Inept and swept: Errors accentuate miserable Cubs performance vs. Brewers
Just to confirm, the Cubs team that got smoked by Milwaukee this week is exactly the same as the one that finished off a 20-3 stretch less than two weeks ago.
A bad series against the Brew Crew got even worse Wednesday. While, Milwaukee completed the sweep with a 5-0 victory, the Cubs managed just 2 hits and struck out 13 times.
The bad news didn't stop there. The Cubs made 3 errors, which led to 3 unearned runs and also let a run score on a wild pitch. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Edward Cabrera left the mound just one pitch into the fourth inning with a blister on his right middle finger.
“We're in a funk right now, and it's up to us to change it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “When you don't swing the bats and you don't score a run, the baseball game doesn't look good for your side.”
The signature bad mistake of the game was turned in by center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. With two runners on base in the second inning, Crow-Armstrong let a sharp single by Milwaukee's David Hamilton slide under his glove and roll to the wall.
Hamilton can fly, and he circled the bases behind both runners as the Brewers took a 3-0 lead. The trouble began when the Brewers used a challenge to award Sal Frelick first base on catcher's interference. Frelick's bat clearly didn't hit Carson Kelly's glove, but maybe it hit a string on the glove. Up next, Cabrera walked .202 hitter Joey Ortiz.
This was the second day in a row Crow-Armstrong had a bad error. On Tuesday he dropped a flyball that hit his glove for a two-base error, and he's only a few days removed from a verbal exchange with a White Sox fan at Rate Field.
“Yesterday and today are genuinely laughable (errors),” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think one thing I can fall back on is it's never really a lack of focus. But trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production I've given this team and this city. Not acting how I should.
“I think anything physical usually starts mental and that's what I'm showing everybody right now. I just show up and keep pushing. That kind of stuff can't happen.”
With a runner on second, Crow-Armstrong probably was thinking too much about making a strong throw to try to prevent the run from scoring. Over the past week he's hit .160 (4 for 25).
“Look, he made a mistake,” Counsell said. “He made a bad play, and it was a costly play. He got his feet kind of caught in between and then he didn't know if he wanted to go get it, it's like an infielder that got caught on an in-between hop. Things happen, and we've got to move on.”
One of last season's unsung Milwaukee heroes was Lake Forest native Caleb Durbin, a third baseman who finished third in NL rookie of the year voting. During the offseason, the Brewers traded him to Boston, which seemed like a surprising move at the time.
As of Wednesday, that trade looks like a robbery. Milwaukee brought back Hamilton, pitcher Kyle Harrison and reliever Shane Drohan, who has a 2.57 ERA. Durbin is off to a slow start for the Red Sox, hitting .169.
Hamilton started Wednesday and shut down the Cubs completely over 7 innings, recording 11 strikeouts and allowing just 2 hits, to go with 8 flyball outs with the wind blowing in.
“We knew this, the fastball is different,” Counsell said. “It's on you, it's by you. It makes you cheat, and once you cheat, then the breaking ball becomes a good pitch. When he gets it up in the zone, it's by you. And that's what he did.”
Nico Hoerner led off the first inning with a double but was thrown out at third after tagging up on Alex Bregman's flyout.