The Cubs outscored the Diamondbacks 11-7 in this three-game series.
Unfortunately, they don’t grant series wins that way. Arizona simply spread their runs out better than the Cubs did. and in Wednesday’s game, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandyn Garcia and Juan Morillo held the Cubs scoreless on just two hits, and the Cubs dropped the series finale 2-0, losing the series and finishing their road trip at 2-4.
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It’s even more frustrating because the Cubs got excellent work out of all three of their starting pitchers in this series. Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes and Matthew Boyd held the Diamondbacks to eight hits and one run in 20 total innings of work. That’s just outstanding. Unfortunately, one blown save and one excellent pitching performance by Rodriguez made this a Cubs series loss.
The Cubs were held hitless by Rodriguez for the first four innings until Tyrone Taylor singled leading off the fifth. Taylor eventually stole second, but was stranded.
More on that from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs went four innings before Tyrone Taylor made their first hit leading off the fifth. They had gone longer without a hit just once this season: 4.1 innings, on Aug. 14 at home vs. the Cardinals. Nico Hoerner delivered a single.
They had gone 4.0 innings twice before, both vs. the Brewers: May 18, at home (Carson Kelly singled), and June 26, at Milwaukee (Seiya Suzuki homered).
In the sixth, Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a double [VIDEO].
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PCA advanced to third on a ground out and one out later, an odd play happened.
That’s what the Cubs argued to the umpires, and as the social media post says, it does look like Rodriguez took a step off before he made the pitch, which would have been a run-scoring balk. The umpires conferred and basically said, “Well, we didn’t see it,” and that’s not reviewable. PCA was livid, and third base coach Quintin Berry had to physically restrain him from going at one of the umpires — good thing, contact would have resulted in an ejection and possible suspension.
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Anyway, PCA was stranded, and in the bottom of the inning Jordan Lawlar homered off Boyd, the only run Boyd allowed. Homers have been a bit of an issue for Boyd; that makes 13 in 73 innings since his return from his knee injury. But overall this was a very good outing. More from John:
Today’s start was the fifth by a Cub this season of at least 6.0 innings with one run allowed on a homer and no more than three total hits. All have been exactly three hits.
Shōta Imanaga went 6.0 on April 15 at Philadelphia and 7.0 on April 21 at home vs. the Phillies. Ben Brown went 7.0 at St. Louis on May 30 and Matthew Boyd went 6.0 at home vs. the Twins on July 18.
The Cubs won all four of those games by scores, respectively, of 11-, 7-4, 6-1 and 6-2.
Imanaga lost in 6.1 with three hits at home vs. the Reds on Aug. 5 of last year. That was the Cubs’ only loss in their previous 24 games.
And here’s more on Boyd’s afternoon [VIDEO].
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PCA’s double was the Cubs’ last hit of the game. The only baserunner they had after that was with two out in the eighth, when Seiya Suzuki walked.
Ryan Zeferjahn gave up a run in the eighth after allowing two singles. That run scored as the Cubs completed this neat double play [VIDEO].
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So I suppose it would have been better if Zeferjahn hadn’t allowed that run, but in the end it didn’t matter because the Cubs offense got completely shut down by Diamondbacks pitching.
A couple more game notes from John:
This was the Cubs’ 13th shutout loss of the season. They had 10 all of last year, after having had 16 in 2024. Their record is 22, set in 1915 and matched in 1968.
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The Cubs finished two previous games this year with two or fewer hits and at least three walks, as they did today: a 5-2 loss at Atlanta on May 12 and their 3-0 loss at home to the White Sox last Wednesday.This was their 56th consecutive loss with those totals, spanning more than half a century. since they beat the Mets at New York, 3-1, on May 8, 1966.
They had two hits and four walks in that game, the same as today. They won two other games with two and four, in 1909 at home vs. the Dodgers and 1964 at home vs. the Mets. They have lost 20.
At this writing it looks like the Phillies are going to defeat the Mariners in Seattle, so that would reduce the Cubs’ lead for the first wild card spot to two games. The Brewers, currently six games ahead of the Cubs, will face the Mets in New York again this evening. The only good news from this series in Arizona is that by winning Monday, the Cubs took the season series from the D-backs. Thus they own the tiebreaker against all three of the teams immediately behind them in the wild card race.
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The Cubs have Thursday off and will hope to regroup after what has to have been a frustrating road trip. They will open a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. David Peterson will start for the Cubs and Rhett Lowder goes for the Reds. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
