If I had told you before Monday's game that the Cubs would hold Bryce Harper to a 1-for-3 afternoon and that he would neither score a run nor drive one in, you'd have been pretty hopeful about this one, right?
The Cubs did exactly that, but the Nationals aren't a one-man team and they got solo homers from two players who had combined for five previous long balls this year in 247 at-bats. That was enough for a 2-1 Washington win over the Cubs on a pleasant Memorial Day afternoon in front of an almost-full house at Wrigley Field.
In fact, all the runs in this game scored on solo homers. The Cubs answered Denard Span's leadoff homer with a Kris Bryant blast in the bottom of the first. After Span's homer in the top of the inning, Ian Desmond singled and then Jorge Soler made a great grab of a foul fly down the right-field line. Tsuyoshi Wada got out of that inning with no further damage and the only real trouble he had the rest of his outing was loading the bases on Harper's double and two walks in the fourth. That he got out of with a strikeout of Michael Taylor.
The Cubs couldn't do anything with Tanner Roark after Bryant's homer. Roark allowed just two other singles and a walk until he was lifted after the fifth inning and 66 pitches, the longest he had gone all season, as this was his first start. Wada was similarly lifted, after one out in the sixth and 83 pitches.
We can debate this and likely will in the comments. Would you have taken Wada out at that point? He seemed to be doing well enough to finish the sixth, but three righthanded hitters were due up in Ryan Zimmerman, Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa (Espinosa, a switch-hitter, hits much better against lefties). So it seems that Joe Maddon made the right call lifting Wada at that point, but Justin Grimm was victimized by a two-out solo homer by Ramos.
Still, it's only the sixth inning and the Cubs still had chances against the Nats bullpen. Anthony Rizzo doubled with two out in the sixth and was stranded. Chris Coghlan singled with one out in the seventh, but pinch-hitter Mike Baxter hit into an inning-ending double play. Seriously, the Cubs need better bench players. And would you have hit Miguel Montero in that situation? He was going to have to come into the game anyway as Baxter was batting for David Ross.
After that the two bullpens shut things down, although the Nats got a runner to third in the seventh on an error by Rizzo, a sacrifice and an infield out. No runs scored off Jason Motte, Zac Rosscup and Hector Rondon from the seventh through ninth and Rondon had a nice nine-pitch inning, good to see after his failure against the Diamondbacks Friday night.
So it was up to the 2-3-4 hitters in Maddon's lineup against Drew Storen, who has been one of the best closers in the game this year. Coming into this game Storen had 20 appearances covering 19⅓ innings, with 14 saves. He'd been scored upon in two of those outings and since the second one -- his only blown save -- he had pitched in 14 games without being scored on, allowed eight baserunners in 13⅓ innings and struck out 18.
That made scoring off him a daunting task. Bryant was ruled to have struck out on a foul tip but stood at the plate, adamant that he had been hit on the elbow. The umpires sent the play to review and it was reversed quickly. You can see that here:
This one showed how well the replay-review system can work and the Cubs, for the first time, showed the play on the right-field video board, a great help for those of us who can't see the left-field board.
I was wondering whether this might rattle Storen, but it didn't. Rizzo popped to short left field, Starlin Castro flied to center and Soler struck out to end it.
This game was filled with fine defensive plays, from Soler's catch to a great grab by Nats left fielder Taylor on a sinking liner hit by Wada to several nicely-turned double plays on each side.
What can you do? The Cubs had their chances. The Nats were just a little bit better. Regarding keeping Harper down, this is just the third time in his last 17 games where he has neither scored a run nor driven one in -- and one of the previous two was the day he was tossed after one at-bat. Clearly, though, the Cubs can compete with these guys, who are among the best in the National League. That's a good sign. The game was the Cubs' 22nd one-run game this year, exactly half the 44 games played so far. They're 12-10 in those games, which is good, but these constant close games are going to run through the bullpen quickly unless starters can start going deeper into games.
It rained a bit before the game and the tarp was on the field when the gates opened, then removed, then replaced when a brief shower hit a little after noon. The rest of the day was pleasant, with breezes blowing out and dropping humidity and occasional sunshine. That's good because the weather forecast for the rest of this week doesn't look all that promising. The teams have a common off day Thursday in case rain prevents either of the next two games.
Which, hopefully, will be better games for the Cubs. Kyle Hendricks will take the mound Tuesday evening against Jordan Zimmermann, a tough matchup. A reminder that Tuesday's game starts an hour earlier than most Cubs home night games -- it will be at 6:05 CT, for an ESPN national broadcast.