Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
The Chicago Cubs were doomed from the start of Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
An error by first baseman Anthony Rizzo ultimately led to a four-run first inning for the Brewers, hurting the reputation of Cubs’ ace starter, Jeff Samardzija. To add more problems to the struggling Cubs, manager Dale Sveum was ejected after trying to defend Samardzija on a play.
But wait, it gets even more problematic.
Ryan Braun of the Brewers shook things up in the eighth inning when he singled, stole second base, then stole first and was then thrown out at second to end the inning.
No, you didn’t misread that last sentence; that insanity really did happen!
The umpire crew called the play “bizarre.” Sveum told MLB.com after the game, ”I don’t know if that’s ever happened in the history of the game — a guy just stole second and got thrown out at second in the same inning,”
Despite all the problems the Cubs dealt with, there was effort on the part of Rizzo, Luis Valbuena and David DeJesus who all homered for their team. Unfortunately, the Cubs fell just one run short and lost, 5-4.
These one-run heartbreaker games are really costing the Cubs wins. There are so many games that they come so close to winning, but throw it away because they leave the bases loaded or leave a runner in scoring position. Sveum told MLB.com after Friday’s game, “You don’t have clean games, it’s not easy to win unless you have a prolific offense.”
The Cubs’ offense seems to be slowly coming alive this week. Maybe that will eliminate these frustrating one-run losses.
