Marlins take a bite out of Cubs again |
MIAMI - When you looked at the Chicago Cubs' (14-13) upcoming schedule or at least this current 10-game stretch, you had to like their chances of winning six, if not seven, of those games. Then came the series against the Miami Marlins (16-13) at Loan Depot Park, which has many fans wondering if their excellent start to the year was a fluke.
After dropping back-to-back games to open their weekend set with the Marlins, the Cubs turned to their stopper Justin Steele in hopes of avoiding a sweep. Going back to July 1 of last year, Steele has been the best pitcher in baseball, and the ERA and numbers will back that up. Steele continued to pitch well and did his part on the mound as the Cubs left-hander gave the Cubs six strong innings of the three-run ball, although only two of those three runs were earned. Despite his outstanding effort on the mound, the Cubs offense struggled to get much of anything going against Bryan Hoenig and the Marlins staff as Miami pushed across the go-ahead run against Keegan Thompson in the eighth and swept the Cubs away 4-3. The win gave the Marlins three one-run victories in the series, as they are now 10-0 in one-run games this season. I know a series loss like this will cause a lot of fans to panic, but I want to urge you not to jump off the ledge quite yet. The Marlins are a very competitive team in their own right this season, and they have great pitching. For whatever reason, this team has given the Cubs fits the last few seasons, and that continued to be the case this weekend. Across the first two innings, both Hoenig and Steele were on top of their games as they allowed minimal baserunners to reach base. Once the third inning started, both offenses settled in as the Cubs struck first. Edwin Rios started things off with a rare hit as his leadoff double had the Cubs offense in business. Three batters later had Rios standing on third with two outs until Dansby Swanson came through with an RBI single to put the Cubs in front 1-0. Not to be outdone, the Marlins immediately kept the pressure on Steele in the bottom half of the third, with Garrett Hampson leading things off with a double before advancing to third on the Jon Berti single. Steele recovered to strikeout Garrett Cooper, but a costly passed ball on that pitch allowed Hampson to score and tied things up 1-1. Berti also advanced to third on the same play, which had even more complications later as he trotted home on the Luis Arraez single to put the Marlins in front 2-1. Arraez was the American League in batting average a season ago, and he is well on his way to doing it again this season only in the National League. After a rough first two games of the series that saw Seiya Suzuki bounce into several huge double plays, the right-hander led the top of the fourth off with a triple and came home to tie things up on a Cody Bellinger sacrifice fly. カブス 鈴木誠也 This was the one shot the Cubs had to break things open against Hoenig as Eric Hosmer picked up a two-out single to keep the inning alive, while Rios worked a walk ahead of a Yan Gomes hit-by a pitch to load the bases. That set the stage for arguably the Cub's best hitter, Nico Hoerner, who had a chance to deliver only to come up empty with a strikeout as the game remained tied. As good as Steele has been for the better part of 10 months, the Marlins seemed to have figured him out in the middle innings and kept the pressure on in their half of the fourth. Nick Fortes ripped a one-out single to get on base and then stole second to move himself into scoring position. That stolen base was pivotal for the Marlins as Steele struck out Bryan De La Cruz before allowing another go-ahead hit to Hampson, who doubled home Fortes to put the fish back in front 3-2. From there, Steele started to look like his old self as he retired seven of the final eight batters he faced to give the Cubs six strong innings. With the lead in hand, Skip Schumaker elected to go to his pen in the sixth as Hoenig was done for the day. First in for the Marlins was Andrew Nardi, who promptly allowed a game-tying solo homer to Bellinger to bring the game back to even 3-3. Cody Bellinger - Chicago Cubs (7) pic.twitter.com/qJEVUDqhgv That was a massive hit for Bellinger as he capped off a strong April and seems to be rounding into his old MVP form again. The Cubs kept the pressure on the Marlins bullpen in the seventh as Hoerner extended his on-base streak with a single off Matt Barnes before an intentional walk gave the Cubs a pair of runners. As they did so often in the series, the Cubs couldn't come away with a massive hit as the game remained tied. That was when David Ross went to his pen and called upon Michael Fulmer to pitch the seventh. Fulmer made quick work of the Marlins again while the Cubs offense set things up in the eighth. One-out singles from Patrick Wisdom and Trey Mancini gave the Cubs another great chance, only to see Nelson Velazquez ground into a double play to end the threat. Looking to send the game to the ninth tied was Thompson, as the right-hander has been as good as advertised this season. Despite some command issues occasionally, Thompson has been able to limit the damage, but that wasn't the case on Sunday. He walked Berti to lead things off before a Sanchez single put runners on the corners with no outs. Thompson managed to get Arraez out, but he lifted the ball deep enough into the outfield to plate the go-ahead run as the Marlins now led 4-3. Thompson would retire the next two hitters he faced, but the damage was done with the Cubs trailing by one and three outs to go. Needing a run to keep the game alive, the Cubs took their swings against the former Pittsburgh Pirate AJ Puk. Unfortunately, Puk made short work of the Cubs as he retired them to record his fifth save and gave the Marlins the sweep of Chicago. With nine hits, nearly every starter had a hit, with Swanson leading the way with two. Chicago will look to bounce back as they continue their road trip on Monday and begin a four-game set against Washington.
第2打席：三塁打
2023年5月1日 vsマーリンズ#鈴木誠也 #カブス
Seiya Suzuki Chicago Cubs pic.twitter.com/HoRzVezNMC
