Bad day all around as Cubs lose finale to Tigers

DETROIT — The end of a three-game series in Detroit turned out to be a great day to have a very bad day — at least for the Cubs and one other participant in uniform.

The Cubs didn't get many chances to score against Tigers pitcher Jack Flaherty, squandered the ones they did have and lost 4-0 on Sunday at Comerica Park. Detroit took two out of three in a series that featured teams with the best records in each league.

The signature moment arrived in the fifth inning, when plate umpire Derek Thomas rang up Nico Hoerner on a questionable called third strike, with nobody out and Dansby Swanson at second.

Hoerner turned to Thomas and said relatively calmly, “You're having a really bad day.”

Thomas responded with, “No, you're about to have a really bad day.” He didn't actually say that, but ejected Hoerner roughly two seconds after the ball hit the catcher's mitt. It was Hoerner's second career ejection.

“I don't think it's really that often you can verbatim say to the press afterward what got you thrown out,” Hoerner said in the clubhouse.

The 2-2 pitch was clearly low and inside, not a strike. Hoerner was already digging in for the next pitch when he heard the punch out call.

Manager Craig Counsell rushed out to defend Hoerner, and eventually he too got ejected. After the game, Counsell was in no mood to forgive what happened.

“The ejection of Nico was completely unwarranted,” Counsell said “There's nothing that was said that warrants an ejection. You can't eject players and affect outcomes of games for no offense.”

At the same time, Flaherty was most responsible for the Cubs' very bad day. The former Cardinal was starting for the 16th time against the Cubs in his career, and cruised through most of his six innings.

Cubs catcher Carson Kelly has experience as a teammate of Flaherty's in both St. Louis and last year in Arizona.

“Today you could just tell — the flow of the game, the way he was handling himself,” Kelly said. “He was executing and locating, and when he's doing that, he's a very tough at-bat.”

The Cubs were outhit 10-4, and the offensive deficit was probably worse than the numbers show. The Tigers ended the day with 13 of the 15 highest exit velocities of the game, according to Statcast.

The Cubs did register the hardest-hit ball of the day, though, and it was their best chance to get back in it. With the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, Michael Busch hit Flaherty's first pitch 107.2 miles per hour, but it was a line drive right to center fielder Parker Meadows. He had to jump at the last second to make the catch and it ended the inning.

“I think we did a pretty good job of running up his pitch count that inning,” Busch said. “I just got a pitch to hit, tried to do something good with it and hit to the wrong part of the field.”

That fourth inning started with a pair of walks and one out later, Pete Crow-Armstrong dropped the Cubs' first hit of the game into right field. But Kerry Carpenter threw out Ian Happ at the plate on a close play.

Swanson led off the fifth with a double, but Hoerner's questionable strikeout and ejection slowed the momentum quickly. Against reliever Brenan Hanifee in the seventh, the Cubs could have scored, but old friend Javy Baez started the inning with a leaping catch of Kelly's line drive. Statcast gave it a 62% chance of being a hit. Busch and Swanson followed with singles, but the Cubs missed another chance.

Starting pitcher Cade Horton was in trouble from the start, opening the game with a single and walk. Then with two outs, Spencer Torkelson sent a 2-run double off the right field wall to make it 2-0. In the fifth, Riley Greene added a 2-run single. The Cubs had been 5-0 in games Horton pitched.

“The balls they hit were in the middle of the plate,” Counsell said. “One change up to (Kerry) Carpenter, a couple fastballs to Torkelson and Green, were the ones kind of that hurt him. But both got a lot of plate.”

Horton talked about failing to hit the top of the zone with his fastball. The double by Torkelson, in particular, was right over the heart of the plate.

“Last week, that wasn't the case,” Horton said. “I was executing at the top of the zone and I just didn't have it today. Against a team like this, you want to establish a fastball, then everything kind of plays off of it. But if you aren't executing it, then it's not useful.”

The Cubs have one more stop on this nine-game road trip, in Philadelphia starting Monday.