Cubs pitching poor ... and its shows
You had to figure the Cubs were in for a daily double’s worth of trouble Tuesday, even if the San Francisco Giants rode into town as the lowest-scoring team in the National League.
The Cubs and the Giants had to play a day-night doubleheader, the result of a rainout at Wrigley Field last month.
It just so happened that with the way the pitching rotation turned, the Cubs had to throw their, gulp, Nos. 5 and 6 starters.
Neither Doug Davis nor Rodrigo Lopez were in the major leagues when this season started, but there they were at Clark and Addison on the nicest weather day and night of the season.
The results were pretty much predictable. Davis was shelled for 12 hits and 10 runs in just 4⅓ innings in the first game, a 13-7 San Francisco treat.
Lopez wasn’t terrible in the nightcap, as the Cubs fell 6-3. He worked 4⅔ innings, giving up 8 hits and 4 runs (1 earned).
The fifth inning wound up being extended by seven batters after catcher Geovany Soto dropped the ball on what would have been an inning-ending double play at the plate. Instead, the play went for an error on Soto, and the dam broke, as the Giants went on to score 5 in the inning.
“I got the ball and applied the tag,” Soto said. “I took my mask off and tried to flip the ball to my bare hand to show it. As I flipped the ball, I dropped it.”
Putting the pitching picture another way, unless Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano or Matt Garza is pitching for the Cubs, they’re in real trouble.
“We’ve been real inconsistent in those spots,” said Cubs manager Mike Quade, whose team is 32-48. “You keep working. You believe Wellsie (No. 4 starter Randy Wells) is going to get better.
“And Doug’s shown us enough on some occasions that he’s been OK. Not good today. Just keep trying to fill those gaps and get the best outings we can out of people.”
Wells and No. 5 starter Andrew Cashner both got hurt the first week of the season. In their absence, the Cubs have trotted out Casey Coleman, James Russell, Davis and Lopez.
The Cubs are 8-24 in games not started by their Big 3, with the remaining starters having an ERA of 6.82 in their games.
That won’t cut it, even against major league teams that are struggling. See the Giants in Game 1, as they piled up season highs in runs and hits (18).
“I think it was just one was of them days,” said Davis, who fell to 1-7 as his ERA rose from 5.01 to 6.50. “I feel like every time they hit the ball, it was where we weren’t, whether it was hard or soft. Just one of those days. I can’t really explain it.”
Wells has been largely ineffective since his return from forearm problems, and there’s no set date for Cashner to come back. The way it’s going, the Cubs are on pace to lose 97 games, and their pitching remains at the bottom of the NL.
Things don’t appear to be changing for the better any time soon.
“You need contributions all over the place win, lose or draw,” Quade said. “I just think that being able to compete at the back end of a rotation obviously requires guys to give you starts.
“You obviously don’t expect your 5 guy to give you what your 1 and 2 guy give you, but you also need days when you score runs, if the matchups actually go with the back end of somebody else’s rotation. On those days, you may need to score 5 or 6 runs.”
bmiles@dailyherald.com