Cubs right-hander Ben Brown began his outing Wednesday with a walk. He ended it with a strikeout, fooling Giants star Matt Chapman on a curveball in the dirt.
“Ultimately, I really liked where I was at in the fifth inning after the double [by Willy Adames],” Brown said after the Cubs’ 3-1 loss. “It’s like, why did it take 100 pitches for me to get to where I wanted to be? But it’s all part of growing, and definitely some good moments and definitely some learning moments.”
Brown recorded a season-high nine strikeouts in five innings. But he also walked the first batter of the first and fourth innings.
“When the home run was a tough thing,” manager Craig Counsell said, alluding to the strong winds blowing in, “getting the leadoff hitter on and creating some traffic early in an inning, that’s how you’ve got to score. They did it, and we couldn’t do it.”
Brown threw a career-high 103 pitches. Three of those were changeups, according to Statcast.
The Cubs hope that getting Brown comfortable with at least a third pitch will help him navigate lineups the third time through.
Brown debuted a new changeup grip last week against the Brewers, switching to a kick-change grip.
“More and more guys that spike pitches — [Jameson Taillon] spikes his curveball, Ben spikes his curveball — are feeling comfortable and gravitating towards this more kick-change grip,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said, “because it’s similar to what they throw with their other pitches.
“And you don’t have to think about pronating, you just literally are ripping a fastball and letting the grip do the work.”
All three changeups Brown threw Wednesday were called balls.
“But that’s part of the process for him,” Hottovy said, “just trusting he can throw it in big moments and that the shape is going to be there.”
Cubs drop series
The Cubs lost two of three games against the Giants for just their fourth series loss of the season. The others came against the Phillies at home, Padres on the road and Dodgers in the two-game Tokyo Series.
“Obviously, every game is incredibly important,” said Nico Hoerner, who hit two of the Cubs’ three extra-base hits Wednesday. “That’s all you’ve got. So it’s not that we don’t feel those losses. But it didn’t change the approach too much.
“Obviously, [Tuesday] night was a challenging loss, but there were also a lot of really great things within it, and we were moments away from winning that game. And then [Wednesday], just never got the bats rolling.”
Suzuki back in the outfield
Seiya Suzuki started in right field, making his first appearance in the outfield since April 2 and third of the year. A combination of a wrist issue and extra off days in April kept him exclusively in the DH spot for the past month.
