Cubs' Joe Maddon: 'That game belongs in Lake Michigan'
As dark clouds and rain moved in after the Cubs'11-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies Wednesday at Wrigley Field, manager Joe Maddon found the silver lining.
Of course he did.
"That's a 5-2 homestand, and we haven't hit for a week," said Maddon, whose team lost two of three to the Rockies to fall to 16-12. "There's a silver lining. The game today was awful."
How awful was it?
"That game belongs in Lake Michigan with some cement shoes tied around it, man," he said. "That was awful. That is right out of the Roaring Twenties. Throw it away. I'm going to throw it out my '85 Olds window driving down back down Lake Shore (Drive)."
The Cubs failed in all facets of the game Wednesday, and that's indicative of some disturbing trends for the team:
• Starting pitcher Yu Darvish lasted just 4⅓ innings, as he gave up 7 hits and 6 runs, including 3 homers. Darvish, who signed a six-year, $126 million contract on the eve of spring training, is 0-3 with a 6.00 ERA and a feverish WHIP of 1.57.
• Willson Contreras made 2 errors, a throwing error from his catching position to help the Rockies extend a 2-0 lead to 3-0 in the second, and a fielding error in left-field during a 5-run eighth. On top of that, Darvish and reliever Luke Farrell were slow in covering first base on grounders to the right side.
• Cubs hitters again failed to take advantage of a strong wind blowing out. The Rockies outhit them 15-4. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant homered for the Cubs, but both were solo shots. The Rockies got a 2-run homer from Nolan Arenado in the first, solo homers by Trevor Story and Chris Iannetta in the fifth and a booming blast by Arenado in the eighth of Farrell.
In the seven games on the homestand, the Cubs scored a grand total of 15 runs. On Wednesday, they were handcuffed by Rockies lefty Tyler Anderson.
"Yeah, not so great on the defensive side," said infielder-outfielder Ben Zobrist. "Offensively, I thought that Anderson just threw really well. He spotted up all day long. The whole time he was out there, he did not give us much to hit. He was all around the zone. Every pitch was very competitive. We battled to get something going, but we didn't not get a whole lot going early on. They hit the ball well."
Darvish has made 6 starts for the Cubs, and in 4 of them, he has failed to get through the fifth inning.
"Overall, I think it was a bad rhythm," he said through a translator. "A lot of things didn't go well. Not really fatigue going into the fifth, but I was throwing the ball up in the zone, high up in the zone where they usually foul it off. But Iannetta, he hit it pretty well. I just think they were hitting the ball in the higher zone in general today.
"Not necessarily a specific reason (for the poor rhythm). There are good days and bad days. Today turned out to be the latter. Everything in general just went south today."