Cubs winning streak ends against Orioles |
CHICAGO - Already with a season-high five-game winning streak heading into Sunday, the Chicago Cubs (33-38) looked to cap off a perfect home stand at Wrigley Field and push their winning streak to six. Considering the nature of their first five games of the homestand, the Cubs were taking care of business against two playoff-worthy teams, although the Baltimore Orioles (44-27) are a much better team than the Pirates.
The Orioles showed that on Sunday as they jumped all over starter Jameson Taillon who allowed four runs in 5 1/3 inning as Baltimore avoided the sweep with a 6-3 win and ended the Cub's winning streak at five. When it comes to Taillon, he has been much better of late, which is an excellent thing for this rotation. Through five innings on Sunday, Taillon was good yet again as he held the Orioles to just two runs before coming undone in the sixth. Anthony Kay and Michael Fulmer closed out the sixth inning for the Cubs, with Hayden Wesneski giving the rest of the pen a nice breather as he gave David Ross three innings of relief. Despite an ERA near 4.7 to start the game, Orioles starter Dean Kremer has had a good season as he was looking for win No. 5. Kremer had to battle through five innings, allowing three runs to go with seven strikeouts before his offense gave him the support he needed in the sixth to notch his eighth win. It was only a matter of time until Mike Tauchman hit his first homer with the Cubs, and that came in the bottom of the first when Tauchman delivered a leadoff homer to put the Cubs in front 1-0. Mike Tauchman - Chicago Cubs (1) pic.twitter.com/3uAi5D5Cc2
Playing with the lead is something they have done a lot in this series, and after Ian Happ worked a two-out walk followed by a Dansby Swanson single, the Cubs had a chance for more but came up short. The Cubs maintained that 1-0 lead into the fourth as Taillon had to work around base runners in each of the first three innings but did what he needed to do to keep the Orioles off the board. That can't be said about his fourth inning when Anthony Santander tied things up with a homer to start the fourth, which seemed to awaken the dormant Baltimore offense. That homer was followed by a Ryan O'Hearn single and a walk to set the offense up, while Ramon Urias cashed in with another single to make things 2-1 Orioles. Taillon would recover nicely and get his third double play in four innings to prevent further damage, but he was still trailing. Chicago was quick to answer as they benefitted from a two-out error in the bottom of the fourth to extend the inning. That error came around to score on another homer from Christopher Morel as he continued to mash the baseball and put the Cubs back in front of the Orioles 3-2. Christopher Morel - Chicago Cubs (13) pic.twitter.com/4AtSs5INRh
Although that was the final run of the afternoon for the Cubs, their bullpen has been solid during this homestand and entered the sixth with the lead and Taillon still working on the mound. This was when things started to unravel for Taillon as he walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth, followed by the Aaron Hicks double to put Baltimore in a great position to take the lead. That double was followed by a sacrifice fly from Urias to tie things up 3-3 and was the final hitter Taillon would face before being lifted for Kay. Since his call up from AAA, Kay has looked very good (although a small sample size), but eventually, you knew that would come to an end. Unfortunately, Sunday was the end as he allowed three straight singles to begin his outing, with Adam Frazier and Jorge Mateo driving in the go-ahead and winning runs to put the Orioles in front 5-3. Knowing how tough the Orioles bullpen has been this season, the Cubs knew they had their work cut out for them the rest of the way, but after pitches hit Miguel Amaya and Nick Madrigal in the seventh, Chicago had a chance to keep things interesting. Michael Bauman was able to wiggle out of that jam, but even worse than that was seeing Amaya leave the game following getting hit as the Cubs wait to see the severity of the injury. Still leading by two in the ninth, the Orioles were facing Wesneski for a third inning after he made things look easy in the seventh and eighth. This time however, it was a pair of two-out hits getting the best of the right-hander, with Hays extending the inning with a single before racing home on the Adley Rutschman double to put the Orioles in front 6-3 and only three outs to go. Looking to lock things down for the Orioles was the hard-throwing Felix Bautista, who not only picked up the save but did so in dominating fashion as he sent the Cubs down to secure the save and prevented a three-game sweep by Chicago. The Cubs had three hits in the game, as they couldn't get much of anything going offensively. Cubs manager David Ross gives an update on Miguel Amaya ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/yULYYpFvPx
