Opening Day Loss

The Cubs lost on opening night in St. Louis.  The game was surprisingly long and rather tense despite being a 1-0 pitcher's duel into the eighth inning.  Carlos Martinez, the Cardinals starter, turned in a dominant performance, leaving with two runners on base and one out in the eighth.  The eighth turned out to be the Cubs best opportunity of the night.  They loaded the bases with one out, but neither Bryant nor Rizzo could come through against the Cards closer Oh.

Jon Lester, on the other hand, was not nearly so dominant.  He pitched in and out of trouble through five plus innings and a lot of pitches.  Actually, he would have left with the game in a scoreless tie had Baez been able to see a relatively routine double play ball that somehow he missed in the glare of one of those stupid field level advertising boards everybody seems to place strategically behind home plate.  Fowler managed to reach third on the play and scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly.

The Cubs managed improbably to tie the score in the top of the ninth.  Zobrist was hit by a pitch to begin the inning and the Cubs got two men on when Heyward hit a slow grounder to first that Carpenter messed up by looking to make a throw to second base and wound up getting no one out.  Contreras followed with a booming home run to tie the score.  Actually Contreras and Schwarber were the only hitters to perform consistently throughout the evening.

That was it for the Cubs though.  In the end, it was the bullpen that let them down.  Edwards and Uehara pitched well in relief, but Strop gave up a two run homer to Grichuk and Montgomery struggled through the bottom of the ninth, eventually surrendering a walk off hit to Grichuk.

Not to fault Maddon for the pitcher selection late in the game.  I mean, Montgomery made sense given the St. Louis hitters due up, but it was a pedestrian choice, whereas Matheny's decision to go with Oh for a five out save was daring.  It goes somewhat against the book to bring in your closer for the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, but I wonder why managers don't do it more often.  So, in this case, you burn Davis for an inning.  It does extend the game, and, of course, you have the top of the order due up against a Cards pitcher who is not nearly as formidable as Oh.

In any case, they lost.  On to another day.