The Cubs got off to such a promising start tonight with three runs on three hits, three walks and a few well-placed balls in play through the first two innings. And the fun wasn’t just limited to the offensive side of the ball — fill-in starter Mark Leiter Jr. only had to face seven batsmen to make his first six outs. And the Cubs looked like they were ready to head to a W.
But they went on autopilot too early and only scored ONE hit after the second inning, and it all fell apart from there.
In an achingly long and slow game, we watched helplessly as Daniel Vogelbach put the Pirates on a run with a two-run blaster as Wil Crowe (and the rest of the Pirate pitchers) shut down the Cubs’ offense. and when Ethan Roberts threw cutter after cutter after cutter before the Pirates’ go-ahead went over the plate (seriously, 25 of 30 of his pitches were cutters, including a particularly bad set of six-straights to Yoshi Tsutsugo that led to a go-ahead double).
Roberts still has a lot to offer and this pitch is still good in isolation, but he/the Cubs/advanced scouts/pitching coach/whoever needs a different plan of attack next time.
Meanwhile, Seiya Suzuki struck three times tonight, including a late on three straight fastballs in the zone, with the game-changing run 90 feet away. Oh, the Cubs also burned their top three helpers — Rowan Wick, Mychal Givens, and David Robertson — in a loss to the Pirates (okay, it wasn’t actually a bad idea to use these guys because they (1) still needed the work and (2) keeping the Cubs at bay…but I’m not in the mood for logic right now).
I didn’t enjoy this game. Every 3 hours and 35 minutes of it.
full box score.