Steele rusty as D-backs top Cubs |
CHICAGO - Going back to the end of the 2022 season, there haven't been teams who have the Chicago Cubs 47-52 number like the Arizona Diamondbacks 50-48 have. You especially saw that least season when they went 6-1 against the Cubs, including a costly four-game sweep in Arizona last year which virutally ended the Cubs playoff chances.
For the Cubs to make a playoff run this season, they have a ton of work to do and teams to pass, and that all started with these Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field on Friday. With their Ace Justin Steele taking the ball against Ryne Nelson, the Cubs had a great opportunity to start the second half with a win. Instead, the Diamondbacks continued their domination of the Cubs as they took care of business 5-2. There are always two starts during the season that you worry about more than others when it comes to a starting pitcher. The first start of the season is one of them, and the first game after the all-star break is the other. Pitchers are a creature of habit, and when you take them out of their routine, things can spiral out of control. You saw that with Steele on Friday, as he got off to a great start before hitting away in the third inning. He managed to pitch into the fifth, but with five runs allowed on nine hits, you could see the rust from having extra rest. He walked two and struck out six, but it was the overall hard contact and hits that were a concern. “It's a good lineup over there,” Steele said. “Obviously they were in the World Series last year.” Having extra time off wasn't an issue for Nelson, as this could've been the reset he needed. Nelson was about as locked in as you could be on the mound, scattering three hits across 5 2/3 and allowing just one run. He also struck out nine batters, which was a season high, as the Cubs had no answers for him on the mound. You got a sense of how things would go in the first inning as a leadoff walk from Ketel Marte was followed by a Gabriel Moreno single as the Diamondbacks had two on and no outs. Steele managed to avoid any danger initially, but that was only the beginning of what would become a high-stress day for the left-hander. It was in the third inning when Steele started to unravel a bit, and you can credit the Diamondbacks for that, as they did a great job putting the ball in play. Geraldo Perdomo started things off with a single, but the Marte single two batters later put two runners on and one out. That set the stage for Moreno, who picked up his second of three hits in the game with a single as the Diamondbacks opened up a 1-0 lead. That was only the beginning for the Diamondbacks and their offense in this innings. Lourdes Gurriel and Christan Walker added two more singles, with Walker's single pushing across two more runs to give Arizona a 3-0 lead. Had they not scored the rest of the way, those three runs would have been enough, as the Walker hit goes down as the game-winning single. With the lead in hand, Nelson settled in on the mound as he bounced back from a pair of singles in the first two innings so as not to allow a hit in the next three innings. This has been an issue for the Cubs at times this season, but heading into the break, it wasn't an issue, so to see it happen again doesn't give fans a good feel for how this weekend will go. Still holding their 3-0 lead in the fifth, the Diamondbacks kept the pressure on Steele as a pair of hits followed by a walk loaded the bases with no outs. On the verge of breaking the game wide open, Randal Grichuk delivered another softly hit single to push the lead to 4-0, while the Crobin Carroll sacrifice fly extended the lead to 5-0. Those runs were all charged to Steele as Hayden Wesneski and the Cubs pen took over the rest of the way and kept the Diamondbacks from tacking on any more runs. While the bullpen was doing its part to keep the Diamondbacks off the board, it was up to the Cubs' offense to come through. Although it took six innings, they were finally on the board. It all started with a one-out double from Michael Busch, who delivered the first hit off of Nelson since the second inning. That was followed by a Seiya Suzuki walk to put two runners on as a two-out Christopher Morel single put Chicago on the board with them trailing 5-1. Still holding a 5-1 lead in the eighth, the Diamondbacks called on Justin Martinez in relief, and this is where things got interesting. With Nico Hoerner starting things off with a double as part of his three-hit day, the Cubs' offense was in business as they would load the bases with no outs and their hottest hitter, Ian Happ, coming to bat. Needing a big hit to potentially tie things up, Happ put a great swing on a Martinez fastball, only to have it die before it reached the warning track. All wasn't lost on that play as the Cubs did grab a run on his sacrifice fly to pull within 5-2. Later in the inning, Dansby Swanson rolled one through the middle for a single to load the bases, but that was as close as things would get as the Cubs lost by that 5-2 score. “We're in a very similar situation as we were last year,” Steele said after the game. “We were one game away [from the playoffs] last year, and there's a bunch of different things that can happen over the course of the season, where one win turns into a loss or one loss turns into a win. “We really believe in the group we've got in there,” Steele said. “It's a lot of the same guys from last year and we made some additions, so I'd say that we're better on paper. We've just got to put wins in the column.” The Cubs had eight hits in their loss, with Hoerner leading the way with three. He was also the only one with multiple hits, continuing to turn his season around after a slow start. “Justin just struggled,” Counsell said. “They had a good approach and they were clearly trying to stay inside and take him the other way. He just had trouble kind of getting the ball all the way in. He just didn't get a bunch of pitches far enough in and they did a nice job with that.” “I think there were some big calls in this game that were called incorrectly.” “These are things that’s gonna stop you from getting opportunities to score a run.” “There’s no real repercussions for umpires. You can be bad, or be okay, and you have a job for as long as you want to do it.”@JLester34 sounds off on the umpiring today 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/hzBmo3QBWQ “It was awesome … it’s Friday, 1:20, Wrigley Field, packed house, perfect weather.”@voiceofcohen2 discusses the journey to calling his first games at Wrigley Field. pic.twitter.com/PnpnW1QL0x
Craig Counsell on today’s game. pic.twitter.com/zdRFUGFnqP
Cliff Floyd on today’s umpiring. pic.twitter.com/kufJnUGd1K
