Just One of Those Days, Cubs Fall Short

You can’t win ’em all. The Major League baseball season is long and sometimes things just don’t go your way, even for the best teams. Today was one of those days for the Cubs. Going into the season you know these days are going to happen but that doesn’t make it any easier. It was literally a comedy of errors, as the Cubs committed four of them and lose 6-1 to the Rockies (Box Score).

The Good

Kyle Hendricks was steady through five innings today. He allowed four hits, one run and stuck out four batters. He was hitting the strike zone consistently and had control over the game up to that point.

The Bad

The Cubs offense finally relented today. After crushing the ball the first nine games of the year I guess they were bound to slow down, at least for a game. They didn’t manage to get a runner into scoring position today until the fifth inning.

In the fifth, the Cubs had runners on first and third with only one out and Hendricks coming up to bat. Hendricks was pitching well, but with the offense sputtering I wonder if it would’ve made sense to pinch hit for him at that point in the game. The bullpen has performed well this year and there are going to be games where the Cubs will need to fall back on them.

Joe Maddon decided to let Hendricks hit and, while it’s difficult to say what could’ve happened, the outcome was that no runs scored in the inning. The following inning Hendricks gave up three hits and two runs. He was eventually pulled in the seventh inning with no outs after he surrendered a single that eventually scored, making the score 4-0. Again, hindsight is perfect but this series of events ended up being costly for the Cubs.

The Ugly

To say the Cubs defense had a tough day today would be an understatement. It was one of those ‘if it can go wrong it will’ kind of days. They committed four errors, two by Kris Bryant, en route to their second loss of the year.

Momma said there’s be days like this but she never said they’d be easy. This one stings after the Cubs have made everything look so simple up to this point. Just a reminder that baseball is never easy and there are always going to be games where things just don’t go your way.

Next Up

The Cubs will look to rebound from today as they take on the Rockies again tomorrow at 1:20 CDT. Jake Arrieta will be on the mound for the Cubs.

If one things for certain, it’s nice to know Jake will be there tomorrow after a day like today.