An annoying little rainshower began to deposit itself over Wrigley Field in the ninth inning of the Cubs' 8-4 loss to the Royals, the second such rain of the afternoon.
That was a perfect metaphor for a day that started out poorly, got better in the middle innings and then collapsed completely as the Cubs spent the eighth and ninth innings looking like the bad ol' Cubs of 2012-14 instead of the fresh, new version we have been watching most of this season.
Let me stipulate this. Any team can have a game like this and I don't think it's symptomatic of anything that's going to last too long. This team is far more talented than its immediate predecessors and today was just likely "one of those days."
It started out that way when Alcides Escobar hit Jake Arrieta's first pitch into the left-field bleachers. That's obviously a bad sign right there. Escobar is not a power hitter. He had one home run in 153 at-bats before Friday, and hit three all of last year in 579 at-bats. Arrieta then gave up another solo shot in the second, this one to an actual power hitter, Alex Gordon. That was the eighth solo homer hit by visiting teams this homestand, a theme, perhaps, if you will.
The Cubs got one run back in the third on doubles by Addison Russell and Kris Bryant, but yet another solo homer by Salvador Perez matched that. The Royals scored one more after two were out with no one on in the sixth. Arrieta hadn't pitched that badly and had a reasonable pitch count through six innings, but was trailing 4-1 largely because Edinson Volquez was striking out Cubs, nearly two per inning. Volquez was finally lifted when Jorge Soler hit a two-run homer off him with two out in the sixth to bring the Cubs within one, but he'd struck out nine (of a total of 17 outs).
The Cubs tied the game on Russell's fourth homer of the year, off Kelvin Herrera in the seventh, and things were looking, if not up, then at least not down, and the enormous contingent of Royals fans who had cheered the homers loudly had, for now, been silenced. Arrieta had made it through the seventh when Dexter Fowler made a diving catch on a sinking line drive by Escobar, so it was up to the pen.
Pedro Strop wasn't good. He walked Mike Moustakas (loud calls of "Mooooooose" were heard every time he did something the Royals fans liked), then gave up a run-scoring double to Lorenzo Cain. After an intentional pass and a strikeout, James Russell was summoned and he struck out Gordon.
This is when the wheels fell off. Another sinking liner was hit toward Fowler, this one by Omar Infante. Fowler appeared to get a bad read on it, then caught up to the ball just as it was about to hit the ground, and had it in his glove... and dropped it. Two runs scored and, with Kansas City's bullpen still as lights-out as it was during last year's postseason, that was it, even with the Cubs having two turns left at bat. Of the six remaining Cub hitters, only one, pinch-hitter Mike Baxter, put the ball in play, grounding to second. The other five struck out.
The ninth inning, played in that rainshower, was another reason Edwin Jackson needs to be off this team. It wasn't likely the Cubs were going to come back, but Jackson put the game out of reach by making a throwing error on a bunt by pinch-hitter Jarrod Dyson. You could have predicted the bunt -- Dyson's real good at them -- and maybe also predicted the error. Escobar singled in a run, and then the Cubs turned a wacky double play that required five relay throws in a 3-6-3-4-6-5 rundown after Anthony Rizzo stepped on first base to retire Moustakas on a ground ball. That allowed Jackson's ERA to actually drop, as the run was unearned due to his fielding error.
Jackson's hurting the team when he's not being used. He hadn't pitched in six days, which means the Cubs essentially went with a 24-man roster for that time. Then he hurts the team when he is used, putting the game completely out of reach. At what point do the Cubs just suck it up and eat the money and release him?
Here's a couple of quotes from Joe Maddon that sums up the difference between the two teams:
#Cubs Maddon: "They showed why they went to the World Series last year, and we showed why we're not ready yet"
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 30, 2015
#Cubs Maddon: "We have to be efficient. You can't make the physical or mental mistakes and you've got to make pitches to beat good teams"
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 30, 2015
Can't really add too much to that. He's absolutely correct.
The Royals fans were pleasant enough to be around. They just wanted to cheer for their team; I saw no incidents in the bleachers and honestly, it's good to see that franchise relevant again. I'd just like to see the Cubs take the next two games. At least they got this one in, which seemed in doubt with dire forecasts of rain all day. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be much cooler after storms go through overnight and Saturday morning.
There's one thing I'd like to note about wind patterns at Wrigley with the new video boards. Today was "Beach Day" in the bleachers, and before the game Cubs employees on the field released beach balls to be bounced around (they were all numbered and collected before the game began). The wind was blowing out strongly, as shown by the five home runs hit in this game, but whenever a beach ball was bounced in the direction of the left-field video board, it went toward the field. The board appears to have created downdrafts that might push certain baseballs back toward the field even when the wind is blowing out.
More research is needed; that's just my amateur observation of conditions Friday afternoon.
Saturday, Tsuyoshi Wada will face Yordano Ventura. Originally, Jason Hammel was supposed to go Saturday, but was pushed back a day:
Hammel has been bothered by nail on right hand. #Cubs
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 29, 2015
Doesn't sound like anything too serious. Hopefully, the Cubs can even up the set before Hammel takes on Jeremy Guthrie on Sunday.