Cubs fall in New York again
NEW YORK — One look at the Cubs' starting rotation tells you Sunday was an important start for Jake Arrieta.
After Jon Lester started and lost Saturday's Game 1 of the National League championship series to the New York Mets, the Cubs needed Arrieta to get them back to Chicago all even.
Arrieta was not his usual sharp self for the second straight start, and the Cubs fell 4-1 to the Mets, and they and await Tuesday's Game 3 down 2-0 in this best-of-seven series.
So are the Cubs' backs to the wall, or is there still a long way to go in this series?
“There is a long way to go,” said first baseman and team leader Anthony Rizzo. “Our ultimate goal is to win eight games. Theirs is to win six more games. We can't let two games beat us up, especially the way we're capable of playing. We'll take a day off tomorrow. I'm sure we'll relax tomorrow, and we'll be ready to play on Tuesday.”
The Cubs' best shot at jumping on the Mets was with their top two starting pitchers. Now that both have lost, the Cubs are hoping against hope that Kyle Hendricks and most likely Jason Hammel can help them survive in this series as they start the next two games at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs lost the first game to the Cardinals in the best-of-five division series and rallied to win in four games.
“Well, part of it is obviously if you lose two in St. Louis in a five-game series, it's a little more daunting, as opposed to a seven game,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “Then again, I'm telling you, to be with our guys daily and even in the dugout, our guys are fine. They pitched well, and they beat us. We only scored 3 runs in two games; that's hard to win. But we have so much offensive talent and I believe in our guys.
“Like I said, if I saw a different look about them or their eagerness or attitude wasn't nearly as good, I'd be a little more concerned, but we're ready to play. We show up, we're ready to go.”
The big concern for the Cubs has to be Arrieta, their Cy Young Award candidate. He lacked his customary command both in a victory against the Cardinals in the division series and again Sunday night.
The Mets touched him for 3 runs on 3 hits in the first inning, with 2 runs coming on Daniel Murphy's fifth home run of the postseason. By the time the inning was over Arrieta had thrown 30 pitches. Arrieta's night lasted 5 innings, as he gave up 4 hits and 4 runs.
“In that first inning, they came out pretty aggressive,” he said. “They took advantage of a couple balls elevated in the strike zone. The curveball to Murphy wasn't that bad of a pitch. He's swinging the bat tremendously right now.”
Arrieta is deep into uncharted territory with innings pitched. He threw a career-high 156⅔ major-league innings last season plus 20 more in the minors leagues on a rehab assignment.
This year, he compiled 229 innings during the regular season. He went 9 against the Pirates in the wild-card playoff win and 5⅔ against the Cardinals in game 3 of the NLDS.
Since the start against the St. Louis, the question of fatigue has come up, even though Arrieta is one of the best-conditioned players in the game.
“I can't deny that it might be,” Maddon said. “I don't know that. If you ask him, he'll tell you no. In the game there if that gun was correct on the field, he might have been down a mile an hour or two, that's what I saw. Overall, and when that happens, the breaker, the commitment to the breaking ball is not as definite from the hitter's perspective, because they're able to see everything better.
“So I don't know if that's true or not, but from the side, delivery was good. He was not laboring to throw the ball. It's just it wasn't as crisp as it had been, that's all.”
Arrieta admitted that his top fastball velocity was down slightly and that he used his changeup more to offset that.
“Physically, I felt fine,” he said. “I knew that the high-end veto wasn't necessarily there tonight.”
Catcher Miguel Montero put it more succinctly.
“I don't want to say he's tired, because he's in really good shape,” Montero said. “But he's a human. He can get tired.”
The Cubs got their only run of the game in the sixth. Dexter Fowler singled with one out and went to second on a wild pitch. After Kyle Schwarber struck out of the third time in the game, Kris Bryant hit an RBI double to left.