Brown returns, but Cubs still need pitching help
The Cubs may have a soft schedule on paper the rest of the way, but there was nothing squishy about the Kansas City bats on Monday.
The Royals blasted 4 home runs on 14 total hits and rolled past the Cubs 12-4 at Wrigley Field. Pete Crow-Armstrong missed the game with a sore knee, but the hope is he'll return Tuesday.
With this result, the Cubs fell out of first place in the NL Central for the first time since April 2, but that was pending Milwaukee's late game in Seattle.
Before the game, the Cubs called up Ben Brown from Iowa and sent down reliever Ethan Roberts. Even though the Cubs used Ryan Brasier as an opener, Brown was back in town to fill in for the injured Jameson Taillon.
Brown was tagged for 6 earned runs in four innings of work, but was happy with most of his pitches.
“There's not really much to beat myself up on besides the homer to (Salvador) Perez,” Brown said. “Can't really say a ground ball up the middle at 85 miles an hour is a mistake. I made some really good pitches in the fourth inning. Just one of those days, I guess.”
Since his last appearance for the Cubs on June 23 in St. Louis, Brown made 2 starts for Iowa over the course of 27 days, and pitched just 9 innings total. So he basically had a month to rest up and get himself right.
“I threw some really good change-ups tonight,” he said. “Curveball execution has been pretty good. So it was a productive three weeks, and that's what you have to do. You have to control your attitude and effort; you have an outing like tonight, the only thing I can do is show up tomorrow and be better and work harder.”
Remember, his rookie season was cut short with a neck injury, so he's already way past last year's total of 55 innings pitched.
“He pitched very well, very efficient in both (minor-league) outings,” Counsell said before the game. “Did exactly what we wanted him to do. There's not a new pitch, there's nothing new happening there. Ben's got to execute better. It's simple as that.
“It's largely a two-pitch mix (fastball and curve), and there's obviously the change-up in there. But I think when you're talking about pitch mixes like that, then your execution has to be at pretty good level at this level.”
Obviously, this type of game does nothing to change the perception of the Cubs needing to add pitching before the July 31 trade deadline.
Maybe the quest for third base upgrade is dying down, since Matt Shaw provided most of the Cubs offense with a massive 3-run homer in the second inning that just missed the left field foul pole.
This game started out like a typical Cubs win, with home runs by Shaw and Carson Kelly in the second inning to put the Cubs ahead 4-1. Hit early and let the pitching do the rest has been a winning formula. This time, the Royals kept the scoreboard operators busy against both Brown and Chris Flexen.
Brown gave up home runs to rookie Jac Caglianone and veteran Perez, but the 4-run fifth inning wasn't all his fault. A couple softly-hit singles put two runners on with one out. Jonathan India followed with a double down the left-field line to score a run.
The next three Royals runs scored on soft grounder that deflected off Brown's glove, an E2 as Kelly's throw to second on a Bobby Witt Jr. stolen base rolled into center field; then Witt scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-4. Perez added a second 2-run homer off Flexen in the eighth.
The two best innings for Cubs pitchers were Brasier in the first and infielder Jon Berti, who retired the side on 5 pitches in the ninth.
There was a strange play that ended the bottom of the first inning. Seiya Suzuki fouled off a pitch that bounced at his feet and up into his groin area. As he was shaking that off, he was called out on a 3-2 pitch-clock violation.