Luke Farrell found his rhythm a little too late in yesterday’s 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was pulled in the fourth inning.
“It was a tough start,” Maddon said of Farrell. “That’s the one thing we couldn’t have happen tonight and it happened.”
Which probably if there’s a game where the Cubs sat back and figured out the holes in their pitching, last night was their game. Let’s face it, Anthony Rizzo threw out a couple of balls from the mound.
“The game we lost to the Cardinals late was the one that stings the most. These games, you know, they’re going to happen. We move on from them pretty easily. Obviously, we don’t ever want to pitch as position players. We always joke around about it, but on a serious note, it is what it is.” Rizzo said.
Yeah, that’s definitely a sign that things weren’t working well for the Cubs. Although, it was pretty cool seeing Rizzo and Victor Caratini pitch. It’s just ironic that just over the halfway mark of the season and the Cubs found themselves in this position of well, position players tossing balls across the plate. They were supposed to have the best rotation in baseball. The bullpen is getting tired.
“That would be difficult because you’re totally going to wear out the better part of your bullpen,” Maddon responded. “That’s my concern.”
That’s all of our concern. The way I figure it, the Cubs schedule is going to be “relaxed” in August so if they can rebound against the Cardinals next after the D Backs, they should be all right.
“You get into those head-banging games in September and you don’t know how everyone (rookies) is going to react at that point,” the manager stated. “We’ve had some guys step in and perform really well, but some of them have never done it under those circumstances before. I have no idea what they’re going to react like.” Maddon said.
August is going to be key on how well the Cubs are going to perform this fall. We’ll see at the deadline.
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The Canuck Cubbie 