Baseball is a sport so full of seemingly random fluctuations with influential consequences that you can often just notice “puppy, baseball” and people know what you mean.
However, it is not often that three things go against you in quick succession as they did for the Cubs in the 9th inning yesterday. You had * eh him * border calls two desperate walks against Josh Hader in outs. You had Javy Báez pull out an El Mago on first base, only to be re-called by a juuuuuust barely tag. And you had Nico Hoerner fighting in a 100.4 mph line drive at 13 degree air, a combination that is a hit 91% of the time … right in a glove. Every three of those situations could easily have been the other way around, and the outcome could have been completely different. All three went against the Cubs.
By expanding the range, it’s not so common for three games in quick succession to go against you as they did this weekend for the Cubs. Games with one run are not very “loud”, but they are, by their nature, pretty close! So losing three of them in a row to the Brewers is a bit of a flukey thing, even though we know that many of the underlying causes are absolutely attributable to the Cubs’ performance. But if a Brewers baseball finds a hand here like a Cubs liner grasses there when a call goes out the other way, the Cubs will only lose one or two of those games, and we’ll talk about the weekend completely differently. I try to keep perspective in the morning after these things.
Not one of those is to say that this weekend in fact suuuuuuck not.
The Cubs had a chance to knock the Brewers out of the division camp in mid-August, which is a theme that wins too much in the air for Cubs fans. We’ve seen this shit before in recent years, and it’s deeply frustrating. Credit to the Brewers where to thank But also debut at the Cubs where this comes from. This team just gives them problems when the calendar hits August and September.
The weekend sucked, too, because it saw the Cubs ‘bats stretch out 53 times (!) In the four-game series against the Brewers, which felt like – while watching – it said a lot more about the Cubs’ bats than about the Brewers’ arms. Deep counts are good, and some talks the Cubs did not go that way, but the team’s whiff rate has risen to 11.6%, the 4th worst in the NL. Can’t and doesn’t have to.
In particular, Kris Bryant, Javy Báez, and Willson Contreras all look deeply flown in snails bound by a sudden inability to barrel the ball consistently, which might just be small randomness of the sample, but when combined with all the strikeouts ? It’s more concerning than normal, and since it’s all three at once, it’s even more harmful.
The weekend ek sucked because it saw Tyler Chatwood go to the IL with a strap off his back and Jason Heyward shrugged because of a back strain (apparently not caught by Chatwood). Jose Quintana will not be ready to return for the doubleheader this week. Jon Lester and Alec Mills could not keep up with the incredible ERAs.
Sheet metal. It all just felt so bleak. The Cubs were certainly a bit lucky this year – they wanted to after such a weekend – but it was still … just … bleak.
I remember looking for this kind of bleach in May, hoping desperately that I even had the chance to get deeply frustrated by Brewers pitchers by umpires by Cubs bats by Orlando GD Arcia. I should be thankful that I get pissed myself.
But hey, it would not be authentic if I did not in fact feel the feelings, and then I have to convince myself that baseball is sometimes baseball. Well, you turn the page to this crazy Cardinals series, and just hope the Cubs’ real performance improves, they get a break like two, and can take at least three out of five.
