Cubs pitchers turn early lead into dismal Mil-walk-ee failure
MILWAUKEE - The day began with a chance for the Cubs to climb back into the division race and ended in dismal failure.
There's a new candidate for worst loss of the season. After taking a 6-0 lead in the third inning, the Cubs pitching staff broke down, giving up 8 walks while watching Milwaukee rally for an 8-6 victory on Monday afternoon.
The Cubs are now 1-6 since returning from London and dropped to 7 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central.
"I hate to say it, but I think they're must-win games," Cubs reliever Michael Fulmer said. "We're better than what we're playing right now, everybody in every aspect. When we have a lead like that, we're going to need to be able to hold it."
Fulmer was the one Cubs pitcher who had a productive day, tossing 2⅓ scoreless innings. He also took the first at-bat by a Cubs pitcher this season, getting the call after third baseman Nick Madrigal left the game with right hamstring tightness and DH Christopher Morel had to replace him.
The walk-a-thon began in the fourth inning when starter Drew Smyly issued two free passes to start the inning. The runners immediately stole second and third, but Smyly got the next two outs. Then Fulmer came on to finish the inning with no damage and preserve the 6-3 lead.
Fulmer got the Cubs through the sixth inning and there seemed to be no cause for concern in the seventh with Julian Merryweather, who retired two of the first three batters he faced. But then Merryweather walked two in a row to load the bases.
Manager David Ross was planning to use Mark Leiter Jr. in the eighth, so he wasn't warming up. Ross turned instead to left-hander Anthony Kay. His first pitch to Jahmai Jones was blasted over Cody Bellinger's head in center field for a 3-run double, tying the score.
Kay followed with a walk and hit batter to load the bases again. Leiter finally came on and started 3-0 to Brice Turang, but recovered to strike him out. In the eighth, though, Leiter gave up three singles and a sacrifice fly as the Brewers finally took the lead.
Ross was blunt in his postgame address.
"Throw strikes. Nine free passes with a 6-run lead early on just can't happen," he said. "We've got to throw strikes, challenge guys, make them earn it. We've got to be aggressive. Unacceptable.
"We've got to play better defense. (It's the) little things when you lose a game like this. Guys that have been really good weren't sharp today."
The Cubs weren't charged with any errors, so the defense Ross referred to was likely first baseman Jared Young having a bouncer by Christian Yelich slide under his glove and roll into the corner for a triple. The key hit in Milwaukee's 3-run third inning was a tough play, but that's what separates first-place teams from fourth-place teams.
The Cubs bullpen seemed to be on a nice path. After posting a 5.19 ERA in May, the relievers dropped it to 2.65 in June.
"The bullpen's been great," Fulmer said. "We had our talks before June telling ourselves we need to pick it up. I think today's just kind of a blip in the road. Everybody had trouble throwing strikes. Those days are going to happen.
"But we're a lot better than what we were today and we're going to need to figure it out for tomorrow. This is a huge four-game series with a division team. I think we'll figure it out."
Cubs batters battered Brewers starter Julio Tehran for 6 runs and 8 hits in the second and third innings. Then Tehran gather himself and retired nine of the next 10 hitters to get through 6 innings.
Madrigal and catcher Tucker Barnhart had 2 RBI each. Barnhart, Morel and Dansby Swanson collected 2 hits.
The best hope for the Cubs is they'll have their three best pitchers on the mound for the rest of this four-game series, starting with Kyle Hendricks on Tuesday.
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