The Chicago Cubs couldn’t find any offense on Tuesday, falling 3-1 in Atlanta. Here are three takeaways from the game.
The Chicago Cubs couldn’t solve Braves starter Max Fried, scoring just one run in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss. Three takeaways from the game.
1. Marcus Stroman turns in first quality start
Looking to rebound from two forgettable starts, Marcus Stroman gave the Cubs a quality start. In all, the 30-year-old went 6.0 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) while fanning three batters and not walking anyone.
“Really nice performance,” manager David Ross said. “Thought he gave us a chance to win the ballgame. Looked like he was in control pretty much the whole game.”
Adam Duvall‘s sacrifice fly in the second inning opened the scoring for Atlanta. Moving into the fifth inning, Travis Demeritte‘s solo shot and Michael Hermosillo‘s fielding error accounted for the two runs scored.
Stroman played to a lot of contact, with several balls going for loud outs. Hermosillo redeemed himself in the sixth inning with this spectacular running catch into the wall:
2. Offense goes ice-cold
The Cubs ‘ offense did nothing all night aside from Ian Happ‘s solo home run in the top half of the third inning. In fact, they didn’t have a hit past the fourth inning.
Frank Schwindel‘s plate appearance with two outs in the ninth was the first by a Cubs batter to take an at-bat to a 3-2 count.
Happ’s home run was his second long ball and 10th RBI of the season. After Tuesday, he’s batting a healthy .333 average to go along with a .943 OPS.
For the Cubs, it was the 11th time in 17 games that the score was decided by two or fewer runs.
3. Cubs bullpen did their job
After Stroman exited, the Cubs turned to Ethan Roberts in the seventh inning. The young right-hander proceeded to strike out the side, leading with his devastating slider.
“Tonight, I was throwing my breaking balls for strikes,” Roberts said after the game. “I have a lot of confidence in my slider, but I wasn’t throwing it for a strike, and I did that more than I ever have tonight. I’ve been working on that in bullpens and in pregame, and it kind of came to fruition tonight.”
After Roberts, Michael Rucker did his job, needing just 15 pitches to retire the side. Of those, 11 went for strikes. While the combined efforts of Roberts and Rucker might fly under the radar, had the Cubs been able to muster up anything offensively, those two coming in and shutting the Braves down would have been a more significant talking point.
