Cubs lose close game to rival Cardinals |
CHICAGO — At this point in the season, the Chicago Cubs (34-38) should be hosting open tryouts, as no one on this team can hit. With the season nearly half over, the Cubs continue to endure a horrendous stretch of baseball that has their offense delivering near historic lows in many categories. That shouldn't happen for a team with as many proven hitters as they have, and even with the wind howling out of Wrigley Field on Sunday, the Cubs still couldn't get the job done at the plate.
The St. Louis Cardinals (35-35) capitalized on that, and despite being one of the worst offenses themselves, they were able to do just enough to take two of three from the Cubs to improve to 4-1 against them this season. This time, it was Miles Mikolas showing up and tossing a gem against the Cubs as the right-hander pitched into the seventh inning before being charged with one run on four hits. He walked none and struck out five as a pair of early runs was just enough for the Cardinals to take care of business 2-1. With the offense struggling as much as it has for the past month-plus, it is putting tons of pressure on the Cubs' pitching staff, as they have no room for error. That means all it takes is one little mistake on the pitches, and the Cubs will more likely find themselves on the losing end of things, which has to be frustrating for the pitchers involved. Today, it was Jameson Taillon's turn to be the tough-luck loser. Taillon gave the Cubs six strong innings, allowing seven runs but, most importantly, only two runs. Both of those runs came on an early two-run homer, but that was the only mistake he made, and it ultimately was the difference in the game as the Cubs offense continues to go through a tough stretch. Taillon was lucky to only give up two runs in this one, as he worked around a pair of first-inning singles to keep the Cardinals off the board before a second-inning double from Brandon Crawford set the Cardinal's offense up again. Although he hasn't delivered much, with just five career hits heading into Sunday, Pedro Pages makes his hits count as four of his five hits have driven home runs. Well, you can make that five of his six hits scoring runs as Pages connected for his second homer of the series to put the Cardinals in front 2-0. This was also the second homer of the season for Pages, as he is starting to find his rhythm at the plate. Those would be the only runs the Cardinals would need as the Cubs offense couldn't solve Mikolas at the plate. With Mikolas retiring the first nine hitters he faced, the Cubs offense finally started to show signs of life in the fourth, and Mike Tauchman started things off with a single. Two out singles from Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ followed that up as the Cubs had the bases loaded and a chance to tie things up with a hit. That hit was nowhere to be found, as the Cubs continued to struggle to find a way to get the big hit. That was the only significant scoring threat for the Cubs for the next several innings, as Mikolas was as dialed in as possible. The same can be said about Taillon, although he had to work around much more traffic than Mikolas did. To his credit, Taillon made the pitches he needed to make in crucial situations as he got through his six innings without further damage and turned things over to Drew Smyly and the pen in the seventh. Smyly did his job in the seventh to keep things close before the Cubs offense finally broke through off Mikolas in the seventh. Happ played a role in that with his one-out double as he continues to be on the best three-week stretch of his season. In danger of stranding another runner in scoring position, Michael Busch came through with a rare hit with runners in scoring position as his RBI single brought home Happ to pull the Cubs within 2-1. Neither team was able to push across a run in the eighth and after Keegan Thompson kept the Cardinals off the board in the top half of the ninth, it was up to the offense to come through late if they wanted the win. For as good as Ryan Helsley has been this season, he has had his struggles against the Cubs, and with a leadoff walk to Happ, the tying run was on base. Three batters later, it was Dansby Swanson keeping the inning alive as he worked another walk to put two runners on, and Patrick Wisdom coming to bat. Despite his struggles at the plate again this season, Wisdom has the power to deliver a home run with every swing, and that looked to be the case here, only to have Brendan Donovan haul it in just in front of the Ivy to seal the Cardinals 2-1 win. The loss now makes nine series losses in their last 10 with the White Sox series as they only win. Happ led the Cubs with two hits, but they were held to five hits in the loss. Chicago will now shift their focus to San Francisco on Monday as they open a three-game set with the Giants.
