Cursed?

Who knows?  But the Cubs have found some novel ways to lose in this series, the latest seeing the ultimate winning run score on a strikeout.  Actually, the Cubs played a pretty sloppy game.  It looked as if they were really uptight from the start.  Some of the mistakes did not affect the outcome, some really did.  The Cubs actually achieved significant misplays and errors from most of the team, beginning with a first inning error by Baez, continuing with the aforementioned strikeout pitch that Montero was unable to block, a double clutch muff by Bryant, a dropped flyball by Schwarber, an ill-advised attempt at a diving catch by Soler, and a kind of weird cautious play from Rizzo that resulted in the final run.

The Cubs continued to swing for the fences most of the time.  They got two home runs, one from Schwarber and a second from Soler, who almost connected a few innings later.  Otherwise, despite working de Grom's pitchcount up early on, they did not mount a significant threat after the Soler homer.  So far the Mets pitching - mostly against their hype, in that they were supposed to feature hard stuff, but have so far served up a steady diet of breaking balls and changeups - has kept the Cubs off-balance.  Only Fowler and Soler have been producing consistently good at-bats.  Schwarber has hit two homers, but has been unimpressive otherwise.  Nothing from Bryant, Rizzo, Castro, or Montero, not to mention Baez who has regressed to 2014 tendencies.

Anything can happen, but things look pretty grim right now.  Hammel has to pitch lights out on Wednesday, something that is possible but has not been in the cards lately.  Hendricks actually pitched pretty well and left with the game tied.  I was a little surprised Maddon lifted him in the fourth inning for Coghlan, especially as there were two outs and no one on base.  It just meant you had to get five solid innings from the bullpen and nothing could go wrong.  As it is the Cubs got only four and even that gives Cahill credit for getting four outs and giving up the winning run.

These guys are trying too hard right now, pressing in the field and at the plate.  Maybe they should follow the Red Sox pattern in 2004 when they were down 3-0 to the Yankees and just have a couple of drinks.