Cubs feeling competitive, despite 7-3 loss to Dodgers
This felt like a reality-check weekend for the Cubs.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers deposited three home run balls into the Wrigley Field bleachers, temporarily of course, and recorded a 7-3 victory to take three of four games in this series.
Whether that's good or bad reality is in the eye of the beholder. Combined with last weekend's series in L.A., the Cubs went 3-4 against a Dodgers team that is off to a relatively slow start, but won 111 games last year.
"It felt like playoff baseball a little bit," Cubs manager David Ross said. "We competed really well against them in a lot of games. I feel like we're right there. The big homers are the difference in the games, really."
The Cubs seemed to be in good shape when a Yan Gomes home run gave them a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Starter Marcus Stroman was cruising, but began the sixth with a walk, then gave up back-to-back home runs to Max Muncy and J.D. Martinez.
"Essentially it really was two pitches, that's how I was thinking about it after the game," Stroman said. "I felt very off mechanically from the onstart of that inning and I walked Freddie (Freeman) on four pitches, which you can't do."
Stroman's great start to the season came to an abrupt halt. He had an 0.75 ERA in his first four starts. Like his manager, Stroman was upbeat about the state of the Cubs (12-9).
"I think we're playing incredible baseball," Stroman said. "I think we have a great camaraderie, great flow, great vibe going on here.
"We see where we stack up against them. We know we can compete with them. We don't feel like we're way behind them. A few of these past games could went gone our way and didn't, but we know we're right there with them. We truly think we can compete with anybody in the league."
After taking Monday off, the Cubs should get another tough test from San Diego. The Padres (12-12) are also off to a somewhat slow start, but just got Fernando Tatis Jr. back from suspension.
The Cubs started fast Sunday against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, scoring twice in the first inning on RBI singles by Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki.
Stroman, who recorded his 1,000th strikeout in the third inning, talked about getting AL East vibes from this game, going back to his days in Toronto when he used to face Mookie Betts and Martinez on the Red Sox.
In the first inning, Stroman threw a pitch up and in to Betts, then struck him out looking. The second time up, Betts sent one two rows into the left-field bleachers to tie the score at 2-2.
"That pitch got away from me, obviously. I wasn't trying to go high and tight," Stroman said. "I love Mookie, man. I think he'll be a Hall of Famer. I think he's incredible for this game. I think he's an incredible role model for the youth. I don't have a bad think to say about Mookie ever.
"Obviously he got me on a sinker in. I feel like we're always playing games. I can tell when he's sitting on certain pitches and he's kind of going back and forth. We're going to have a lot more battles and I'm looking forward to all of them."
Trailing 5-3 in the ninth, Ross tried to navigate a confidence-booster for struggling reliever Michael Fulmer (8.68 ERA), but it didn't happen. He gave up a 2-run double to Betts to put the game out of reach. The Cubs did load the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Nick Madrigal grounded into a double play to end it.
"Bottom of the order there, he's had a lot of looks at lefties where he hasn't been locked in quite yet," Ross said of Fulmer. "Trying to get him a little bit of momentum going into the off day, it just didn't work out."
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