Bad send saddles Cubs with another frustrating loss
Instead of making their own breaks, the Cubs continued to just break things.
Back at Wrigley Field on Friday, the Cubs lost another tough one to Cincinnati 5-4. The memorable play was Nick Madrigal getting thrown out at home plate trying to tie the game in the ninth inning.
That was a rough mistake, but the Cubs continued to make losing plays all day long, which combined with their lack of hitting, explains why they've lost eight of the last nine games.
Trailing 5-3, there were runners on first and third with one out in the ninth when Seiya Suzuki dropped a soft liner near the left-field line for a double. Third base coach Willie Harris sent Madrigal around from first, but there were a couple of problems.
One was Reds left fielder Jacob Hurtubise fielded the ball cleanly, snagging it on a short second bounce. The other issue was that shortstop Elly De La Cruz was waiting for the cutoff throw. With one of the strongest arms in the game, De La Cruz unloaded an accurate 90-plus fastball that nailed Madrigal with ease.
Cody Bellinger stepped up next and ended the game with a flyout to right field. Had Madrigal stayed at third, that would have been a tying sacrifice fly, in theory. But it's also possible the Reds would have walked Bellinger with first base open and faced Christopher Morel with the bases loaded.
Harris spoke to reporters after the game and admitted he made the wrong choice.
“I know who the outfielder is, I know his arm strength isn't plus-plus,” Harris said. “I took a chance on trying to score right there, it didn't work out for us, unfortunately for me and for the team. You have to be aggressive and you have to try to score runs.
“I know Belli was coming up next and my mindset was they're probably going to walk him. If he's safe, it's a different story, but they made a play, tip your cap to them.”
The frustrating moments didn't begin with the play at the plate. When Madrigal was at-bat, pinch-hitting for Patrick Wisdom against Reds closer Alexis Diaz, he appeared to be hit by a pitch, which would have loaded the bases with nobody out. But plate umpire Brennan Miller ruled the ball hit the knob of the bat and called it a foul ball.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell was ejected for arguing the call and a replay review didn't change anything.
“It hits some of your hand, it hits some of the bat,” Counsell said. “You can't tell. It's too hard for replay to tell. It's too hard to overturn. So the call on the field is what matters. Nick made a clear sign he got hit and (the umpire) said it hit the bat. I knew once they called it a foul ball, it wasn't going to change.”
Madrigal ended up hitting into a force play at second base, setting the stage for Suzuki's double.
There were plenty of other issues for the Cubs. Dansby Swanson was thrown out after rounding third base too far on Pete Crow-Armstrong's infield single to end the fourth inning. Hector Neris gave up a run in the top of the ninth to make it a 2-run deficit. Drew Smyly walked the leadoff man in the seventh, ahead of a pinch-hit 2-run homer by Santiago Espinal, which put Cincinnati ahead 4-3.
Espinal has just 14 home runs in five major-league seasons. Another fun fact is the Reds were 1-11 in 1-run games this season heading into Friday's action.
And once again, the Cubs didn't provide enough offense. A 2-run homer by Ian Happ, his fourth this week, put them ahead 2-0. But their third run was a gift, the result of a hit batter and three walks.
Starting pitcher Javier Assad worked 5⅓ innings and was charged with 2 earned runs.
Counsell had been thrown out of the game by the time Madrigal was thrown out at the plate and didn't have much to say about the decision.
“Look, Willie has been fantastic and his aggressiveness has got us a lot of runs this year,” Counsell said. “It didn't work this time.”
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