MINNEAPOLIS — The series finale against the Twins got so out of hand that the Cubs brought in a position player to pitch for the first time this season.
Utility player Miles Mastrobuoni made his first career appearance on the mound in the Cubs’ 16-3 loss Sunday. It was the Cubs’ second consecutive double-digit loss. They were so outmatched that the Twins’ 29 runs over the course of the series set a Target Field record for a three-game set.
The damage was twofold. The blowouts killed any momentum the Cubs had coming out of a 10-4 victory against the Cardinals and a 6-2 victory to open the series in Minnesota. And two consecutive short starts, first from Hayden Wesneski on Saturday (five innings, seven runs) and then Marcus Stroman on Sunday (2⅔ innings, six runs) strained the bullpen — hence Mastrobuoni’s pitching debut.
“It hurts a little bit,” manager David Ross said of the lasting effect on the bullpen. “But we’ve got a couple guys banged up. We’ll assess, and we’ll try to fix some things and see where everybody’s at tomorrow.”
An injured list move for one of those -unnamed players would give the Cubs the opportunity to bring up a fresh arm ahead of a three-game series in Houston, biding time for a short bullpen that covered nine innings over the last two days.
“Hopefully we can get a good start out of [Jameson Taillon] tomorrow,” Ross said.
Stroman’s short start Sunday was unexpected. It was his only start of fewer than five innings this season. And before Sunday, seven of Stroman’s eight outings had been quality starts. Not counting any outings -affected by injury or weather, Stroman’s start was his shortest since September 2018.
“I was just off mechanically a bit,” he said. “Just made some bad pitches, and they did damage on them. Just one of those starts you’ve just got to flush and look forward to the next one.”
Stroman labored through the first inning but limited the Twins to one run, despite -issuing back-to-back walks with two outs. He came back in the second inning to retire the side in order but said he still felt off mechanically. Then in the third, the Twins got out to a big lead.
Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton hit back-to-back singles — Buxton snapping a personal 0-for-26 streak — to set up Trevor Larnach for a three-run home run. After -giving up consecutive two-out doubles to Kyle Farmer and Nick Gordon, Stroman was done for the day.
“Obviously Stroman’s been awesome,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “All of our guys have been pretty dialed in this year.
“When we made a mistake, they seem to hit it hard and far. But those guys are so good at coming back for the next start and getting back into what makes them them, and -executing pitches. And obviously I have all the faith in the world in them.”
Pitching had been a strength of the Cubs all year. Through Saturday, their rotation had the third-best ERA in the National League (3.38). But just when it seemed like the Cubs had remedied their offensive slump to pull themselves out of a rough stretch, their starting pitching faltered.
“There will be good at-bats and well-executed pitches, and it’s just a matter of getting them all going and synced up at the same time,” Swanson said.
“And we’ll be a pretty dangerous team when that happens.”
