Chicago Cubs experiencing the effects of a depleted starting rotation

Chicago Cubs: It’s all hands on deck – or it’ll be a short postseason

Despite allowing a pair of runs on Wednesday, Cishek still ranks at the very bottom of my list of worries. At the top? A guy who can’t mentally push past challenges late in ballgames – Carl Edwards Jr.

The lanky right-hander falls to pieces at the simplest things: he doesn’t get a call, a guy takes him deep – literally anything outside of recording an out. On Wednesday, he struck out the first man he faced in the eighth – then walked Colin Moran and Adam Frazier in back-to-back at-bats on five pitches apiece.

Manager Joe Maddon then went to Cishek, who got the second out of the inning on a fly ball to right. A Victor Caratini passed ball allowed both runners to advance, before they both scored on a Elias Diaz RBI single on a sinker that stayed up in the zone.

The Cubs escaped with a 6-4 lead still intact. That is, until Wilson entered in the ninth and, after recording the first out of the inning, allowed a two doubles and a single to tie things up. All told, it marked one of the bullpen’s shakiest performances to-date – and with four days left of pretty much win-out baseball left, you can’t help but be a little nervous.

All year, this group has answered the call – despite what you might think. They lead all of baseball with a 3.37 ERA  and .225 opponent batting average. Wilson has been masterful cleaning up dirty innings.

But, at the end of the day, you have to simply hope and pray they have enough gas left in the tank to get the Cubs to where they want to be – first, atop the NL Central after game 162 and, ultimately, atop the baseball world as World Series champions.