ATLANTA — It’s solely the primary week of the season. How a lot can this sluggish begin actually matter for the Cubs this early, proper?
Don’t attempt that nonsense with Cubs elder statesman Ben Zobrist.
“It does matter. It will matter at the end of the season,” stated Zobrist, who has skilled all the things from final place to World Series MVP in his profession.
“These games will matter, definitely,” he stated. “We know that. Every little game matters. That’s why people are talking about it and caring about it, because everybody knows that it matters.”
Six of the ultimate seven batters Yu Darvish reached base as he didn’t pitch out of the fifth on Thursday night time in opposition to the Braves.
It issues sufficient that supervisor Joe Maddon toured the clubhouse speaking to gamers and coaches individually after Wednesday night time’s loss, which featured a lead blown within the eighth inning. That was the identical night time veteran pitcher Jon Lester stated he thought the staff was “pressing” due to its emphasis on getting off to a quick begin.
“I don’t know if the word’s ‘pressing,’ ” Maddon stated. “But definitely is this trying too hard? Is that ‘pressing’? I don’t even know. Definitely guys are so invested.”
Then got here Thursday’s 9-Four loss to the Braves that wasn’t practically that shut — with Atlanta’s Max Fried taking an ideal recreation two outs deep into the sixth and the Cubs’ bullpen melting down once more after taking on a 1-Zero recreation within the fifth.
Just like that, the Cubs have misplaced 5 consecutive video games and already are 4½ video games out of first simply six video games into the season.
“The stunning part is just that we’ve given up so many leads late,” stated Maddon, who has seen the bullpen blow leads as soon as within the seventh and twice within the eighth already. “I did not anticipate the pen having such a difficult time early. I did not see that coming.”
The Cubs didn’t lose 5 in a row final 12 months till May and didn’t lose six in a row in any respect.
They haven’t been 1-5 since 2012, once they misplaced 101 video games, and haven’t had a dropping document by six video games since 2014, once they completed final.
Pressing?
“It’s hard to know who would be doing that and who isn’t,” Zobrist stated. “I’m looking at execution just like everybody else. Are we executing as a team? There’s some things we’ve done well. There’s some things we obviously haven’t done well execution-wise early.”
Even if you happen to throw out the six-error loss Monday, the bullpen has been a large number. And that features Thursday night time, simply earlier within the recreation.
Yu Darvish, who pitched higher than his seven-walk debut final week, stated he felt nice, however allowed six of his ultimate seven batters to achieve base, together with a double and stroll to start out the fifth.
It unraveled from there, when Carl Edwards Jr. walked his first batter to load the bases, unleashed a wild pitch to permit a run to attain after which walked the opposite batter he confronted to reload the bases.
Enter Tyler Chatwood. Exit Nick Markakis’ drive to middle for a three-run double.
By the time the inning was over, the Cubs trailed 6-0, and it was 9-Zero earlier than they scored 4 within the ninth.
“It’s just the first week and we still have how many games to go — 156 games or something?” stated Darvish, who deadpanned he might throw 200 pitches in his subsequent begin. “Nothing to worry about.”