NEWSLETTER
Yeah, I don’t know how that could have ended any other way….an in-between blooper that bounces of Dansby Swanson’s glove*, which simultaneously leads to the first earned run Mark Leiter Jr. has allowed this year and a walk-off win for the Red Sox.
Although there was a brief respite from the misery of Tanner Houck and the insufferable ESPN broadcast (which missed plays by not switching cameras, over-stayed their welcome during interviews that took up more than half the screen, and had their home plate umpire mic’d up way too loud, among other complaints), that game was a misery from start to finish.
The bright spot was Mike Tauchman’s game-tying home run in the eighth (plus another hit and a great catch for PCA, I suppose), but nearly everything else was brutal.
(Daniel Palencia and Hayden Wesneski were both quite good tonight, but we’ll talk about that tomorrow.)
The Cubs couldn’t do anything against Houck tonight, the Red Sox were getting lucky over-and-over, and the Cubs had some sloppy plays and missed opportunities (they were also occasionally unlucky, themselves). And there was even a moment where Craig Counsell felt (perhaps justifiably) compelled to pinch hit Nick Madrigal for Matt Mervis against a righty. That righty was Kenley Jansen, who can be tough on lefties, but still … that tells you just about everything you need to know about how the Cubs feel about Mervis right now. Sigh.
That was one of the least enjoyable Cubs games I’ve watched all season, and I saw them lose 17-0 yesterday.
