Giants 4, Cubs 2: It might as well have rained

If you watched Sunday’s Chicago Bears NFL season opener, you know that it rained most of Sunday afternoon in Chicago — hard, in some areas, there was significant street flooding on parts of the North Side.

In the area around Wrigley Field (which avoided any flooding), the rain stopped right about the time the gates opened to the ballpark at 5 p.m. (There were a few annoying little sprinkles during the game, but not hard enough to hold up play.)

It might as well have kept raining, because the Cubs lost Sunday 4-2 to the Giants, ending their homestand with a losing 2-4 mark. The loss, the team’s 82nd of the year, clinched a losing season for the second straight year after six consecutive winning seasons from 2015-20. It also dropped the team to a season-low 24 games under .500 (58-82).

Wade Miley, who had a successful return from the injured list last Tuesday, again threw well Sunday night. He allowed just one run in five innings, with five strikeouts, the only mar to his outing that single run in the fourth.

The Cubs tied the game in the fifth. Zach McKinstry — who wound up with a career-high four hits on the night — led off with a double. Rafael Ortega singled him in [VIDEO].

It’s kind of fun watching Bobby Valentine’s lips flap while the Score’s Zach Zaidman makes the PBP call on that hit.

Hayden Wesneski relieved Miley and his second MLB outing wasn’t as good as his first. He served up two home run balls, a solo shot by Thairo Estrada in the seventh that gave the Giants a 2-1 lead, and a two-run homer (following a walk) by Wilmer Flores that put San Francisco up 4-1.

Wesneski wound up throwing 88 pitches (59 strikes) and looked good at times, but that’s a lot of pitches for not quite completing four innings. Wesneski allowed a two-out single in the ninth and David Ross called on Rowan Wick to finish that inning, which he did with a strikeout.

Still, Wesneski obviously will get more chances for the rest of this year, perhaps even a start or two.

Seiya Suzuki brought the Cubs to within 4-2 with this mammoth home run in the eighth [VIDEO].

Did I say mammoth? That ball was crushed!

I like what I have seen from Suzuki lately. So do others:

I look for big things from Suzuki for next year.

The Cubs had two more baserunners in the inning, but Nelson Velázquez hit into a force play to end the eighth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Yan Gomes was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, but was erased on a double play. McKinstry followed with his fourth hit, and then Patrick Wisdom hit a ground ball and was called out on a close play at first. The Cubs asked for a review — why not, at that point? — but the review crew must have said, “It’s after 11 here in New York, are you kidding us?”

(I have no idea why that video is labeled “potentially sensitive content,” either.)

One last note from this game: Nico Hoerner departed after the fifth. Here’s why:

That might have happened on this play in the third inning [VIDEO].

Hopefully that’s nothing serious and the Cubs were just taking precautions with Hoerner on a chilly evening (60 degrees at game time, the coolest game-time temp since June 1, when it was 59).

Sunday night’s game concluded the Cubs’ 2022 appearances on TV channels other than Marquee Sports Network. They played 16 games on those channels this year with the following records (overall, 7-9):

Fox: 3-2
ESPN: 0-4
Apple TV+: 3-1
Peacock: 1-0
YouTube: 0-2

I present this for no reason other than your information, and mostly just to let you know the game count — 16. That means 146 Cubs games this year will be carried by Marquee.

The Cubs will make a quick one-series road trip this week to play the Mets at Citi Field. The series begins Monday evening with Javier Assad facing the Mets’ Chris Bassitt. Game time tonight is 6:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.