Cubs offense struggles in loss to Pirates |
CHICAGO — It's hard to believe that the Chicago Cubs (26-22) have been above .500 since virtually the second series of the season. However, dating back to when they swept the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field in mid-April, this team has been an under .500 team, and that shouldn't surprise you when you look at their offense since that series.
It was that sweep against Houston when Cody Bellinger got hurt, which was also the last time you could make the case that the lineup was as healthy as it had been all season. While Bellinger may be back, the Cubs are down Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner right now as the hits keep coming. No one is going to make an excuse for this team, but at some point, you had to think the injuries would catch up to this team, which they have lately. Injuries or not, there are no more excuses for this offense, as the Cubs' offense has been one of the worst in baseball the entire month of May, and that continued against the Pittsburgh Pirates (22-26) all weekend long. Sure, this team has run into some good pitchers like Jared Jones, Paul Skenes, and even Mitch Keller today, but the overall body of the week hasn't been great, as the Cubs have failed to deliver far too often. That was the case again in this one as the Cubs were out-hit by the Pirates 10-2 and fell to the Pirates 3-2 on Sunday for the series loss. I don't care how bad a team is, you aren't going to win very many games with two hits as the Cubs offense is about as cold as they can be right now. Looking to bounce back from his worst start of the season was Jameson Taillon, who wasn't terrible but far from his best. Taillon pitched into the fifth, but couldn't finish the fifth as he allowed three runs on six hits. He walked two and struck out two as his ERA has risen to 2.20. Keller, on the other hand, continued to do his thing on the mound as he walked three and struck out three in six innings. He allowed two runs on two hits and has now gone 41 consecutive starts of at least five innings, allowing three runs or less. Any manager will take that every fifth day, as Keller has turned into a manager's dream the past two seasons. While the Cubs offense may be struggling, the Pirates offense hasn't, as they scored first on a Jack Suwinski homer in the second to take a 1-0 lead. Given that Keller was on the mound and the Cubs had just two hits, one run was looking to be enough, but it was the Cubs offense that battled back in the bottom half of the third. After wasting a golden opportunity to potentially take the lead in the second, Mike Tauchman picked up the Cub's first hit as his one-out triple set the Cubs offense up in a great spot. Seiya Suzuki capitalized on that opportunity as his sinking line drive to center may have been caught, but it resulted in a sacrifice fly to tie things up 1-1. Mike Tauchman triples, and Seiya drives him in! pic.twitter.com/2YywS2oP0E Keller finished the inning without further damage, which set the tone for the Pirates in their half of the fourth. Not only did Nick Gonzalez stay hot with a leadoff single, but Suwinski worked a walk shortly after as the Pirates put the first two men on base to begin the fourth. Credit Taillon for battling back as he struck out Yasmani Grandal for the first out before getting Rowdy Tellez to ground into an inning-ending double play to keep things tied. Hoping for similar results in the fifth, Taillon walked Andrew McCutchen with one out in the fifth before an infield single from Bryan Reynolds set the offense up. Taillon was removed shortly after in favor of Hayden Wesneski, and after he walked Connor Joe, it was the Pirates who had the bases loaded and two outs. That is when the big blow of the game happened as Gonzalez came through with yet another massive hit as his RBI single pushed across the eventually go-ahead and game-winning run to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead. Pittsburgh continued to keep the pressure on Wesneski in the sixth with a pair of singles, but the right-hander escaped trouble to keep his team within striking distance. Just like when the Pirates scored earlier in the game, the Cubs offense came out strong in the bottom of the sixth as Suzuki took one off the hand to reach base. That was followed by the Cubs second and final hit of the game as the Cody Bellinger double put the tying run on second with no outs and Christopher Morel coming to bat. One day, after playing hero with a walk-off single, Morel had a chance to be the hero again as he connected for a long fly ball to the left. Any other day, that would've been a three-run shot, but with the wind blowing in, all the Cubs could muster was another sacrifice fly as they pulled within 3-2. With Ben Brown now on to pitch for the Cubs, the hard-throwing righty did pitch into some trouble in each of his first two innings, but most importantly, he found a way to pitch out of trouble as it was the Cubs keeping things close 3-2. Despite their struggles most of the season, the Pirates bullpen pitched extremely well all series, with Colin Holderman and Aroldis Chapman making quick work of the Cubs in the seventh and eighth before turning things over to David Bednar in the night. Bednar couldn't have gotten off to a much worse start this season, but dating back to the Cubs series in Pittsburgh, he seems to be turning it around, which isn't what the Cubs wanted to see in the ninth. With two quick outs putting the Cubs down to their last out, Michael Busch kept the inning alive as he worked a two-out walk. Busch was lifted for Pete Crow-Armstrong, who promptly stole second to put the tying run on second. That was as close as the Cubs would get as Bednar got Patrick Wisdom to fly out to end the game and closed out the series victory 3-2. The Cubs will now enjoy an off day before closing their homestand with the Atlanta Braves. On a side note, Ian Happ saw his on-base streak against the Pirates end this weekend as it reached 64 straight games. Well done, Keeho! 👏@P1H_official pic.twitter.com/Alpuamy7Xw "Not a lot of pressure today, for sure."
Craig Counsell on the Cubs' offense. pic.twitter.com/RA68VkuFSC
