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Chicago Cubs blow big opportunity to sweep

By Carlos Nazario

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The Chicago Cubs had a golden opportunity to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals and send them a loud message. The bullpen faltered (again), however, and blew a gem thrown by Jon Lester. 

If I told you Chicago Cubs fans that the team would open their eleven game road trip by winning two out of three against the St. Louis Cardinals, you would happily take that, right?

After the bullpen crumbled again and blew a gem of a game thrown by Jon Lester (seven innings pitched, one run on two hits, a walk and seven strikeouts), a bad taste was left in the mouth of many fans.

Yes, it is great that the Cubs went into St. Louis and won a series, but sweeping the series would have sent a loud message to the Cardinals, and a sweep is what they had in their hands.

That was, however, until Jon Lester left the game after seven innings.

For some reason, manager Joe Maddon went with Pedro Strop against the Cardinals, something that has failed over and over again.

I know that having Strop as the setup is a plan that has been pretty successful, but it has been so against every team the Cubs faced EXCEPT the Cardinals.

Against the Cardinals this season, Strop has now thrown 5-and-1/3 innings and has given up 9 runs (that comes out to a whopping 15.20 ERA) on 9 hits, with 6 walks and 5 strikeouts. His WHIP against the Cardinals is an incredible 2.81.

Maybe it would have been prudent to use someone else in that situation.

Of course, with Clayton Richard and Fernando Rodney adding gasoline to the fire after Strop exited, who exactly could Maddon go to, right?

The Cubs will have to do something to shake that bullpen up. Even when the Cubs win, there are too many times when the bullpen looks shaky.

Perhaps help is on the way. Jason Motte may be close to coming back, and having him there could settle the situation.

Also, the Cubs should look into sending just called up rookie Carl Edwards Jr to the mound in some close games and see what he can do.

Edwards did well in his lone inning on Monday, but that was in a blowout win, so he had some margin for error. He pitched well in Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa, so give him a shot and see if he can be a bridge to the eighth. Even with some shaky outings in the mix, Hector Rondon has been the best closer for the Cubs this season.

Again, let’s look at the positive. Jon Lester had a sparkling outing. The Cardinals looked confused at what he was throwing. He made 105 throws, and taking him out was probably a good decision. You do not want a pitcher to go out on a negative.

Also, looking at the whole, the Cubs have done pretty well this season, just not against the Cardinals.

Lester did not want to point fingers after the game.

“Right now, it’s glaring because it’s here and now and fresh in our minds, but we’ve closed out plenty of these games this year,” Lester said of the bullpen. “We’ve been doing it all year — that’s why we’re in the position we’re in and have won plenty of one-run and two-run games this year.

“When they don’t succeed in high leverage situations, it’s easy to point fingers. That’s just a tough one today. We have to take the positives from this three-game series. We came in here and made a little bit of a statement.”

It was nice to see a series win, but if the Cubs get past the Wild Card game, they will face the Cardinals, and they will need to do a better job closing out games. Even in yesterday’s game, if the Cubs did not have an eight-run cushion, we might be having a completely different conversation today.

Let’s hope the Cubs figure things out before the end of the season. If they do, they may make a long playoff run. If they don’t, they may have the same problems that the 1984 and 2008 teams had that ultimately cost them their magical seasons.

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