still trailing by one in the sixth, the recently called-up Christopher Morel was looking to provide the spark the Cubs needed. After mashing the ball for AAA Iowa to become the best hitter in the minors, Morel continued that into the majors as his solo shot brought the game back to even 4-4. It was the shot in the arm this team needed, and you could sense that by the emotion he showed. MOREL BOOST! pic.twitter.com/NkZJ9NGT7M With a brand new ball game in the seventh, the Cardinals were threatening, with Andrew Kizner picking up a leadoff double. Fortunately, he wouldn't score as Assad made the pitches he needed to make, including getting Goldschmidt to ground into a double play. After the Cardinals made a move to go with Chris Stratton in the seventh, the Cubs showed terrific patience and loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch. Unfortunately, Hosmer was coming to bat with two outs, and you know the results of that one. At this point, it is time for the Cubs to cut their dead weight on this roster, as Hosmer isn't cutting it. There is no reason to play him anymore when he can't hit the ball out of the infield. This was also the last significant threat the Cubs had, as their lack of clutch hitting is becoming frustrating, to put it lightly. On his sixth inning of work in the ninth, you could see that Assad was starting to run out of gas, and the Cardinals made sure to capitalize on that. First, it was Paul DeJong hitting the final homer of the night for St. Louis as his solo shot proved to be the game-winner with the Cardinals up 5-4. That was followed by a Dylan Carlson triple off the center field wall and the Kizner double to push the lead to 6-4 and no one out. Assad managed to strike out the next hitter, which was the final hitter he faced before Michael Rucker took over to finish things out. The Cubs would then go down in order in the ninth as Giovanny Gallegos locked things up for the save and gave the Cardinals a 6-4 win. The Cubs had nine hits in the game, with Swanson leading the way with three and driving in three. Madrigal and Morel added two hits of their own, and you have to wonder what the breaking point for this team will be in close losses.
