Kyle Hendricks threw well enough, but Cubs batters did nothing.
This game was likely going to be an uphill climb no matter how well Kyle Hendricks threw against the Pirates, what with Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes on the mound.
Hendricks put together a credible start, allowing five hits and two runs in five innings, with five strikeouts. Really, you can’t ask for much more.
It didn’t matter, because the Cubs offense failed to show up. They had just five hits, all singles, and after the third inning, 18 of the last 19 Cubs went down without much fuss. Only a one-out single by Ian Happ in the seventh interrupted that string of Cubs outs, and thus they lost for the second time to the visitors from Pittsburgh, 5-0.
The Cubs loaded the bases with two out in the first inning on a single by Seiya Suzuki and walks drawn by Cody Bellinger and Isaac Paredes, but Nico Hoerner hit into a force play to end the inning. The bases were filled with Cubs again with two out in the second. Dansby Swanson singled and after a strikeout, Christian Bethancourt also singled. One more K followed, then Michael Busch walked. But Suzuki hit a comebacker and so it was nothing doing in that inning, either, even though the Cubs’ plan of making Skenes throw a lot of pitches appeared to be working.
In the top of the second, the Pirates had put two runners on with two out after Busch couldn’t handle a ground ball that went for a hit. But Hendricks got out of that jam [VIDEO].
I am showing you that video because, well, there really weren’t any Cubs highlights to show at all. In the third, Hendricks got touched up for two runs on three hits and a sac fly. The Cubs again put a couple of runners on base in the bottom of the third, but Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out to end the inning. PCA couldn’t seem to do much with Pirates pitching at all on the evening, striking out all four times he came to the plate, twice against Skenes and twice against Pirates relievers. In all, the Cubs left eight men on base in the first three innings — and then stopped hitting almost completely.
As noted above, Hendricks’ outing was decent enough. Here are his five strikeouts [VIDEO].
And here’s a summary of his start [VIDEO].
Also as noted above, the Cubs offense vanished after the third inning, so the three-run homer allowed by Tyson Miller to Jared Triolo in the seventh didn’t make that much difference. The only thing about that is that this was the second bad appearance in the last three for Miller, who had previously been quite effective.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
I can’t really add anything further to that. BCB’s JohnW53 has some info on the Cubs being shut out this year:
The Cubs have been shut out in 13 games this season, the most times they have failed to score since they were blanked 16 times in 2014. They failed to score in only eight games last year and in 12 in 2022. From 2015-23, they averaged 8.8.
The Cubs lost ground to both the Mets and Braves Tuesday, as those teams both won. The 4½-game deficit to Atlanta isn’t insurmountable with 23 games remaining, but... winning has to start now. To have the 4-2 homestand that most of us felt the Cubs needed to have in order to stay in the race, the Cubs not only have to win the final game against the Pirates, but they’d have to sweep the Yankees. That is, of course, not impossible, but it’s a pretty tall order.
You can, of course, play only one game at a time and the Cubs do have a decent enough chance to win Wednesday’s series finale against the Pirates with Shōta Imanaga on the mound. The Cubs are 19-6 in games started by Imanaga this year. Domingo Germán will get the start for the Pirates. Game time is again 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
