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The Cubs offense sucked last night, don’t worry we’ll get to that later, but once again on Friday night we saw one of the biggest issues in MLB: umpires guessing the strike zone. And guess what, it screwed the Cubs.
With one out in the bottom of the 10th inning and a runner at second in a 1-1 game, Dillon Maples threw a perfect pitch, striking out Harrison Bader looking. But no, it was called ball four by Laz Diaz.
A complete joke of a call.
This isn’t to excuse Maples either because he then walked the next batter on four pitches to load the bases and the Cardinals eventually walked it off. Yet, there’s a big difference between having two outs and a runner on than just one out and two runners on. That ball four call changed the entire landscape of the inning and it screwed Dillon Maples and the Cubs.
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Joe Maddon was pissed after the game.
Laz Diaz was horrible all night and yes there were missed calls for both teams, but the Cubs got by far more calls go against them.
By the way, that first walk to begin the game by Yu Darvish that led to the only run scored by the Cardinals before the 10th inning was actually supposed to be a strikeout too.
All right, to the offense.
Absolute garbage.
Very first inning the Cubs had two runners on with one out. Javier Baez grounds into a force out. Jason Heyward walks with two outs to load the bases and Addison Russell flies out to right field.
By the end of the game the Cubs had six more hitless at bats with runners in scoring position. This week has been brutal for the Cubs with RISP.
And the sad thing is that their current 0-for-25 streak with RISP isn’t even their longest stretch of ineptness in May.
Yu Darvish drove in the only run of the game with a sac-fly in the second inning.
That being said, not too worried about the offense overall. The team just set a franchise record for most home runs in a month and they have the second highest OBP in the National League. More runners on means more runners left on base, but how about cutting down on the long stretches of not coming through with a hit in big spots.
Would really appreciate that, thanks.
