Wicks exits early as Cubs blanked by Cardinals |
CHICAGO—We are now 70 games into the MLB baseball season, and by now, you know who most teams are and who they aren't. When it comes to the Chicago Cubs (33-37), it's painfully obvious that this team isn't as good as many thought it would be, and it may not even be good enough to make the playoffs.
Following another boring yet ugly loss to the St. Louis Cardinals (34-34) at Wrigley Field on Friday, there are no more excuses for this team and their performance over the past seven weeks. The bottom line is this team is horrible offensively, and unless something drastic is done soon, that will stay the same. There are no words anymore to describe this team's offensive struggles, and the excuses have gotten old as the Cardinals came into Wrigley to pick up the 3-0 win. Whether it be Paul Skenes, Taj Bradley, or now the veteran Kyle Gibson, it doesn't matter who is pitching against this team anymore as the Cubs offense makes every pitching look like a Cy Young winner at this point. Gibson was another example of that on Friday as the scattering right-hander gave the Cardinals seven shutout innings, scattering two hits and striking out six. For the most part, the Cubs' pitching was equally good, but it didn't come without some bad news in the process. With Ben Brown recently going on the IL with a neck injury, Jordan Wicks was slated to return to the rotation after missing a large chunk of time with an injury himself. You know that old saying when it rains, it pours; well, things are pouring on the Cubs right now as Wicks lasted just 1 2/3 innings before leaving with what the team is called right oblique soreness. Anytime you hear that associated with a pitcher, it tends to lead to an IL stint, as the Cubs rotation will again be put to the test. With the bullpen needing to cover way more innings than expected, Counsell had the luxury of calling on Kyle Hendricks, although he hadn't pitched great in his previous outings out of the pen. If you want to talk about a player of the game for the Cubs, Hendricks has to be the candidate. The right-hander gave the Cubs pen 4 1/3 much-needed innings, allowing two hits and giving up no runs. Those are the types of outings that will keep Hendricks around a bit longer, as the Cubs are going to need to figure things out quickly. With the wind howling in off the lake, both teams knew runs would be at a premium in this one, and with minimal baserunners from either side through five innings, the score remained 0-0. It wasn't until the sixth inning when anyone had a significant scoring threat. The Cardinals used a pair of singles from Maysn Wynn and Alec Burleson to set the offense up only to be turned away by the Professor himself. Following the outing from Hendricks, there was a rare Luke Little sighting as the left-hander appeared in his first game in over a week and tossed a scoreless seventh. With things still tied 0-0 entering the eighth, this was going to come down to which team could capitalize on the first mistake and that team was the Cardinals as Pedro Pages picked up his fourth hit of the season and his first career homer off of Hayden Wesneski and just like that this was a 1-0 Cardinals lead. Wesneski has been very good this season, but the long ball has been an issue in his recent outings, as he has now allowed a homer in four of his last five appearances. With the lead in hand, Gibson saw his day end as Ryan Fernandez and the Cardinals pen took over. Michael Busch greeted Fernandez with a well-struck single to lead off the eighth, but that was all the Cubs could do as this game went to the ninth with the Cardinals up 1-0. Then came the ninth inning, when the Cardinals not only jumped on Colten Brewer but also put some distance between themselves and the Cubs. A leadoff double from Nolan Arenado wasn't the start Brewer was looking for, nor was the Ivan Herrera double two batters later, as the Cardinals extended their lead to 2-0. A few pitches later saw Dylan Carleson add to their lead with an RBI single, only to be thrown out at second trying to stretch the single into a double. That play was very crucial as the Cardinals tacked on another single before Brewer was finally able to end the inning. The Cubs had plenty of work to do at the bottom of the ninth, and Ryan Helsley entered the game to lock down the save. Despite his overall strong performance this season, Helsley did struggle against the Cubs in their previous series, as he allowed several runs in back-to-back games. Those struggles started to show up again in this one with back-to-back two-out walks by Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ, keeping the game alive and bringing the tying run to the plate. Unlike back in St. Louis, Helsley managed to avoid the hard contact as he struck out the struggling Nico Hoerner to end the game and closed out the 3-0 win. The Cubs had just three hits in the game, with Mike Tauchmacn and Miguel Amaya adding the other two hits to join Busch.
