Alzolay’s struggles continue in Cubs’ 3-1 loss to Brewers
Until Friday, every run Adbert Alzolay had allowed this season came on a home run.
The script was different this time, but the results were painfully familiar for the Cubs. Alzolay squandered a late lead for the fifth time this season, giving up 3 runs on 4 singles in the eighth inning as Milwaukee rallied for a 3-1 victory at Wrigley Field.
To Alzolay's credit, he waited at his locker after the game and talked about the rough ride from last season's 88% save percentage.
“This is a results-based game and I'm not getting results,” Alzolay said. “That's the bottom line for me. You've just got to keep going out there and hopefully one day it turns around.”
The Cubs squandered a stellar start by Hayden Wesneski, who shut down the Brewers for 6⅓ innings with 8 strikeouts, lowering his season ERA to 0.54. Wesneski made it clear he's in Alzolay's corner.
“He picked me up last year,” Wesneski said. “I didn't have a great year. He had a really good year. You feel for the guy. It hurts me, it really does. I'm cheering for him and you've just got to keep bringing the positive attitude. You want nothing but the best, because he is a part of this 26-man team and we need him.”
The eighth inning was a slow, painful ordeal. Alzolay entered the game after left-hander Richard Lovelady retired the first batter, and he got to two strikes on five straight hitters. Alzolay struck out Tyler Black but also gave up four singles. One was a line drive, but the other three were either well-placed slow-rollers or soft liners over the infield.
“He's struggling right now, for sure, but we need Adbert,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We need Adbert to be an effective member of the bullpen. We need to keep giving him opportunities to do that.”
To make things worse, Jackson Chourio, William Contreras and Jake Bauers all stole second base with ease while Alzolay was on the mound, then scored on the ensuing singles.
The slider has been Alzolay's go-to pitch. According to StatCast, it's still effective. Opposing batters are hitting .217 against the slider, compared to .194 last season.
The whiff percentage on the slider has dropped to 29.2 from 40.6% last year. The put-away percentage has gone from 24.7 to 13.0. Figuring out how to fix it would be worth several million dollars to the Cubs, who are 19-14 on the season despite several blown leads.
Counsell pulled Alzolay from the closer's role a couple weeks ago and used him in less critical situations to try to build his confidence. Hector Neris and Yency Almonte had both pitched the previous two days, which limited Friday's options.
In hindsight, letting Wesneski finish the seventh and using Lovelady in the eighth might have been the better move, but we'll never know.
“The situation we're in with just who we have available today, you can't just stay away from people,” Counsell said. “So we went with the guy that was kind of best suited for that spot in the lineup in that part of the game and it just didn't work.”
Of course, it's tough to win games 1-0 too. The Cubs offense has slowed way down without the injured Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki. Over the last seven games the Cubs are hitting just .181 as a team and averaging 2.4 runs a game.
The lone Cubs run Friday was a home run to center field by Christopher Morel in the sixth, his third homer this week and sixth of the season.
This was Counsell's first game managing against Milwaukee, where he served as manager for the past nine seasons. After the tough loss he was in no mood for nostalgia.
“You get in the game, you're thinking about the game,” Counsell said.
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