MILWAUKEE – Are Jed Hoyer’s worst fears coming true?
The Cubs’ team president cited an inconsistent pitching staff as a concern during his most recent meeting with the media, and a week later, he hasn’t been given any reason to think those issues have been ironed out.
“The position-playing group, we’re the No. 1 offense, No. 1 defense right now. That’s wonderful. Obviously, that’s the backbone of our team,” Hoyer said last week. “There’s no question of what our strength is. [But] we do need to get consistent starting pitching, throw strikes consistently and hopefully let the position players do the work.”
Kevin Gausman, the headlining name in Hoyer’s trade-deadline haul, has been the definition of inconsistency since joining the team, and Wednesday was his worst clunker yet. He was knocked around for three homers and seven runs in an 8-6 Cubs loss, the Brewers completing a sweep that grew their division lead to 10 games, cementing their control of the NL Central for another season.
Gausman has swung wildly between outings that have made him look capable of starting – and dominating – Game 1 of a playoff series and outings that have seen him fail to get 15 outs. Wednesday was the third such of the latter, and he’s also now allowed nine home runs in his seven Cubs starts.
“I just need to pitch better,” Gausman said. “Obviously, [this was a] big game. I would have loved to take a game from these guys. But I didn’t pitch very well.”
“It’s been two different pitchers, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said.
Gausman hasn’t been the only inconsistent Cubs starter, either.
Hoyer’s other big trade-deadline get, righty Clay Holmes, had his worst outing as a Cub on Sunday, giving up a career-worst eight runs, and another trade acquisition, lefty David Peterson, didn’t make it out of the fifth inning Tuesday.
If only Gausman was the only thing that went wrong for the Cubs on Wednesday, there might be less panic on the North Side as the NL wild-card standings tighten and threaten the team’s playoff future.
In addition to their starter coughing up so many early runs – the Brewers hit their trio of homers in the first two innings – the Cubs’ typically sterling defense committed a pair of errors that led to runs, and their best-in-baseball offense did next to nothing until a five-run ninth-inning rally jumpstarted by four Brewers walks.
This on the heels of back-to-back games in which the bullpen faltered in dramatic, game-changing fashion.
“We’re not playing good enough,” Counsell said. “There’s enough things we’re not doing in all areas.
“We’ve got to do a little bit more, collectively, to win games.”
Nutty ninth
That ninth-inning rally was a nutty one, with four of the first five hitters drawing walks ahead of an RBI single, an RBI ground out and a two-run double by Michael Conforto that brought the tying run to the plate in an inning the Cubs started trailing by seven.
But pinch-hitter B.J. Murray Jr. struck out to end the game, with MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong on deck.
Of the 12 runs the Cubs scored in the three-game series, eight came in the ninth inning.
Surgery for Maton
Counsell relayed that righty reliever Phil Maton will have surgery on his ailing knee later this week.
The Cubs inked Maton to a two-year free-agent deal in the offseason, but bedeviled by the knee injury throughout the summer, he was ineffective when on the mound, the owner of a 6.18 ERA.