Red Sox 6, Cubs 1: ‘The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every time’

The Cubs had to settle for meatloafing the Red Sox.

Now, before you go all medieval on me for that headline, it’s attributable to Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, given in a postgame interview after he’d allowed four home runs in a game. Oddly, he lost that particular game 6-1, which is the same score by which the Red Sox defeated the Cubs Sunday at Wrigley Field.

This game featured a rare twin bullpen meltdown, with Ryan Pressly and Drew Pomeranz both serving up home run balls. It’s worth mentioning exactly because it’s been so rare, and the pen has been so good. Let’s just hope this was a one-off and they go back to pitching the way they have for most of the season.

Beyond that, the Cubs had Garret Crochet on the ropes in the second inning and ran themselves out of what might have been a bigger inning, and maybe Crochet is out of the game earlier.

The game went to the bottom of the second scoreless. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a double and Dansby Swanson hit a ball to short that Trevor Story couldn’t make a play on. So the Cubs had runners on first and second with nobody out.

PCA then got a little too daring dancing between second and third and got himself thrown out trying to steal. Here’s a comment from Craig Counsell on that play:

Swanson took second on the play and scored on this single by Ian Happ [VIDEO].

So the Cubs have a run in and a runner on second and one out. Justin Turner flied to right, and then Happ got himself caught trying to steal second.

I’ll let the run expectancy experts chime in here, but you should probably score more than one run when the first three men in an inning all have hits and one of those hits is a double.

Still, the Cubs kept the game close because Cade Horton was really sharp. He allowed just two hits and issued three walks, and no Red Sox runner got past first base until the sixth, when a leadoff walk was issued to Jarren Duran. He wound up on third on a routine ground ball to Matt Shaw at third base, and stayed there on another grounder to Shaw.

Caleb Thielbar was then summoned to pitch to Masataka Yoshida, who struck out.

Horton struck out four [VIDEO].

Here’s more on Horton’s outing [VIDEO].

Horton has been really good at Wrigley Field. In six starts at Wrigley he has a 2.12 ERA in 34 innings. Now, hopefully they can figure out how to replicate that on the road, where he has a 6.35 ERA in six games (five starts) covering 28⅓ innings.

So the game went to the seventh with the Cubs clinging to that 1-0 lead. Pressly issued a leadoff walk. Those are never good, and it got worse when Pressly served up a home run ball to Wilyer Abreu.

Even that might not have been terrible, a one-run deficit entering the bottom of the seventh. But the Cubs could not score. Nico Hoerner reached on a one-out error, but Kyle Tucker hit into a double play.

Then Pomeranz did the same thing as Pressly — issued a leadoff walk. Those are the worst, in my view, they can often lead to bad things. That was followed by a single by Roman Anthony, and a force play left runners on first and second with one out.

Alex Bregman, who did not start this game, was sent up to pinch-hit for Yoshida, and he smashed a three-run homer that essentially ended the game. Bregman hasn’t played many games at Wrigley — this was just his sixth career game at the Friendly Confines — and that was his first-ever home run at Wrigley Field. I’m sure you don’t need to see video of that.

About all those leadoff walks, from BCB’s JohnW53:

Cubs pitchers walked the leadoff batter in five innings. They had issued five such walks once before this season, on March 30, at Arizona. The last of those ignited an eight-run inning that resulted in the Cubs losing, 10-6.

The only other game in the past five years in which they walked as many as five to start innings was on April 1, 2021, Opening Day, when they walked six and lost at home to the Pirates, 5-3.

Ethan Roberts, who hadn’t pitched since July 4 with Triple-A Iowa, entered and served up another home run ball to Abreu before getting out of the eighth. Brooks Kriske, the proverbial “mop-up man,” threw a 1-2-3 ninth.

The Cubs went down 1-2-3 in both innings, and as the headline hints, some days it’s just not your day. Last note on this game from John:

Had the Cubs won, they would have become the first National League team to win five consecutive games against the Yankees and Red Sox in back-to-back series, in either order, during the same season.

In 1999, the Braves won four in a row, separated by the break for the All-Star Game, as the Cubs did this year.

The Cubs are 14-13 vs. the Red Sox and 9-19 vs the Yankees. The other NL teams combined are 244-334 vs. the Sox and 256-326 vs. the Yanks.

This recap is going to leave some unanswered questions because at posting time, the Cubs had not yet listed a starter for Monday’s game against the Royals. It could be a bullpen game. Chris Flexen could start. Or… just a thought… perhaps Roberts could be sent back to Iowa and Ben Brown recalled to start. Brown hasn’t thrown since the 13th, and he’s had two good outings since being sent down. We do know at this time that Noah Cameron will start for the Royals.

Also unanswered is the Cubs’ place in the NL Central standings. At this writing, the Dodgers and Brewers are tied 4-4 in the sixth. If the Dodgers can win, the Cubs will still lead the division by one game. If not, the Cubs and Brewers will be tied atop the NL Central.

Lots of baseball left, of course. Game time for Royals/Cubs Monday is 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.