2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 81

We’ve reached dubious territory. The one where I find myself searching Baseball-Reference for the last time the Cubs record was this bad relative to .500. In case you too are also wondering, that was July 17, 2023. This team was 43-50, then won two of three followed by eight straight wins to move over .500. That team fell as far as .500 but never below. Theoretically, this team is largely that team. They could theoretically soar to the heights of the 83-79 2023 Chicago Cubs.

You’ll forgive me if I don’t hold any parades celebrating that team. For that matter, I’m not holding my breath that this team will have even one good run in it like that one did. The offense still isn’t good enough and the bullpen isn’t effective. There just isn’t a lot of reason to look at this team and hope that the funk is going away.

I had to laugh as the Cubs announced a bullpen game. Certainly, when you can’t expect your bullpen to get through two innings safely, the thing you want to hear is that the team is having a bullpen game. I’ll tip my hat though. Six-hit game? Not bad. One walk? 12 strikeouts? The bullpen didn’t do terribly. Three homers. That was the ballgame. Who knew that a team was still allowed to hit multiple homers in 2024? I thought maybe that was banned with the shift or something.

Surely, I jest. It wasn’t that long ago that this team had multiple homers in a game. This team has only one real slugger and so it tries to win night in and night out by extending rallies. It managed nine hits and five walks last night. 14 base runners could get you a pretty big offensive output. But there were only two extra base hits and no stolen bases. So, you pretty much need three baserunners in an inning to score one run.

Let’s check my logic there. Their first run came in the second inning. They drew a pair of walks and had a single. Check. Their second run came in the fourth inning. Single, walk, single. Check. Third run, solo homer. Alternative method of scoring, check.

The real kicker though was the eighth inning of the game. If you didn’t stay up for it, this is the one that would have really frustrated you. This is an inning that featured a single, a double and a walk but no runs. The single was followed by a double play. The inning ended with Ian Happ attempting to steal third before the pitcher threw the ball and being out at third. The Giants third baseman had been deep and had to make an athletic play to make it work. But also Happ was out by a couple of feet. And also, the odds of scoring from second aren’t that much worse from scoring from third with two outs when you can run on contact.

Let’s find three positives and turn the page on another woeful performance.

1. Pete Crow-Armstrong gets my top spot. A walk, a single, a run batted in and a run scored. Oh, that, if you didn’t see it, was the one thing you probably want to go back and see. PCA scored from first on a single.
2. Christopher Morel reached base all four times he was up, a single and three walks.
3. Keegan Thompson worked a three up, three down inning. He struck out one.

Game 81, June 26: Giants 4, Cubs 3 (37-44)

Fangraphs

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Porter Hodge (.118). 1⅔ IP, 6 batters, H, 2 K
• Hero: Christopher Morel (.040). 1-1, 3 BB
• Sidekick: Dansby Swanson/Keegan Thompson (.029). Swanson: 1-4; Thompson, IP, K

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Hayden Wesneski (-.162). 4 IP, 15 batters, 2 H, BB, 3 R, 7 K

*just wanted to stop for a second and admire this sequencing. He allowed three baserunners and they all scored. And all in one inning. This, in a nutshell, is how things are going.

• Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.149). 1-5
• Kid: Drew Smyly (-.136). 1⅓ IP, 7 batters, 3 H, R, 2 K (L 2-5)

WPA Play of the Game: Michal Conforto’s two-run homer in the second inning gave the Giants a 2-1 lead. (.221)

*Cubs Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki’s homer in the fifth tied the game at three. (.149)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Yesterday’s Winner: Kyle Hendricks received 192 out of 197 votes.

Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Shōta Imanaga/Jameson Taillon +12
• Ben Brown/Michael Busch +11
• Seiya Suzuki +8.5
• Christopher Morel -8
• Adbert Alzolay/Miguel Amaya/Kyle Hendricks -10
• Nico Hoerner -12

*Hodge to +5, Morel to -8, escaping that five way tie for last, Thompson to -0.5, Swanson to -1.5. Wesneski down to -3.5, Hoerner falls to last at -12, Smyly to -1.

Up Next: Shōta Imanaga (7-2, 2.96) starts for the Cubs. He’s coming off of his worst start of the year and a number of unusually low speeds across all of his pitches. At this point, I’m way more concerned that he pitch effectively than the outcome of the game. He’s having such a wonderful season, you hate to see it interrupted by injury.

The Giants will start Jordan Hicks (4-4, 3.24). Hicks walked a tightrope in Chicago, allowing four hits and four walks (while also striking out four), while throwing five scoreless innings. The Cubs actually scored six runs in that game and still lost.

Oy vey.