On Saturday, the Cubs scored two runs after two pitches in the game and won.
On Sunday in Milwaukee, it also took just two pitches for the Cubs to score, when Nico Hoerner hits a 1-0 pitch over the wall (VIDEO).
That was good!
The rest of However, the Cubs’ 7-1 loss to the Brewers was not…. That was essentially the Cubs’ offense for the afternoon, as they had only one other hit: a single by Cody Bellinger, also in the first inning.
Kyle Hendricks started this game reasonably well, getting some soft contact ground balls and fly balls. The game reached the fourth inning with the score 1-0 for the Cubs, and then everything fell apart. A William Contreras single was followed by a Christian Yelich home run that gave the Brewers a 2-1 lead. That was the first home run Hendricks had allowed in the entire month of June, in more than 24 innings to that point. A strikeout and walk followed, then two singles made the score 3-1. Another single got the Brewers through, but Hendricks struck out Andruw Monasterio.
One out from leaving the inning down by just two runs, which wouldn’t have been terrible. But Brice Turang then hit the grand slam alluded to in the headline of this roundup, and it was 7-1.
From BCB’s JohnW53:
Cubs pitchers did not allow a grand slam in their first 74 games this year. Today was the third they achieved in 11 games since then.
They also served three in an 11-game span in 1993. They allowed three in 10 games in 1993, and two of them were in the same game.
Since 1912, the first season in which baseball-reference.com has searchable game level data, their fewest games in history in which they conceded three Slams was four, in 1982: September 11-14 and September 14-18. They allowed two Slams on September 14.
Everyone could have gone home at that point, because after Nico’s home run, the Cubs offense basically decided to take the afternoon off. The only other Cubs runners on base, besides the two first-inning hits, were walks by Ian Happ (first inning), Michael Busch (third inning), and Miguel Amaya (eighth inning).
Dark Humor: This left them just 0 for 1 with RISP in the game.
Jorge Lopez, Drew Smyly and Ethan Roberts all pitched reasonably well in relief of Hendricks, not allowing another run in the game over 4⅓ innings, allowing three hits and three walks, with three strikeouts. It was good to see Roberts back in action more than two years after he last pitched in an MLB game in April 2022.
The best thing about this match? It was short, just two hours and 21 minutes. More from JohnW53 of BCB:
This was the Cubs’ 511th game since 1876 in which their only run was a home run. It was the 35th of those 7-1 losses. It was the first in which they allowed all seven runs in one inning.
It was also the 18th game since 1901 in which the Cubs hit a home run and only one other hit. The last was a 6-1 home loss to the Giants on Sept. 10, 2021. They won three of the games, 1-0.
Hendricks’ pitch selection was practically the same as in his last outing (VIDEO).
So I’m not really sure what the problem was here, although the clip above suggests it might have been the location.
I’m sure we’re going to start hearing the “Kyle should retire” talk again, which I don’t think should or will happen. At this point, let’s let him finish out the year, and then maybe retire and move on to the Cubs’ front office, where I think his experience could be useful.
The Cubs finish June with an 11-16 record, which, combined with May’s 10-18 record, leaves them with a 21-34 record since the end of April, which is pretty, pretty bad. All we can do is hope that this kind of thing stops with the change of calendar and that July is better.
The Cubs have Monday off and then begin a three-game series against the Phillies, who entered Sunday with the MLB’s best winning percentage (.651). So it will be fun! The series begins Tuesday night and will feature Hayden Wesneski starting for the Cubs and Michael Mercado for Philadelphia. Tuesday’s game is at 7:05 pm CT and television coverage will be on Marquee Sports Network (and also on TBS, without blackouts).