Royals 12, Cubs 4: This space intentionally left blank

That was… ugly.

The Royals hit four home runs Monday and crushed the Cubs 12-4 at Wrigley Field.

I lead this recap with that because of this, from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Royals went into this game having hit 77 home runs, second fewest of all teams. Only the Pirates had hit fewer, 66. This was just their second game with four. They hit more in only one game, seven.

For comparison, the Cubs have hit at least four homers in 13 games: eight with four, four with five and one with eight.

So where on Earth did THAT come from? Don’t answer that question, let’s just hope it never has to be asked again.

The Cubs actually led this game by three before losing by eight. (That’s 11 unanswered runs if you’re counting and, until now, you probably weren’t.)

We might have had a clue how this game was going to go when Seiya Suzuki struck out to end the bottom of the first. It was how he struck out that was notable [VIDEO].

Look at the pitch timer at the bottom of the screen. You can see Suzuki dawdling in the batters box when the rule says a batter must be ready to face the pitcher with eight seconds on the timer. Suzuki wasn’t. Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve seen that at Wrigley Field. Hopefully, it’s the last, at least for a Cubs hitter.

In the second, the Royals’ Jac Caglianone homered into the bleachers. Well, almost [VIDEO].

You can see a fan fall into the basket going for the ball. It was that kind of night. Thanks to Obvious Shirts for this:

The Cubs did have themselves a good second inning, though. Carson Kelly’s homer, his 13th, tied the game [VIDEO].

One out later, Dansby Swanson singled, and one out after that, Justin Turner doubled Swanson to third.

That brought up Matt Shaw [VIDEO].

Shaw is a hot hitter since the All-Star break, now 6-for-11 (.545) with two home runs. So that’s good! More on Shaw’s home run from John:

Matt Shaw’s three-run shot in the second inning was the Cubs’ 150th, making this just the second season in which they have hit 150 in their first 100 games.

In 2019, they did it in their 95th game, when Kyle Schwarber blasted a walk-off solo shot with one out in the 10th inning against the Reds.

That was on July 16. Their next-earliest date for their 150th was Aug. 1, in 2017, in their 105th game.

A three-run lead after two. What could possibly…

Well, you know the answer to that, and the Royals closed the gap in the fourth on a two-run homer by Salvador Perez.

Then the fifth was an utter disaster, and shocking because of the poor defense the Cubs played. The key to the entire inning was this play [VIDEO].

Ben Brown missed the base on what could have been a double play. Instead of two out and nobody on, there’s a runner on first and one out. After that, Kyle Isbel singled and a double by Jonathan India tied the game. An infield grounder that Brown couldn’t handle gave the Royals the lead and then a stolen base with a bad throw (error to Kelly) and a wild pitch made it a four-run inning for KC and a 7-4 lead. It was uncharacteristic poor defense from a team that’s generally airtight on the field.

That inning was it for Brown, who threw 63 pitches (43 strikes) and wound up allowing seven runs (six earned) with a pair of home runs given up. It wasn’t pretty and I just don’t know what the answer is for Brown, who threw very well in his two outings at Triple-A Iowa.

Still, it’s only 7-4 at this point and that’s not insurmountable… but it was on this night for the Cubs, who had just one baserunner from the fourth through seventh innings. Then a four-run inning off Chris Flexen in the eighth, including another homer by Perez, put the game out of reach.

Jon Berti made his third pitching appearance in garbage time in the ninth and recorded a 1-2-3 inning on only five pitches, so that was fun, sort of. Here’s the last out of that inning [VIDEO].

Here are postgame remarks from Craig Counsell [VIDEO].

As you likely know, the Brewers won Monday in Seattle, their 11th in a row, so the Cubs drop to a game out of first place, the first time they have not had at least a share of the top spot in the NL Central since April 3. I officially pronounce myself unconcerned about this. It’s July and there are 62 games remaining. Milwaukee’s not going to stay that hot forever and the Cubs are not going to look as bad as they have the last two days forever, either. “Flush this one and move on,” as they say. The Cubs are, incidentally, now 13-17 against left-handed starters, and no, I can’t figure that out either. The team’s overall OPS vs. LHP (.761) is very close to their OPS against RHP (.776), and so is their SLG (.443 vs. LHP, .449 vs. RHP). ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Last note on this game: Pete Crow-Armstrong didn’t start. It seemed as if Counsell was just giving PCA a day off against a left-hander, but that wasn’t the case (Bluesky link).

Matthew Boyd, the Cubs’ best pitcher this year, will try to stop the bleeding Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. His opponent will be left-hander Rich Hill. Hill, as you probably remember, made his MLB debut 20 years and a month ago, for the Cubs against the Marlins, one inning pitched in a game the Cubs were losing 8-0. Check out the boxscore from that game and who started for the Cubs that day!

Game time Tuesday evening is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.