ST. LOUIS — After catapulting themselves back into the race with a brilliant stretch of pitching and clutch hitting for a little over a week, Saturday was a day to forget for the Chicago Cubs. The afternoon’s 11-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals was one they could just flush. Not much went right and there was little to overthink.
But the nightcap, a tough 5-4 loss giving the Cardinals a doubleheader sweep, was hard to swallow. Starter Javier Assad, pitching for the first time since June 23 after coming off the injured list with a right forearm extensor strain, struggled in his 2 1/3 innings pitched. He allowed three runs on seven hits, including two home runs, and two walks while striking out none.
But the bullpen, asked to cover a long stretch of the game, was strong for much of it. The offense put up four runs in the second, and every pitch each of the four relievers threw was high-leverage as they clung to a one-run lead.
“The bullpen was wonderful,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Those guys did a nice job. The game for Javy, kind of struggling a little bit and maybe not giving us everything we wanted. But the rest of the guys did a really nice job. We put the game in a really nice position.”
Rookie Porter Hodge came into the game in the seventh with one out and quickly retired the two batters he faced. But he led off the eighth by walking three-hole hitter Willson Contreras, then gave up a double to Paul Goldschmidt. Nolan Arenado flipped the game on its head and gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead with a two-RBI single up the middle.
“We asked Porter to do a tough job: to get five outs in a one-run game and go through the middle of their lineup,” Counsell said. “The walk probably hurt as much as anything.”
That’s a Gold Glove play by your left fielder ladies and gentlemen. pic.twitter.com/uyN2ZrxIQw
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 14, 2024
There will be those who lament the Cubs bullpen “blowing” the game and point to the struggles it’s had for much of the season. But this is a different group than the one that continually blew leads in April and May. They entered play Saturday with a 3.19 ERA since June 1, seventh best in baseball. They then allowed just two runs in 9 2/3 innings Saturday.
Those two were obviously costly. But the offense’s failure to tack on was a bigger issue. In the fourth inning, the Cubs had runners on first and third with no outs, and then loaded the bases with just one out and came away with nothing.
That was the story of the game. And really, much of the season.
“I think the fourth inning would be the inning you’d look back and say we left at least a run out there,” Counsell said. “First and third, nobody out with 3-4-5 and we end up not converting there.”
This isn’t something new for the Cubs. During their downturn in performance from April 27 to July 3, they hit .218 with runners in scoring position (29th in baseball) with a .131 ISO (28th). From July 4 through Friday’s win, they hit .295, second during that span. These numbers tend to even out over the course of a season. Teams tend to fluctuate in that specific area, but for the most part, how they hit in all situations lines up closely to how they hit with runners in scoring position.
But for the Cubs, it was two months of futility. That tends to wear on players.
“For a while, everyone was like, ‘My gosh,’” Dansby Swanson said before the losses Saturday. “It was bad breaks and bad luck we were having, there’s no way that can last. But when it does happen for a while, you’re like, ‘What do we need to do differently?’ Then you realize that it mounts up because if it doesn’t happen everyone starts to overemphasize it and putting pressure on themselves and one another to get it done.”
Counsell believes that as long as the opportunities continue to come, the Cubs will cash them in. They did so for a week. They didn’t Saturday. Does that wear mentally on players?
“I don’t know,” Counsell said. “It’s been asked for all ages of baseball in the history of the game. It’s how you score, you have to get hits in those situations. In the end, if you don’t succeed in the last opportunity, you got a chance to succeed and you gotta go through your process of having a good at-bat, getting a good pitch to hit and hitting it hard. Sometimes you hit it hard and you don’t get a hit. Then we assign that they’re pressing, but they just hit it hard and didn’t get a hit. That’s the way the game works.”
But the players have admitted to feeling that pressure and overthinking things at times. Christopher Morel stung the ball for the first two months regularly with little to show for it. Now, even though the hard contact shows up at times, it’s not as frequent. But the big swings at pitches that may not ask for it — like the sweeper that was breaking away from him on the outside edge of the plate that he pulled on the ground for an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded — are hurting him now.
The Cubs felt like they had turned a corner both on the field and mentally. Fans were starting to believe once again. But one very bad day at the ballpark has the doubters back in full force and questions arising about whether last week was a mirage. But a win Sunday could allay some fears. A 5-2 road trip to head into the break may give the Cubs confidence as they continue to get healthy and hope for better breaks in the second half of the season.
(Photo of Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya tagging out the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt during the second game of the doubleheader: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
