Usually a position player ending the game on the mound is a bad sign for a team.
Instead, San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford throwing a scoreless ninth inning Sunday against the Chicago Cubs represented a sour way to cap a 4-6 mark on their three-city 10-game West Coast trip.
The Cubs salvaged the trip with the series win in San Francisco, though they wasted a chance to sweep the Giants in a 13-3 blowout loss Sunday at Oracle Park.
“When we play good defense and get good pitching we’re in games,” manager David Ross said afterward. “Just not a lot of margin for error. Pretty ugly performance pitching today. Left a lot of guys on base today. But love the way the guys responded after getting swept in Anaheim.
“When our starting pitchers are carrying the load we’re doing alright.”
Here are three takeaways from the road trip.
For fans looking for specifics about Seiya Suzuki’s absence from the lineup the last two days, keep wondering.
Ross initially described Suzuki not starting Saturday as a breather because the right fielder was dealing with “some small things.” That turned into another day off Sunday, which will become a three-day break with Monday’s off day. Ross described Suzuki’s ailment Sunday as “some soreness in some areas,” “a little under the weather” and “precautionary.”
“He’s not feeling 100%, we can just say that as a whole,” Ross said. “He’s not injured. I don’t think it’s serious.”
Suzuki was even more vague Sunday morning when questioned about the unnamed issue. He confirmed it doesn’t have anything to do with colliding with the right field wall at Angel Stadium when he pursued Shohei Ohtani’s home run in Tuesday’s loss.
“I’m just trying to prevent worst-case scenarios from happening, so just being very cautious right now,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “It’s not really anything to disclose.”
Ross said Suzuki was available off the bench, but Suzuki didn’t sound as confident about pinch-hitting Sunday.
“I’m not too sure, it’s a really difficult question,” he replied.
Suzuki often tries to incorporate a quip or joke during interviews, and Sunday was no different. At one point, Suzuki joked Ross told him to practice his base running skills and when he improves, he’ll be back in the lineup.
As for whether he anticipates starting Tuesday at Wrigley Field, Suzuki said, “That is obviously my ultimate objective, but it’s also up to Ross and what he feels is best.”
It’s not uncommon for a player or team to downplay aches and pains. A long season means things pop up over the course of 162 games and players aren’t always fully healthy on the field. Suzuki’s situation is slightly concerning because of the time he’s missed the last two seasons with a left ring finger sprain that cost him six weeks last summer and an oblique strain that delayed his season debut until April 14. He hasn’t been able to get into a prolonged rhythm.
The Cubs need Suzuki’s presence in the middle of the lineup, especially if he shows a more aggressive approach like he did in his multi-hit games Friday and Saturday.
Getting the three-game series off in Anaheim to reset paid off for Christopher Morel against the Giants.
Morel collected three hits, including a home run, tallied three RBIs and got a start in each outfield spot. And an important indicator of a better approach: two walks and no strikeouts.
“We try to do that at times when guys are scuffling a little bit, being able to reset and clear their mind, work on some things,” Ross said. “I try to pull from some of my experiences, and times when you’re just trying so hard out there and being able to take a step back and watch the game from the bench sometimes gives you a little bit of perspective.”
Morel’s freakish power was on display Saturday with a 365-foot home run to right field. It was only the 70th homer slugged to right field by a right-handed hitter at Oracle Park since the stadium opened in 2000.
“When you watch him take batting practice, it’s probably some of the craziest home-run power I’ve seen in a really long time,” Ross said. “Does it shock me that he went oppo for a right-handed hitter here? No, I know he’s capable of going deep at any park, any space. It really feels that way.”
The Cubs need to go on a run in the next seven weeks for the front office to buy into the team and pursue upgrades before the trade deadline.
The Cubs enter Tuesday 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates. They will be relying on right-hander Jameson Taillon to set the tone in the series opener, facing the organization that drafted him No. 2 overall in 2010.
Sitting eight games under .500, the next two weeks present a great opportunity for that constantly-elusive positive momentum.
The Cubs open a six-game homestand Tuesday with their first season meeting against the Pirates. After a three-game weekend set versus Baltimore, the Cubs travel to Pittsburgh for another three games and then head to England for their two-game London Series against the last-place St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cubs are 1-for-6 this year when they have a chance to sweep a series, their lone success featuring MLB’s worst team, the Oakland A’s.
“We didn’t bank enough wins when we were playing well,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said last week. “At some point you’re going to have to sweep some series. You’re going to have to go on a winning streak in order to make up for the couple times we’ve been swept.
“I mean, candidly, that’s the nature of this. It’s going to be really hard to two-out-of-three our way to a really good place. We’re going to have to at some point win a bunch of games in a row, and I think we have the pitching to do that.”
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