This series has felt like “opposite day.”
I’m sure you remember the days when the Cubs were scoring in double figures and smashing home run after home run.
It feels like a very, very long tima ago… but as you know, what I’m describing happened just last weekend against the Cardinals, when the Cubs scored 28 runs and smashed 11 home runs.
Now? Another loss to the Twins, 4-2, and the two runs scored on balls that didn’t even leave the infield.
You knew something bad was going to happen when Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the first. That one had to go to review before it was ruled a HBP (and Buxton eventually left the game, another in a long, long line of injuries for him). Buxton stole second, but Cade Horton retired the next two Twins. Then a single and double made it 2-0, and you’re probably thinking, “Didn’t we see this game yesterday?”
The first eight Cubs made outs, then Jon Berti, subbing for Matt Shaw, recorded the first Cubs hit of the evening. Unfortunately, Ian Happ was the victim of this good defensive play by Willi Castro to end the inning [VIDEO].
The Twins had added another run before that, on a Matt Wallner home run in the second, so when the fourth began it was 3-0 Twins.
Kyle Tucker led off that inning with a single. Seiya Suzuki walked and after Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out, Michael Busch walked to load the bases.
Dansby Swanson then hit this ball toward shortstop [VIDEO].
That made it 3-1 and the bases remained loaded. Then this happened [VIDEO].
Nico Hoerner beat that double-play relay and the Cubs were within one at 3-2, still with two runners on. But Reese McGuire flied to center to end the inning.
The Twins scored a run in the bottom of the fourth on a misplay by McGuire. With Wallner on first and Royce Lewis on third and two out, Wallner broke for second [VIDEO].
At that point, McGuire needs to fake the throw to second and get Lewis, who was coming down the line. Wallner stayed in a rundown long enough to allow Lewis to score before being tagged out, and it was 4-2 Twins.
Everyone could have gone home at that point because the Cubs offense completely vanished. They had just one baserunner, a one-out single by Busch in the sixth, over the game’s last five innings. Cubs relievers did well enough to keep the game close — Ryan Brasier, Ryan Pressly and Drew Pomeranz threw 3⅓ shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out three. So that’s good. Pressly, in fact, made a nice defensive play [VIDEO].
But the lack of offense is… well, as I said, it was there just a few days ago. Hopefully, it will return soon.
Here’s a brief summary of this series from BCB’s JohnW53:
This is just the third of their 31 series in which the Cubs lost the first two games.
The first time was the two season-opening games against the Dodgers in Tokyo.
The second was June 23-24 at St. Louis. The Cubs won the third game there, then a fourth game as well, shutting out the Cardinals in both.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
The Brewers won Wednesday, completing a sweep of the Dodgers, and now trail the Cubs by 1½ games. That is the smallest Cubs division lead since May 19, when they lost to the Marlins. They followed that loss by winning 10 of their next 12. That would be something good to do right now.
Maybe it’s Target Field. The Cubs have lost the last four games they’ve played there. Hopefully that streak ends this afternoon, when the Cubs will try to salvage the final game of this three-game series. Colin Rea will start for the Cubs and Chris Paddack will go for Minnesota. Game time is 12:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Twins market territories).
The BCB game preview for today’s game will post at 10 a.m. CT.