HOUSTON – Cubs rising star Javy Baez struck out 5 instances on Monday – together with the ultimate at-bat of the sport with the potential tying run at first base – because the Cubs misplaced 6-5 to the Houston Astros.
Go forward, pile onto the social media blast and Twitter hand wringing that commenced as quickly Baez swung by means of the sport’s closing pitch, with David Bote on first and Anthony Rizzo on deck.
“If you look and play back the tape, I would bet 80 percent of those pitchers were balls – at least 70-75,” supervisor Joe Maddon stated with a slight smile. “But he hits these, too.
“The one stunning factor about Javy is I don’t assume he’s going to lose any sleep over that tonight.”
In reality, the final Cub to strike out 5 instances in a recreation was Baez, two years in the past.
“What’d he do the next day,” Maddon stated.
He hit a house run.
“Obviously, they pitched me out of the zone, and [Gerrit] Cole has got pretty good velocity on his fastball, and I kept chasing it,” Baez stated. “There’s no excuses. I’ll come back tomorrow and fight through it.”
That’s the factor about these Cubs, even on a day when their 2018 MVP runner-up appears to be like just like the strikeout-prone child he was early in his profession: The power-hitting, flash-fielding .310 hitter with the large arm and greater menace on the bases is the least of the Cubs’ issues.
On this present day or another.
Whether you consider that this sequence says something about what may occur in October, right here’s the larger drawback in May:
The Cubs have had simply 4 begins of six innings or extra of their final 13 video games, together with three begins of solely 4 innings in three of the final six.
Two of these belong to Monday’s starter, Cole Hamels, who gave up 4 hits and two walks in a five-run third that sunk the opener of this three-game sequence.
“It really puts that bullpen in a bad situation,” stated Hamels, who has simply 13 innings to indicate for his final three begins. “I think this is my third [short] start. It’s not good. I definitely need to make some corrections.”
It’s not simply Hamels. A rotation that was the spine for the Cubs’ rebound from a nasty opening week has struggled for 2 weeks.
During that 5-Eight stretch, the rotation has a 6.09 ERA, and a Cubs starter hasn’t been credited with a victory for the reason that final highway journey – when Kyle Hendricks gave up 4 runs and couldn’t get by means of the sixth inning in Washington.
The final full flip by means of the rotation, the starters are 0-Three with 24 earned runs allowed in 26 1/Three innings (8.20 ERA).
“Listen, Cole, Jonny [Lester], Kyle – we have a great group,” Maddon stated. “And I know they’ve been struggling a bit as of late, but that happens. They’d been nailing it for quite a bit. You’re going to struggle for a bit and then you’re going to come back and nail it again.”
The struggles seemed particularly conspicuous towards the backdrop of the power-pitching Cole, who struck out 12 in six innings with only one stroll and held the Cubs scoreless on two singles after Rizzo’s two-run homer within the first.
“It’d be nice to be able to run through the whole season with no regression and no bumps in the season,” stated Hamels, who referred to as it a case of “bad timing” with the Cubs in a five-week stretch with solely at some point off. “But all of know what we’re capable of doing, and we’ll be back to normal.”
Meanwhile, don’t blame the hitters who made this recreation shut – regardless of 17 strikeouts as a bunch towards Houston’s energy workers.
“After my third one, I told [Maddon] you could throw me a beach ball today, and I won’t hit it,” Baez stated. “But I’m always positive. I can do little things, on offense and defense. There’s no pressure. I’ll come back tomorrow to do it again.”