Game Recap: PCA's mental error costly in Cubs loss to Cardinals |
Dustin Riese
· · 6 hours ago
ST. LOUIS - There is no question that the Chicago Cubs (46-33) are facing adversity for the first time this season, as things haven't gone their way as of late. Their struggles continued Tuesday night at Busch Stadium as the Cubs are finding new ways to lose during what has been their most brutal stretch this season.
While the pitching was terrible yet again, this game came down to one play as a costly mistake cost the Cubs a potential victory, as Pete Crow-Armstrong lost track of how many outs were in the fifth inning, leading to the St. Louis Cardinals' (44-36) eighth run. That error proved to be the difference as the Cardinals held on for another win, 8-7. Everyone knew the Cubs starting pitching would regress at some point this season, but no one expected them to regress this much this quickly as Jameson Taillon had his second straight rough outing. In what has become the norm lately, Taillon failed to make it to the fifth inning, as he was charged with eight earned runs in four innings, including three home runs. That makes 20 homers allowed by the Cubs staff over their last six after allowing just six the entire month of June up to this point. Sooner or later, the lack of innings from their starters is going to catch up to this team, and there does seem to be some of that happening right now. One thing Taillon has shown this season is that when he is on, he is capable of shutting anyone down, but when he's off, it gets ugly in a hurry. Two batters into the second inning and it was the Cardinals jumping in front 2-0 as Lars Nootbaar connected for his second homer in as many days to put the Cardinals front 2-0. After being held scoreless through two innings, the Cubs responded in a big way in the third and started to get after Michael McGreevy on the mound, as he too had a rough day on the mound. The right hander pitched into the fifth before being removed after 4 2/3, allowing five runs and striking out one. All five runs came in one inning as the bottom of the Cubs order had the offense in business. Singles from Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw appeared to be the jolt the Cubs offense needed only to have Ian Happ work a one out walk to load the bases. That came at the perfect time as the Cubs' big boppers were set to bat with Kyle Tucker cashing in with an RBI single that tied things up 2-2. One batter later and this was a 5-2 Cubs lead as Seiya Suzuki uncorked a three-run shot for his 21st homer of the season, tying his career high that he set last year. Immediately after taking the lead, Taillon began to serve it right back up as Brendan Donovan started things off with a leadoff single to begin the bottom of the third before a Masyn Wynn homer made this a 5-4 game. The Cardinals continued to rely on the long ball in the fourth, with Nolan Gorman adding his second homer of the series to make this a 5-5 game. St. Louis is just getting started in the fourth as they added three more runs to close out their four-run lead and finished it off leading 8-5. Wynn played a role in that by tacking on a two-run double to put the Cardinals in front for good before coming home to score on the infamous play mentioned above to give the Cardinals an 8-5 lead. From that point on, the Cubs had to play catch-up, and after putting a pair of runners on in the fifth, Chicago came up empty as Steven Matz got Pete Crow-Armstrong to line out to end the inning. St. Louis wasn't as lucky in the sixth as the Cubs' offense was doing their part to keep things close and/or potentially win this game. Dansby Swanson began the sixth with a leadoff single and the Cubs in position to tie things up. Two batters later and it was Hoerner coming through with his first homer of the season as a two-run shot to left pulled the Cubs within 8-7. Then came the seventh, where the Cubs not only had JoJo Romero on the ropes, but let a golden opportunity slip through their hands as PCA popped up a would-be bunt attempt to move runners over, thus resulting in a scoreless seventh. Crow-Armstrong was far from finished in this one, and considering he made the play that put the Cubs behind, he had a chance to play hero late and delivered a two-out single to keep things alive. That came after Kyle Tucker added a single himself as the Cubs had the tying run on third. Crow-Armstrong used his speed to turn that single into a double as the Cubs had a pair of runners in scoring position and only one out to work with. That batter was Swanson, who came into this at bat in desperate need of a huge hit. Instead, it was Ryan Helsley who won the war, getting Swanson to ground into an inning-ending grounder to lift the Cardinals 8-7. Hoerner was one of three Cubs to record three hits, joining Seiya Suzuki and Tucker as the big hitters in this one. “Go to sleep and wake up." “I didn’t do a good job of playing the game of baseball today.” “I’m aware that the last two haven’t been very good, and it needs to be better.” Craig Counsell addresses PCA’s mistake in the outfield tonight. pic.twitter.com/ztBUKKdQIt
PCA on how he will move on from today’s loss. pic.twitter.com/q0uEnEbTHz
Pete Crow-Armstrong after tonight’s loss. pic.twitter.com/5BkfDUUq1X
Jameson Taillon has allowed 13 ER over his last two starts. pic.twitter.com/OGuexYEJQs
