Maddon: Cubs weren't looking past Sox
The term "trap game" is more of a football thing than a baseball thing, but Cubs manager Joe Maddon insisted Monday he wasn't looking past the White Sox.
"I'd much rather play the '27 Yankees every night," Maddon said before the Sox went out and beat his club 3-1 at Wrigley Field. "I know the White Sox have been struggling. I get it. But they're doing a wonderful job of reconstructing what they want to do. Their plan seems to be really solid."
Those Yankees of yore used to bring their "5 o'clock thunder" to the yard every day. The Sox, who won't be mistaken for those Ruth and Gehrig Bronx Bombers, brought a little thunder of their own to the North Side.
Adam Engel homered off reliever Justin Grimm in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie, and Matt Davidson crushed a home run onto Waveland Avenue in the eighth inning off Koji Uehara.
The loss dropped the Cubs to 51-47 and knocked them a half-game behind the first-place Brewers in the National League Central.
Even though this was a Cubs-White Sox game, there wasn't much buzz around the ballpark, either from the Cubs or their fans. The Cubs had just gotten done with an emotional series against the St. Louis Cardinals, finishing with a Sunday night game and coming right back for an afternoon contest.
Maddon said there were no excuses about that.
"Listen, it's not optimal, but we still knew it was on the schedule," he said. "You knew that's how we'd have to play it. They (the Sox) came from Kansas City, so they weren't crying about that. You'd prefer the night game, but under the circumstances, we knew it going into it, and that's not the reason why we lost."
The Cubs had plenty of baseball issues of their own in this game. Their hitters did little with Sox starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez. Cubs batters left 12 runners stranded, including two in the bottom of the ninth, when Willson Contreras was called out on strikes to end the game. They also were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
On the mound, Kyle Hendricks made his first start since June 4 after his recovery from tendinitis in his right hand.
The Cubs would love to have gotten 5 innings out of Hendricks. Instead, he went 4⅓, giving up 8 hits and 1 run while throwing 92 pitches. Velocity on the fastball, which was an issue for Hendricks earlier this season, hovered around 83, 84, 85 miles per hour.
"It was good being back out," he said. "It was fun being out there, fun playing. It didn't really go the way I wanted it to go. Fastball command was terrible. It's kind of where everything stems from for me. Luckily, my secondary stuff did feel OK. I even threw a few good curveballs. Healthwise, everything felt great. So we'll take that.
"But I've got to get back to that fastball command, pound the zone. Just too many innings for the bullpen to cover. That's my fault. I've got to be more aggressive, watch the pitch count and get after guys a little more."
An effective Hendricks will be important for the Cubs down the stretch. He is the reigning ERA champion in Major League Baseball, and he figures to slot in fourth behind Jon Lester, Jose Quintana and Jake Arrieta down the stretch.
"I thought he wasn't as normal," Maddon said. "Velocity was still down a little bit. There wasn't a whole lot of difference between pitches. He was not what you would call 'on.' He'd be the first one to tell you that. He looked fine delivery wise but the ball wasn't coming out as normal.
"He just didn't have that good feel about him today, but he threw like 90 pitches, which is good to get him stretched out going into the next start. The fact that he got out of there with 1 run, I was really pleased with that, too. It's a good outing to build off of."