Cubs’ LOB Woes Doom Them in Losses to Dodgers
Alley-oops passes for thunderous dunks are cool. Perfectly-spun wedge shots that stick inches from the pin are cool. But when LOB is not cool in the least is when it comes to squandering scoring opportunities by stranding runners on base. After a run of 10 wins in which it seemed everything broke the right way for them, the Cubs simply looked broken against what should have been an easier matchup on paper.
Despite missing three of the game’s top-25 ERA leaders, Chicago hitters were routinely flummoxed by Dodgers pitching. The most egregious example came when they were trailing 8-4 in the top of the 6th on Saturday. The Cubs loaded the bases with no outs by sandwiching a single between a pair of walks, then proceeded to squander the opportunity with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout. They had only three more batters reach base after that, and one came on a fielder’s choice.
Sunday was a whole other bag of snakes, as the Cubs stranded 12 runners in a game that saw them fail to score despite walking six times and being hit by two pitches. Four of those walks and one HBP came from Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski, who we previewed as being one of the league’s luckiest pitchers. His ERA is down to a very nice 0.69 despite having among the lowest whiff and strikeout rates around. He improved both marks on Sunday, but he routinely left the door open for his opponents.
The first two Cubs batters of the game reached, then the next three were retired. They loaded the bases with one out in the 2nd and weren’t able to push a run across, with the second out coming when Nico Hoerner uncharacteristically swung at a pitch well above the zone after starting with a 3-0 count. Then they reached base at least once in each of the next six innings before they were put down mercifully in the 9th by Kyle Hurt.
It was far from a dominant effort by the Dodgers, and it’s not as though the Cubs looked inept. Rather, it was just one of those games in which nothing seemed to be going right for the North Siders. Joe Maddon would have said you have to throw it in the trash and move on. Easier said than done when it feels like walls are all closing in and the devil’s knocking at Craig Counsell‘s door with more bad news about one of his pitchers.
Unlike watching Matt Nagy’s Bears muck up a 1st-and-goal from the 2-yard line, which felt more like more of a feature than a glitch, this is one you shrug off. We might not be having this conversation if Hoerner, who always seems to come through, takes ball four to push in an early run. Or if Alex Bregman‘s 103.3 mph smash was hit just a little more to one side or the other of shortstop Hyeseong Kim to drive in at least one more.
If wishes and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a fine Christmas; I think Boog and JD might have said that during a recent Marquee broadcast. I’m also fond of saying you can wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one fills up quicker. To both my pride and dismay, my 19-year-old daughter has adopted that phrase. The Cubs may have looked shitty over the weekend, and they definitely had their hands full with a stacked Dodgers team, but there’s still room to wish a little.
Reliever Phil Maton will be back against the Padres, and Daniel Palencia is set to throw a big bullpen on Tuesday as he rehabs a lat strain. You also figure there’s no way the offense can squander that many chances regularly, so things will turn back to the good soon enough. Long winning streaks are always something of a mirage anyway, given the amount of luck involved. Just keep winning two of three at home and breaking even on the road, and the Cubs will be fine.
