Must come to an end.

They don’t have to end so demonstratively, but that was the fate of the Cubs winning streak ending in a 13-2 drubbing by the Royals on national television. The 13-2 score doesn’t even do full justice for how thoroughly the Cubs were beat tonight. The Cubs managed to put more than one runner on base only once prior to the final inning and only broke through with two outs in the ninth inning. The Cubs were able to avoid their first shutout, but the game was well in hand by that point. Victor Caratini and Nico Hoerner were able to drive in the two runs, but it was a quiet night for the bats.

Still it is hard to feel too down after a 10-3 start. The Cubs are supposed to be able to start their series against the Cardinals tomorrow, who have to make roughly half a bajillion games already, but we will see if first pitch happens.

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The Royals starter Brad Keller kept the Cubs bats quiet for five innings. Kyle Zimmer shut down the Cubs for two innings and Kevin McCarthy closed it out in a clearly not save situation. The most fun moment of the Cubs at the plate might have been David Ross sending Alec Mills to the plate with one out in the ninth inning. Mills watched three straight over the heart of the plate before walking back to the dugout.

Tyler Chatwood was not sharp. He punched out Whit Merrifield to start the game but Jorge Soler, Salvador Perez and Ryan O’Hearn hit back to back to back singles to put the Royals ahead 1-0. Chatwood struck out Mondesi and got a pop up from Alex Gordon to end the inning. Maikel Franco hit a double to start the second. Chatwood would add two more strikeouts to his total before Whit Merrified hit a bomb making it 3-0.

The wheels came completely off in the third inning with Adalberto Mondesi and Alex Gordon hitting back to back doubles. Franco then hit a blast. Jorge Lopez singled, and then Nick Heath doubled to drive in the Royals seventh run and end Chatwood’s evening. Duane Underwood Jr. had some control issues, and the Royals were able to add two more tallies before the third inning was finished.

Underwood pitched a clean fourth inning, but the Royals tacked on a couple more runs in the fifth inning. Whit Merrifield hit a one out single and back to back doubles from Perez and O’Hearn made it a 11-0 ballgame, and cheers to you if you stuck with this one after that point.

Dan Winkler gave up a two out bomb to Jorge Soler in the seventh inning and Craig Kimbrel was shaky again yielding just one run in the eighth inning. Ryan Tepera was the one Cubs reliever who was able to put up a zero and escape this evening.

Random Reference

Tyler Chatwood was not good tonight, but it was a very different sort of not good then his disastrous 2018 campaign. Chatwood did not issue a single walk in his outing, and his command wasn’t that bad. The Royals just hit him often and often hard. It felt a bit like Marge yelling at Bart in this clip when thinking about Chatwood not beating himself.

That and the first few innings was definitely playing “It’s still good. It’s still good.” as the Royals continued to extend their lead.