Chicago Cubs Recap: Anderson dooms Cubs early in ugly loss

The Chicago Cubs were looking to rebound after a tough loss last night. Unfortunately, things did not go much better tonight.

The Chicago Cubs were looking for a long outing from Brett Anderson to help save the bullpen. Unfortunately, that did not go as planned. Coming off his worst outing of the season, Anderson was even worse today. Anderson recorded just one out, allowing five runs. He was removed with the trainer. It was later revealed that the Anderson had lower back tightness.

Down 5-0 after one, the Cubs called up Felix Pena and Rob Zastryzny to stop the bleeding. Those two guys combined for a total 8.2 innings, allowing six runs. The most important thing though is that they ate up some innings, saving the already worn out bullpen.

Cubs Never Quit

“We Never Quit”. It’s the phrase engraved into their World Series rings. The Cubs certainly did not quit. Cubs did get a couple runs back in the fifth. Jon Jay had an RBI groundout and then Javier Baez scored on a throwing error by Didi Gregorius. Cubs added on more in the seventh on an RBI triple by Ben Zobrist. Suddenly, the Cubs were down by only five again.

Aaron Hicks homered in the top of the eighth to put the game out of reach, but the Cubs didn’t give up.

The Cubs scored three times in the eighth, highlighted by a two run single by Miguel Montero. Now a 11-6 game, the Cubs suddenly made it close. They had two on before Ben Zobrist struck out to end the inning.

The most exciting element of the whole game was when Cubs catcher Montero came in to pitch the ninth. He did walked two batters, but threw a scoreless inning. He also pitched a scoreless inning in July of last year.

Takeaways

Anderson’s status in the rotation is now up in the air. He was removed with back tightness, but also had two really bad starts in a row. With the entire Cubs rotation still not fully in sync, the Cubs can’t afford to have bad outings like that every five days. We shall see what becomes of Anderson in the future.

Next: Cubs should have Kyle Schwarber catch more

Rizzo’s dreadful homestand continued as he went 0 for 4 and struck out twice. Rizzo continues to make weak contact and has just one hit in the series. I don’t think anyone is really worried about Rizzo, but it’s not fun to watch him struggle so much. Hopefully he rights the ship soon.

What’s Next?

The Cubs look to avoid the series sweep as Jon Lester (1-1, 3.67 ERA) takes the mound against Luis Severino (2-2, 3.86). First pitch is set for 7:05 on ESPN and 670 The Score.