Tigers slug their way past Cubs |
CHICAGO - For the Chicago Cubs (62-65) to remain in the race as long as possible, their goal should be to win every series or at the worst as many as possible. If they want to go from being in the race to potentially having a shot at sneaking in, they need to find ways to pick up a sweep, as they need as many wins as possible.
You saw this team let a sweep get away over the weekend and after beating the Detroit Tigers (62-65) on Tuesday, the Cubs were in a position to clinch another series as they turned to Jameson Taillon on the mound. Despite his 8-8 record this season, Taillon has been one of the more consistent pitchers for the Cubs this season, although things have been trending in the wrong direction lately. His ERA has risen to 3.77 after sitting in the 2.90 range most of the season, and he is starting to look like the .500 pitcher that many fans were irritated with last season. In front of another packed Wrigley Field crowd, Taillon once again wasn't as sharp as he needed to be as he surrendered a pair of two-run homers across his five innings. Pair that with another lackluster offensive performance, and it was the Tigers finding a way to get the job done 8-2. All of the damage off Taillon came in one inning, and it came in the second inning. After the Tigers put pressure on Taillon by putting a pair of men on base in the first inning only to come away empty, they made sure they wouldn't waste another scoring chance in the second as the leadoff walk from Jace Jung, was followed by a one-out Trey Sweeney homer as the Tigers opened up a 2-0 lead. For Sweeney, that was his first homer of the season and what a time and place to do it. After Parker Meadows extended the inning with a two-out double, Taillon made another mistake as the Riley Greene homer opened up an early 4-0 lead. Take those hits out of the mix, and Taillon was pretty good as he allowed just two hits the rest of the way, with both coming in the fifth inning. While the Cubs starting rotation has been set in stone for quite a while, the Tigers are trying to piece things together the rest of the way as their rotation remains a question apart from Tarik Skubal. For the second straight game, manager AJ Hinch elected to go with a bullpen game, and although unorthodox, it has worked out in the Tigers favor thus far. Wednesday saw Beau Briske take the ball as he struck out three in two scoreless frames before handing things off to Brant Hunter and the rest of the pen. Hunter managed to pick up the win, allowing two runs in 3 2/3 while also striking out four. Both runs came on one swing of the bat as Christian Bethancourt connected for his second Cubs homer in the bottom of the fifth to pull the Cubs within 4-2. This was one of those hits where you could feel the momentum start to shift, but with this being the Cubs only runs, it didn't matter what the Tigers did offensively from here on out. With the Tigers continuing to ride their bullpen, it was time for the Cubs to deploy theirs as Nate Pearson and Julian Merryweather combined to toss three scoreless frames to keep things close. The duo allowed just one hit and stuck out four as Pearson continues to impress since coming to the Cubs as he picked up three of those four punchouts in his two innings. Apart from the Bethancourt homer, the Cubs didn't have many scoring chances in this one, but a pair of sixth-inning singles by Seiya Suzuki and Isaac Paredes gave them their chance, only to have Nico Hoerner ground out to end the threat. Still trailing 4-2 in the ninth, it was time for Jack Neely to make his much-anticipated debut after being acquired as part of the Mark Leiter Jr trade on July 30. Neely has been nothing short of dominant since joining the Iowa Cubs and was added to the roster Tuesday following the Hector Neris release. As expected, nerves were a factor for Neely in this one, as he couldn't locate his slider consistently. That essentially made him a one-pitch pitcher as the Tigers put runners on the corners with two outs. Needing one pitch to get out of the inning without any damage, the Tigers had the last laugh as Greene pushed the Tigers lead to 5-2 with an RBI single. That was just the start of what was a massive inning for the Tigers as they scored four times off Neely in the ninth, with three coming off the Kerry Carpenter homer as the Tigers broke the game wide open 8-2 before Joey Wentz closed things out by retiring the Cubs in order in the bottom of the ninth. Chicago's offense has struggled immensely the past three games and has now gone three games without putting the leadoff man on base, which makes things difficult. Chicago was held to six hits in the loss, with Suzuki leading the way with two. The Cubs will now go for the series win on Thursday as they send Justin Steele to the mound against what could be another bullpen day for this team.
