The Cubs suffer their first three-game skid of 2025 in a 7-2 loss.
I put it all in the dek today. The Cubs lose 7-2. First three-game skid. That’s the story of the day. Jameson Taillon was tagged with four homers. It was overkill at some point. The Cubs offense mustered five hits and five walks. The two runs? Solo homers.
There haven’t been a lot of games where the Cubs have been outclassed this year. I can think of one in Japan where the Cubs just appeared out of their league. There was one against the Phillies. One against the Padres. Those three teams are a combined 40 games over .500. They are making a lot of teams look bad. There’s a fair chance that all four teams, including the Cubs, will participate in this year’s playoffs.
I can’t say enough that I’m not taking any of this lightly, I’m just not concerned yet. Even if the Cubs are swept this weekend (and I suspect they won’t), I will not believe the sky is falling. The Cubs are in a tough place right now. Also, I think they’ve earned a little bit of grace and patience from us. Do I love that they’ve lost seven of 12? Lord, no. But this is not the end.
What I am going to do is breeze through another recap and turn the page. Saturday evening, we welcome Cade Horton. Should be interesting. It is not often that a team has legitimate playoff aspirations and is eying a deep run where they also get good looks at multiple rookies. And not just rookies, but key rookies.
Pitch Count:
- Cubs 169, 8 IP, 39 BF
- Mets 152, 9 IP, 35 BF
I will stay with this element at least a few more weeks. For now, it’s actually highlighting the job the other team is doing. Cubs pitchers threw a ton of pitches, starting with Taillon throwing 100 pitches over four innings. Tom Cosgrove threw 29 pitches and might well be the move for Horton on the roster. He’s unlikely to be available Saturday and arguably shouldn’t throw Sunday.
Three Stars:
- The difference between this and the Heroes section is that I ignore game situation for the most part. Michael Busch had two hits, one a homer (and the other a double). He drove in a run and scored one.
- Cosgrove’s two innings of work saved at least one arm out of the pen. Given that Horton has not thrown even 80 pitches yet, that’s probably a good thing.
- Kyle Tucker homered. There wasn’t a lot of good in this one.
Game 39, May 9: Mets 7, Cubs 2 (22-17)
Fangraphs
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Nico Hoerner (.019). 1-4
- Hero: Nicky Lopez (.007). 0-1, 2 BB
- Sidekick(tie): Gavin Hollowell/Michael Busch (.006). Hollowell: IP, 4 BF, H, 2 K; Busch 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI, R
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Jameson Taillon (-.318). 4 IP, 22 BF, 8 H, BB, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 K (L 2-2)
- Goat: Dansby Swanson (-.064). 0-3, BB, DP
- Kid: Carson Kelly (-.048). 0-3
WPA Play of the Game: Francisco Lindor’s homer leading off the first. (.105)
*Cubs Play of the Game: Kyle Tucker’s homer leading off the fourth cut the deficit to four. (.042)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Wednesday’s Winner: Nico Hoerner received 98 of 167 votes.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
- Kyle Tucker +19
- Shōta Imanaga +11
- Ian Happ +8
- Miguel Amaya +7
- Nico Hoerner/Drew Pomeranz +5
- Matt Shaw/Julian Merryweather -7
- Ben Brown/Dansby Swanson -9
- Seiya Suzuki -9.5
Up Next: Tylor Megill (3-2, 2.50, 36 IP) for the Mets. It appears that Brad Keller and Cade Horton will carry the load in the Horton’s first major league appearance. Brad’s longest outing this season has been two innings and he’s done that as recently as a week ago. If the Cubs were to so choose, I suspect he could probably work one time through the order and then you’d hope Horton could go twice through while he gets his feet wet.