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The Chicago Cubs bats fail once again and fall to the Marlins 2-0, and the series and the season is over. Yu Darvish was outstanding once again.
It wasn’t all bad on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Yu Darvish was excellent once again. When the Chicago Cubs needed Darvish this season, he answered the call every time. Heading into this do or die playoff game for the Cubs, there was talk about how Darvish would perform in the playoffs.
Would he be able to keep it up from the regular season? This was Darvish’s first postseason start since he got rocked against in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros.
Darvish was outstanding today, pitching 6 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and striking out six. He didn’t allow a run till the seventh inning, which came on a home run to Garrett Cooper. It seemed like he was in complete control all day until the homer. Darvish pitched good enough to win today but didn’t get the run support and it cost the Cubs. Darvish was great today and this season.
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The offense failed once again
When you look at the names on the Cubs roster, you expect that offense to be elite. With guys like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Willson Contreras, you expect them to score runs. That hasn’t been the case the last few seasons.
It’s an all or nothing offense. Either they are scoring 10 runs with a bunch of homers, or they are getting shut down. That was the case over most of the season, and it showed up in this short two-game series.
The core group of Bryant, Baez, Rizzo, and Schwarber were nonexistent in this series. That group, today in game two, had zero hits, five strikeouts and only two walks. Schwarber came up with the bases loaded with two outs in a prominent spot when the Cubs couldn’t score any runs. Schwaber ended up flying out, and the Cubs ended up failing to score.
It just can’t happen in the playoffs where your horses don’t show up in the playoffs. It’s been a trend that the core struggles in the playoffs. ESPN showed a stat that in the playoffs since 2016, Bryant, Baez, and Rizzo are batting .136 with 51 strikeouts and six walks. That can’t happen.
The wild 2020 season is over
Baseball has a way to rip out your heart in a quick way, and that’s what had happened today. Just a few days ago, everyone was riding high on a division championship, and the Cubs were getting a home playoff series, and just like that, it’s all over.
The front office will have to make lots of decisions this offseason on what to do with this core group of players. Do you start to trade some of them? Do you keep the core together for another year? Those will be the hard questions tasked to the front office.