SAN FRANCISCO — The ending felt inevitable.
The Chicago Cubs hit their usual checkpoints for a gut-wrenching loss. Monday’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants starred plenty of maddening what-if moments and wasted opportunities that again ended with the bullpen unable to secure a win in a game the offense should not have let stay so close.
The pieces are essentially interchangeable with the Cubs’ regular self-destruction. The bullpen meltdown Monday night at Oracle Park featured Colten Brewer and Drew Smyly combining for the 17th blown save by the Cubs as they allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Smyly landed only four of his 12 pitches for strikes and brought home the winning run on a five-pitch walk to Wilmer Flores for a 5-4 walk-off loss.
The Cubs dropped to 14-18 in one-run games.
“You kind of expect to play close games, it’s a tough league and every night it’s hard to get wins,” Smyly said. “It’s our job as relievers to put up zeros and try to keep it as is. I guess it’s become a thing this season, but at the same time every night, you have whoever’s name is called try to do the best job you can and go on and stop it.
“I think we’re all just trying to figure it out, patch it together.”
For a veteran team that went into spring training fueled by how painful the final three weeks of the playoff-less 2023 season played out, the Cubs’ collective inconsistency continues and their inability to build positive momentum is too familiar. Through 79 games, the Cubs (37-42) possess the same record as this point last year and are putting themselves in a tough position as July approaches.
“You lose, you’re frustrated,” manager Craig Counsell said. “You lose and you lose a game you’re winning and you feel like you did a lot of good things, yeah, it’s frustrating. When you leave the park, turn the page and go on to the next day.”
Players have consistently expressed continued belief in the group and their respective experience and track records despite the Cubs’ on-field results that are trending in the wrong direction.
“The game of baseball doesn’t make sense sometimes, I’ll say that,” Swanson said. “But at the end of the day, I’ve been so pleased with the work ethic, the conversations that guys are having and want to get better, especially from the younger guys. … I think slowly but surely that growth is happening and guys will continue to get better from here on out.
“I really do believe that things will start to move in our favor because I know the heartbeat of this group and the resiliency of each and every guy in this clubhouse.”
Failure to capitalize with runners in scoring position again played a starring role Monday, a 4-for-15 performance with 12 runners left on base provided ample opportunities to blow the game open with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth and fifth innings and take pressure off the bullpen.
“The amount of guys that we left out there and the amount of chances we had to really add on and make it easy on ourselves, we weren’t able to do,” Swanson said. “Obviously just got to continue to get better and turn this around.
“You’d like to think that at some point the tide will turn and law of averages will really kick in for us.”
It was another wasted stellar start by Justin Steele, who remains winless through 13 starts with a 3.08 ERA. His 17 called strikes with his four-seam fastball set a new career high while limiting the Giants to two runs, six hits and one walk while striking out nine in 7 1/3 innings.
Steele had a chance to get out of the eighth but was pulled with runners on second and third after Seiya Suzuki’s mistimed leap in the nook at 365-foot marker in right field resulted in a one-out double. Tyson Miller struck out Flores and got Jorge Soler to fly out to end the inning.
In Steele’s last six starts (1.38 ERA), he’s allowed two earned runs or less in each and has pitched into the seventh in four of those outings. The Cubs have won only two of those Steele starts. It embodies so much of what has plagued the Cubs: winnable games squandered in mind-numbingly similar fashion.
“At the end of the day, we’ve just got to show up and win ballgames regardless of the outside noises, the inside noises, any of it, like, at the end of the day, we’ve just got to show up and win ballgames,” Steele said. “Winning will solve everything. We’re one winning streak away, that’s kinda how I look at it.”
