Cubs' Kimbrel tries to keep faith after blown save
Just when the Cubs were starting to think reliever Craig Kimbrel had found his form, Kimbrel suffered through his first blown save of the season on Saturday in Cincinnati.
The Cubs led 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth. But the Reds scored twice on 3 walks, 1 hit and 3 wild pitches. The winning run scored on a wild pitch with two outs. He also struck out two.
"I had a couple pitches slip on me," Kimbrel said after the game. "I felt like when I could attack in some of those counts, on the strikeouts I executed the way I wanted to. The other ones, I didn't."
Kimbrel struggled early, then had 5 scoreless appearances in a row before Saturday. His ERA on the season is now 10.13.
"I don't think you ever want to call blowing a save and losing a game part of the process," he said. "Also I wouldn't call it a step back either. I feel like my stuff is still good. I was able to make big pitches when I needed to.
"Just had a ball get through the (catcher's) legs, and we had a blooper drop. I haven't been giving up a lot of hard contact, which is one of those things I was trying to get away from. But obviously tonight, you can't walk guys, you can't throw wild pitches."