The Cubs played an almost-perfect game Saturday. Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Pirates wasn’t as good.
A day after the 23-hit outburst and seven scoreless innings from starter Kyle Hendricks in the historic 21-0 victory, the Cubs were forced to use their bullpen early Sunday after starter Justin Steele struggled through three innings. The offense went 3 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left the tying and winning runs on base in the ninth. The defense also fell back, as shortstop Jonathan Villar was charged with one error and could’ve had another in what turned out to be the decisive fourth inning.
The end result was losing three of four to the Pirates despite Saturday’s rout.
“As a team, we obviously want to win ballgames, we want to be better and I think we are going to be better,” Steele said. “I think we have a very good team in this locker room. It’s baseball, things are going to happen. You’re not going to win every ballgame, but I think we’re a lot better than losing three out of four to the Pirates at home. I think we are better than that. I think a lot of guys would agree to that.”
Steele would like to be better than he was during Sunday’s game that was delayed 55 minutes due to rain.
Coming off an April 19 start against the Rays when he lasted just 2 2/3 innings, Steele batted his control Sunday and allowed three runs and four hits while walking four, needing 79 pitches to get nine outs. As the game went on, Steele said he lost command of his four-seam fastball and breaking ball.
“Also, it just felt like there was a bunch of deep counts, kind of made my pitch count climb, started getting a little tired as the pitch counts started climbing,” Steele said. “That’s just things you’ve got to battle through in a start.”
The Cubs also had to get past their defense.
Villar, at shortstop with Nico Hoerner resting, had an adventurous fourth in the field. First, he mishandled Diego Castillo’s grounder and was originally charged with an error before a scoring change. He did get tagged with an error when his wild throw on a Ke’Bryan Hayes chopper got by Schwindel, allowing Castillo to score.
Villar has made four of the Cubs’ seven errors this year, including two while playing shortstop.
“What’s he got, two games there out of how many we’ve played? He’s our backup shortstop right now,” manager David Ross said. “We have Andrelton Simmons out. [Patrick] Wisdom’s a third baseman and an outfielder, [Nick] Madrigal’s pretty [comfortable] at second, so our depth piece at shortstop is Jonathan Villar.”
Even with a brief start from Steele and the defensive issues, the Cubs still had a chance to rally after five relievers combined to allow one unearned run over six innings.
Yet unlike Saturday when the Cubs went an impossible-to-duplicate 15 for 25 with runners in scoring position, they couldn’t get the last big hit. In the ninth, Pirates closer David Bednar struck out Willson Contreras and Schwindel to end the game.
And not that anybody needed it, but the change from Saturday to Sunday was another reminder of the fickle nature of the sport.
“You guys know baseball, it’s a crazy game,” Schwindel said. “I don’t think you’re going to have two games the same ever. Each day is a new battle, but we’ve got a great group of guys and we’re going to go out there and keep fighting and play some good baseball.”
