Beyond the chaos and weirdness of the first two innings, the Cubs had an opportunity to sweep one of the best teams in the -National League and run their winning streak to six games.
Because of a struggling starter, bullpen issues, a stymied offense and a late error, the Cubs missed their chance to take three in a row from the Padres, losing 8-7 on Sunday.
“Every time you have a chance to win a ballgame, it’s big, but we’ll shake this one off and get prepared to play the Rangers [on Monday],” Justin Turner said. “We still took two out of three from a pretty good ballclub over there and had an opportunity to sweep them and didn’t finish the job, but we’ll shake it off and show up [Monday] and try to win another series.”
Playing first, Turner dropped Nico Hoerner’s relay on a potential double-play grounder by Manny Machado in the ninth that would’ve ended the half-inning. The miscue allowed Fernando Tatis Jr. to score from second to give the Padres an 8-7 lead.
Turner said the throw was a “tweener,” and he wasn’t sure whether it would reach first base on the fly or need a bounce. The ball hit cleanly off Turner’s glove, and by the time he retrieved it from behind him, it was too late.
“Trying to get out there and get it before it bounces and just missed it,” Turner said. “No excuses. That ball’s got to be caught.”
In fairness to Turner, that was only one moment the Cubs would like back.
Ryan Pressly allowed a walk and a hit in the ninth that lowered the Cubs’ margin for error, Porter Hodge surrendered the lead in the eighth and Caleb Thielbar also gave up a run. Starter Ben Brown put the Cubs in a 3-0 hole after a half-inning, and the Cubs walked eight batters.
“Walks got us in trouble, and they ended up hurting us,” manager Craig Counsell said.
For a couple of innings, however, the Cubs’ offense looked capable of overcoming everything, including Brown’s problems.
After Brown’s first-inning issues that included three walks and one hit batter, the Cubs coaxed four walks from Padres starter Kyle Hart and forced him to throw 39 pitches to get two outs before he was lifted. By the time the inning ended, the Cubs led 5-3, had gotten into the Padres’ bullpen and benefitted from two run-scoring balks by reliever Logan Gillaspie.
Kyle Tucker’s two-run home run in the second inning increased the lead to 7-3, but the offense stopped producing, and Brown was unable to give the Cubs much length.
An out away from getting through four innings with a four-run lead, Brown served up a two-run home run to Jackson Merrill. That moment punctuated a rough outing for Brown and came after what he called a “nails” pregame bullpen session and solid work leading up to the start.
“Saw it all kind of fall apart in the first inning,” said Brown, who walked four and allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings. “I wasn’t able to make the adjustment I needed early enough. It’s frustrating, for sure.”
The Cubs’ offense was frustrated after the second inning and mustered only six hits.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a clean game by any means on either side,” Turner said. “I think we let that one get away.”
