The Cubs delight themselves on their protection and baserunning. Plus, they’ve spent the primary month of the season hitting the snot out of the ball.
However going 0-for-3 on that entrance is a troublesome method to win a ballgame.
After knocking round Diamondbacks pitching for 2 days, the Cubs’ offense — which entered the day because the highest-scoring group in MLB — went quiet, and there was no sweep available, due to a 3-2, 11-inning loss Sunday.
Three of the primary 4 Cubs batters reached in opposition to D-backs starter Merrill Kelly in a backside of the primary inning interrupted by an hourlong rain delay. Michael Busch, the primary batter after play resumed, hit an RBI single. It was the Cubs’ final hit till the eighth, with the subsequent 17 batters taking place so as.
The Cubs mustered solely 4 hits on the day. However that wasn’t the one side by which they regarded uncharacteristically shaky, given their early-season success.
Second baseman Nico Hoerner dropped a throw from reliever Jordan Wicks within the high of the tenth, turning a sacrifice-bunt try right into a run-scoring error.
‘‘It’s a 50-mile-an-hour throw,’’ Hoerner stated after the sport. ‘‘I ought to catch the ball.’’
Hoerner managed to seek out on the spot redemption with a tying single to start out the underside of the tenth. However after the D-backs cashed in one other free runner within the eleventh, the Cubs couldn’t match, with free runner Jon Berti doubled off second base on Ian Happ’s screaming liner proper on the shortstop.
‘‘We made a mistake there,’’ supervisor Craig Counsell stated. ‘‘We made a few different execution errors. We didn’t get a bunt down.
‘‘We additionally received 4 hits in 11 innings.’’
Each lineup, irrespective of how sturdy, goes to have days like that. The errors within the subject and on the bases are virtually certainly gnawing on the Cubs greater than an off-day on the plate.
There goes Naylor
Maybe no second from the sport will stick within the reminiscence greater than the D-backs’ Josh Naylor scampering down the third-base line on an tried straight steal of house in opposition to Wicks to finish the highest of the eleventh.
Naylor, not precisely identified for his pace, tried to catch Wicks off-guard and lengthen his workforce’s lead in a one-run sport. However Wicks threw house in time, with catcher Carson Kelly making use of the tag for the out on a close-enough play that the D-backs challenged the decision. The video evaluation confirmed the decision on the sector.
Whereas it might need been a head-scratching transfer to these watching, the Cubs weren’t fairly as stunned.
‘‘He’s on our report for being a man who will take a bag in case you don’t concentrate,’’ beginning pitcher Jameson Taillon stated after the sport. ‘‘Perhaps not house, however he’s positively a man who will likely be opportunistic with working. He can really feel when guys aren’t being attentive to him, and he’ll attempt to go. We’re conscious of that.
‘‘That was sort of shut.’’
It was the second time within the sport Naylor was thrown out at house, following his unsuccessful try to attain from third on a grounder within the fourth.
Rehab outings replace
Climate circumstances postponed Triple-A Iowa’s sport Sunday, delaying beginning pitcher Javier Assad’s scheduled rehab begin, which was pushed to Tuesday, Counsell stated.
Counsell additionally stated rehabbing reliever Tyson Miller, who pitched 1„ innings Saturday, is scheduled to pitch on consecutive days someday in the course of the week.
