An Ugly Loss

The Cubs lost a really ugly game in 13 innings last night after apparently sewing up a victory with a two-run rally in the tenth.  They are 2-2 on a road trip where they should be 4-0.

In yesterday's loss, it was the bullpen that let them down, more particularly, Hector Rondon, who blew the save by being overly aggressive in pitching to Paul Goldschmidt, one of only two genuinely good hitters their opponents have.  You could have made a case to walk Goldschmidt with first base open even though it brings the winning run to the plate.  At least you could have pitched around him a little bit once you were ahead in the count.

I don't think the Cubs have an alternative closer to Rondon, but I do think they may overvalue his stuff.  He has great stuff, but he has been a little careless in several appearances.  So far he has three blown saves, though only two have resulted in subsequent defeats.

Anyway, the Cubs continued to struggle to get home those key runs.  They had several chances to put the game away in extra innings last night.  This has been a tendency for the team lately.  Partly that may just be a case of the league catching up with some of their young talent.

I don't have any hard evidence that the lineup is at fault, but I think a lot of the emphasis on having that righty/lefty alternation is misplaced.  In any case, the Cubs were scoring more runs, or at least it is my impression they were scoring more runs, when they had Soler batting second and alternated Rizzo and Bryant third and fourth.  This let them put Montero in the fifth slot and drop Castro to sixth, a position he is much better suited to than cleanup if only because he hits so many ground balls that often result in double plays.

There are some rumors the Cubs are kicking the tires on Rafael Soriano.  Not sure I buy this move.  Soriano was a dominant reliever for a while, but he kind of went into freefall the second half of last year with the Nationals.  He's 35 and I cannot recall many relievers like him who come back.  At the end of last season, he was more or less the equivalent of Jason Motte or worse.