A rare bad day won’t change the fact that the Cubs boast one of the best bullpens in the majors.
But it was a bad day Saturday. The Cubs threw nothing but relievers at the Cardinals and suffered an 8-6 loss that snapped their four-game winning streak.
Left-hander Drew Pomeranz’s 0.00 ERA is no more. Right-hander Chris Flexen allowed his second home run of the season. And righty Brad Keller, who has been so good and entered with a 1.82 ERA, watched that number inflate by more than a full point after allowing five runs in a game-deciding eighth inning.
“[The relievers have] been so good to us,” first baseman Michael Busch said. “There’s 42,000 people [in the stadium] who would want Brad on that mound in the eighth.
“They’ve meant so much to us the entire year, holding down those games and giving us a chance in a lot of them.”
All three of the aforementioned relief arms have been excellent. That Pomeranz and Flexen came in with a combined two earned runs allowed says it all.
But Pomeranz, who opened against the Cards, walked two of the first three hitters he faced and gave up a base hit to the fourth to load the bases and earn a quick exit. Flexen stepped in and allowed a two-run single and a solo homer later in his 3⅔-inning appearance.
After a parade of relievers — righty Ryan Brasier, lefty Caleb Thielbar and righty Ryan Pressly — held serve, the Cardinals hit two homers off Keller in the eighth, including pinch hitter Yohel Pozo’s three-run, tie-breaking moon shot onto Waveland Avenue.
“I’ve got to make better pitches in those moments,” Keller said. “It’s frustrating, but I’ll live to fight tomorrow.
“We’re a pretty close group down there [in the bullpen]. Obviously, we’ve been throwing pretty well, and we try to rattle off good, positive things to each other and sit down and talk about outings between games and stuff. I’ve already talked to a bunch of these guys. Just flush it and on to the next one.”
Considering the Cubs started the day with a 3.22 relief ERA that ranked as the second-lowest in the majors, a bullpen game probably didn’t sound too bad to fans. Bullpen games are commonplace, even among contending teams blessed with ample starting pitching.
The Cubs are contenders, mostly thanks to one of the majors’ most productive offenses. But they’re not blessed with that volume of high-quality starting pitching, even less so after an injury to righty Jameson Taillon intensified the need for Jed Hoyer’s front office to make something happen at the trade deadline.
As manager Craig Counsell and his staff plot out how they’ll make up for the absence of Taillon in the final week leading up to the All-Star break, the bullpen figures to play a big role once again.
Counsell mentioned Flexen on Friday and Saturday as someone who can step into a larger role of throwing several innings, like he did against St. Louis.
“What a luxury to have a guy like Chris Flexen, who can throw multiple innings,” Taillon said. “Flex forgot how to give up runs somewhere along the way.”
“It’s fun to watch him pitch,” Keller told the Sun-Times last month. “He’s very smart when he’s on the mound, which is cool. He’s very deliberate about everything he does, methodical. It’s fun because you can kind of see his mind working once he’s on the mound.”
There could be one more bullpen game in the offing on the team’s next road trip through Minnesota and New York. A day off Monday figures to set the Cubs’ healthy starters to make five starts over those six games.
Then it will be on Hoyer & Co. to figure out a more permanent solution to what has been the team’s No. 1 need for months. Taillon is expected to miss more than a month, only brightening the glare on what the front office will do next.