Cubs looking to clean up mistakes
Cubs manager Mike Quade talked execution Wednesday evening.
No, he didn’t go all John McKay on us. McKay was the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach, who, when asked about his team’s execution, said he was in favor of it.
Quade was talking about getting things done and getting them done the right way, something at which the Cubs have suffered lapses at various times this year.
They were able to paper over some of that Wednesday night by scoring 6 runs in the third inning and 4 in the fifth against the Cardinals in an 11-4 victory at Wrigley Field.
To his credit, Quade wasn’t fooled by stats that showed the Cubs with just 1 error in their last 12 games entering Wednesday. The loss one night earlier featured myriad sins, mostly of omission, that had Quade talking about missed cutoffs, dropped balls and tardy throws.
“The hitting thing is one thing,” Quade said. “We get so wrapped up in that. We talked a little last night about the execution and some of the stuff. We made no errors last night. That’s not true. So we’ve got to clean that up. You can win games a lot of ways.
“I want to make sure we’re not so wrapped up in trying to do a better job hitting that we forget about the defensive stuff that can help us out. We gave up 6 runs last night. At least 2 of those were gifts. They’re tough enough as it is. We can’t allow that.”
When fans see some of the misplays that happened Tuesday, they invariably ask, “Didn’t the Cubs work on that in spring training?”
Yes, they do, but that doesn’t mean screw-ups aren’t going to happen.
“Some things present themselves that you didn’t work on that often in spring training or that you worked on and it’s the first time they’ve happened,” Quade said. “It’s the reoccurring mistakes I’m talking about that have to be stopped.”
One of the things that has been recurring with the Cubs is a lack of extra-base hits. They had 13 singles in Tuesday’s game and hit 5 more Wednesday before Carlos Pena’s 2-run double highlighted a 6-run third that gave them a 6-1 lead.
The rally came after a 53-minute rain delay as the Cubs chased Cardinals starting pitcher Jake Westbrook.
The rain didn’t seem to bother Cubs starting pitcher Matt Garza, who came into the game leading the major leagues with 11.69 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Garza gave up a run in the third inning and walked Albert Pujols leading off the fourth. But he got Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman looking before striking out Gerald Laird swinging.
Quade pulled Garza after 5 innings and 85 pitches, but Garza qualified for the victory, giving up 3 hits and 1 runs while walking three and ending up with 7 strikeouts, running his season total to 65.