Cubs’ offense goes quiet, Padres force Game 3

Cubs manager Craig Counsell deservedly got credit for some smart moves in the Game 1 victory over San Diego.

His batting average slipped a bit with Wednesday's 3-0 loss in Game 2. Using an opener in the first inning didn't work out, he stuck with Shota Imanaga two batters too long, and isn't it time to move the scorching-hot Seiya Suzuki higher in the batting order?

But the bottom line is this: You can't win if you don't score and the Cubs’ offense was quiet, with just 4 hits. Former Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish will take the mound for San Diego against Jameson Taillon in the decisive Game 3 of this wild-card series at 4:08 p.m. Thursday.

Imanaga came on in relief for the first time since joining the Cubs and finished four innings, but the decision to let him face the right-handed Manny Machado in the fifth backfired. Imanaga's first pitch was a splitter that didn't drop and the San Diego slugger sent it 404 feet over the left-field well for a 2-run homer.

Baseball is often a game of second-guessing. If a decision works, it was the right move. If not, it was a terrible call. Counsell calmly discussed his thought process on the Game 2 debatable issues.

“Look, the results suggest that we should have done something different (with Machado),” Counsell said. “Really just confidence in Shota, plain and simple there. I thought he was pitching well. I thought he was throwing the ball really well, and unfortunately he made a mistake.”

Of course, this was the 13th home run given up by Imanaga in his last seven appearances, so there's an argument to be made that right-hander Colin Rea should have been the choice instead of Imanaga, despite the Padres' abundance of left-handed hitters.

From Machado's perspective, there was no controversy. He was 1-for-9 against Imanaga before this game.

“He kind of owns me a little bit,” Machado said. “You look at the numbers, I don't do too well. I've got one hit, now two. Obviously they've been homers, but other than that, it's been a strikeout, so it's either a strikeout or a homer.”

Machado is exaggerating a bit. In fact, just six of his nine outs made against Imanaga are strikeouts. He also flew out against him Wednesday.

In the previous half-inning, just before his home run, Machado appeared to injure his knee when he chased an Ian Happ foul ball toward the Cubs dugout, slid and collided with the railing. He stayed on the ground for about a minute before standing up and limping back toward third base.

Again, the Cubs’ lack of offense was the bigger issue in this game. They never got a runner to third base, reached second just twice and were a meager 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

Suzuki, batting fifth in the order behind Kyle Tucker, saw his home run streak end at five straight games, but he did collect the Cubs' only extra-base hit of the day, a two-out double in the fourth.

The Cubs' best scoring chance was probably in the eighth inning, when Nico Hoerner sent a line drive into the right-field corner with Michael Busch on first, but Fernando Tatis Jr. ran over, extended his glove and made a nice catch to end the inning.

Through two games, the Cubs as a team are hitting .175. Kyle Tucker got a single in the ninth inning, pushing him to 2-for-18 since returning from a calf strain last Friday. Pete Crow-Armstrong is 0-for-6 with 5 strikeouts.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don't think any of us expected to have the Padres just lay down. It would have been really nice to just get this series over with today. But we're also prepared to come back tomorrow and do it again.”

The decision to use reliever Andrew Kittredge as an opener in front of Imanaga didn't pay off. The Padres started with a pair of sharp singles by Tatis and Luis Arraez. Kittredge struck out Machado, but the base runners pulled off a double steal, allowing Tatis to score on Jackson Merrill's sacrifice fly.

Kittredge had gone scoreless in 12 of his previous 13 outings, but did throw 14 pitches in Game 1.

“What are you going to do?” Counsell said. “He made the pitches that you'd want him to make in that inning, so I give them credit for putting together a good inning and having good at-bats.”