The Chicago Cubs were swept in last night’s divisional doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals. They’ll need to bounce back tonight in a big way.
Besides Ian Happ returning from his eye injury that he suffered a few nights ago against the Pirates, there weren’t many positives for the Chicago Cubs last night. For starters, they scored just three-runs in 14-innings of baseball. Those 14-innings dropped two-games in the division to the Cardinals. The National League Central Division race is just 2.5-games in favor of the Cubs now.
Being up just 2.5-games makes the next two games against the Cardinals must-win. They had a chance to distance themselves from the pack playing four-games in three-nights against the team closet two them, but they were out-played at every aspect.
In Game 1, Happ hit two home runs in his return to the lineup. In that same game, the Cubs left five men on base, including a bases-loaded situation early in the game. After taking an early 1-0 lead on the first at-bat of Game 1, the Cubs would lose 4-2.
In Game 2, the Cubs played even worse, falling behind 5-0 nothing before they got on the scoreboard. They had six-players walked, along with three more getting hits, and could only put up one run. It was a disaster.
The benefit fans would think the Cubs would have playing 7-inning games instead of the traditional 9 is there’s less room for their bullpen to ruin games. Well, they weren’t even given the chance.
The next two games see Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks on the mound. Both of these games are must-win if the Cubs want to keep distance in the divisional race against a team that’s played nine-fewer games due to COVID-19.
At the end of the day, the Cubs didn’t look like a playoff team and have now lost 3 of their last 4 games against the Cardinals. Hopefully, those things change tonight.