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player ready...Going six innings between hits isn’t a recipe for offensive success.
Two costly outs on the bases don’t help either. Failing to record an extra-base hit while being limited to four hits total won’t result in many wins. The Chicago Cubs hit the trifecta in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Athletics, squandering right-hander Jameson Taillon’s quality start.
Any momentum the Cubs hoped to capture after ending their 10-game losing streak last week in Pittsburgh hasn’t happened. They’ve gone 3-3 since the skid and the same issues remain, largely surrounding the offense. When they do get strong outings from their starters, the Cubs too often are failing to take advantage.
“This has been a wake-up call,” Taillon said. “I hope for everyone — it definitely has been for me. Nothing’s going to be handed to us, and the Brewers are for real again. They’re a very good team. Our division’s really good. The league’s really tough, and it’s going to take a lot of work to dig ourselves out of this.”
Taillon’s best start in nearly a month (6 1/3 innings, two runs, six hits, one walk and six strikeouts) positioned the Cubs to pull out a win to start the homestand. Putting in the work goes only so far. Results still matter, and the lineup struggled to put much pressure on the A’s and Gage Jump in the left-hander’s second career start.
Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong bookended the Cubs’ offensive production. Their back-to-back singles to open the game against Jump created an early chance on a night when runs likely would be scarce with a stiff 10 mph wind blowing in at Wrigley Field.
Alex Bregman’s groundout to third scored the game’s first run, but a chance to add on was snuffed out when A’s catcher Shea Langeliers easily threw out Crow-Armstrong attempting to steal third.
Manager Craig Counsell saw Crow-Armstrong’s steal attempt as the type of aggressive baserunning he wants when the Wrigley wind isn’t favorable for offense.
“There’s risk, but I just didn’t really execute it very well,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I had a good jump and kind of hesitated, and you’ve got one of the best throwing catchers in the league behind the plate. … I think my head was in the right place there in terms of trying to get to third with one out and one of our better hitters up. I just didn’t execute it very well, and if I’m safe there, I’m probably pretty pumped about it.
“But I look back at that, and if we’re talking about trying to get momentum, when a guy’s working his way through the order pretty quickly, I look back to that first inning, something I’d probably go reevaluate or at least talk to some guys about and try and get some better insight on.”
The Cubs (32-29) created more traffic in the second; again, it culminated in a missed opportunity.
Their scouting report indicated the A’s tend to throw to second on a steal attempt when runners are on the corners. Kevin Alcántara tried to get into a rundown to allow Ian Happ to score from third before a tag out. But Langeliers’ throw took second baseman Jeff McNeil into the running lane, and Alcántara didn’t stop running to second early enough, allowing McNeil to easily tag him out before Happ scored to end the inning.
Instead of stealing a run, the Cubs couldn’t capitalize on their game plan. After the second, they had only one runner reach scoring position until Hoerner (walk) and Crow-Armstrong (single) reached base to begin the ninth.
“They’re going to throw, and Langeliers can be a little erratic with the throws — that happened,” Counsell said. “We didn’t coach it well enough in terms of getting a stop from the runner so that we could get in a rundown and let the run score.
“We’ve got to create more offensive opportunity. I mean, there’s two outs there, we’ve still got to get a hit to score a run there. We didn’t execute that play. Obviously, that’s not good enough.”
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The Cubs’ multiweek collective offensive woes have created small margins for the pitching staff. Tuesday marked the ninth time the Cubs have scored one run or fewer since May 9.
Dansby Swanson’s slump has been so pronounced — batting .171 with a .260 on-base percentage in his last 38 games — that Counsell pinch-hit lefty Moisés Ballesteros in the bottom of the eighth, seeking a matchup that gave the Cubs home-run potential even if it meant sacrificing some defense by losing Swanson at shortstop for the top of the ninth.
The Cubs hunted for offense against the A’s but kept coming up short.
“It’s still important to recognize that we’re, I guess, almost halfway,” Crow-Armstrong said. “There’s still a lot of time left, but you don’t want to fall into a trap of getting too comfortable when stuff isn’t going very well. There comes a time when you do want to turn it around, and it kind of has to.”