Pitching help on the way as Chicago Cubs offense sputters
Cubs president Theo Epstein cautioned against looking at "snapshots" of the season Friday before his team went out and lost 2-1 to the Marlins at Wrigley Field.
There's a good reason for that, as the summer remains a moving picture for the North Siders.
The Cubs are a nice little team creating a nice little story, but it's clear they could use some help both offensively and with their starting rotation.
They made an attempt at shoring up the latter after the game, acquiring left-handed pitcher and former White Sox draft pick Clayton Richard from the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash considerations. Richard will start Saturday night's game in place of Donn Roach, who was optioned to Class AAA Iowa.
The 31-year-old Richard has not pitched in the big leagues since he was with the Padres in 2013. At Class AAA Indianapolis this year, he was 4-2 with a 2.09 ERA.
In recent days, the Cubs have gotten decent work from their rotation. That included Friday, when Jason Hammel worked 7 good innings. Solo home runs by Christian Yelich in the first inning and former Cubs farmhand Justin Bour in the sixth were Hammel's undoing. He fell to 5-4 but lowered his ERA from 2.92 to 2.89.
"That's one of our strengths, is pitching," he said after the game. "We're going to give ourselves a good chance to win every night. We're not worried about that. We've just got to keep grinding these games out. This is a tough time of year when guys are getting a little tired and mistakes are amplified. Other than that, we're playing good ball."
The July 31 nonwaiver trading deadline is fast approaching, but Epstein seemed to downplay the significance of that one day, instead preferring to look at the big picture, whether that picture is moving or is a snapshot. It's still likely, though, that the Cubs will be in the hunt for rotation help.
"You have to be creative, you have to be patient," Epstein said. "You have to be understanding and you have to recognize that the trade deadline is not a panacea. It just gets a ton of attention for natural reasons, but if you go back and look, rarely is it a defining factor.
"Maybe the trades in Boston in 2004 (when Epstein was GM of the world champions) really helped. But more times than not, when we've made deals, it's just kind of hit-and-miss. The guys you get, sometimes they don't perform, and then other players you've had all year step up and you play well.
"If you look at the history, teams that go to the World Series, it's very rarely a deadline deal. It's just an opportunity to address things, maybe for this year, areas of need, or maybe do something to set yourself up for next year if you've got something that might be hard to address in the off-season. Yeah, we know what we'd like to do, but we're realistic about what we might be able to do."
The Cubs have had some close, low-scoring games of late. Against the Marlins, they managed 6 hits and left eight runners stranded on the bases.
"That's the game we play right there," said manager Joe Maddon, whose team had a mini three-game winning streak snapped to fall to 42-36. "You come to the old ballpark, expect it. It's going to be close. Right down to the very end, our guys hung in there very well. Both sides pitched really, really well. They were able to hit 2 home runs into the 'hawk' today. Bully for them.
"What can you say, man? We had some opportunities and were unable to take advantage of them."