Cubs Stumble Against Marlins, Drop Fourth Straight

The Chicago Cubs (47-24) couldn’t manage to overcome timely hitting by the Florida Marlins (39-34) and surprisingly good pitching by Wei-Yin Chen. They drop the first game of the four-game set by the score of 4-2 (Box Score).

The Cubs managed to tie the game in the top of the eighth inning on a lead-off home run by David Ross. The score was 2-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth. That’s when Pedro Strop got wild and the Marlins took advantage by scoring two runs off him to re-take the lead.

The Cubs had a chance in the top of the ninth inning with the bases loaded and one out. That was as close as they’d get. Kyle Barraclough struck out Chris Coghlan and got Ben Zobrist to fly out. Game over.

Stats that mattered

• Jon Lester was good, again – 7IP, 2R, 5H, 3BB, 7Ks, 2HRs
• The Cubs offense was stalled. Seven players each had a hit with only two for extra bases, including the Ross home run.
• The Marlins starting pitcher, Chen, who is marginal at best, put up an almost identical line to Lester – minus the two home runs.

Bottom line

During the course of the season good teams lose games, a lot of games. No one is immune to it. For the 2016 Cubs, they’ve seemingly done it all, mostly good. Well, now they’ve lost four straight games. They could turn around and win 10 straight just like that. I certainly expect that they’ll win a bunch more games before the all-star break with 10 0f 17 more games against sub-.500 teams. And they still have the best record in baseball, although that lead is shrinking.

Next up

The Cubs face the Marlins on Friday at 6:10 PM CDT. Kyle Hendricks (5-6, 2.94 ERA) will look to stop the bleeding.