It was a promising start for the Cubs last night. With Jake Marisnick hitting his fifth home-run of the year, putting them up 1-0, it looked as though the Cubs might finally snap their long losing skid.
But the Phillies kept the pressure on, tying the game on a homer by backup catcher Andrew Knapp, and later doing the same on a shot by Didi Gregorious after the Cubs had regained the lead. Andrew McCutchen gave the Phil’s the lead in the top of the sixth, and they never looked back.
In the end, the Cubs surrendered five Phillies home-runs and ultimately lost 13-3 for their tenth consecutive defeat, knocking them below the .500 mark. Though they didn’t lose any ground on first-place Milwaukee, they now sit just a half-game above the fourth-place Cardinals, who won yesterday.
“I don’t think, at any point in any season, any player thinks that you can go on a 10-game losing streak,” said Zach Davies, who started the game for Chicago, going five innings and allowing two runs on four hits. “But those things happen. Teams go on 20-plus game winning streaks. Hopefully that’s in our future, but as of right now, we’re trying to get that first one.”
At the center of it all was an ejection for manager David Ross, who went out to protest a pitch from Rex Brothers that was called a ball and resulted in Bryce Harper drawing a walk.
“I think they’re trying to call every strike they possibly can, and sometimes they don’t go your way. We’ve got to overcome that adversity, no doubt. But from my standpoint, I need to fight and hold umpires as accountable as I possibly can,” said Ross, who admitted later that he was wrong to argue the call. “It’s a fine line. I don’t want to be the manager that complains about every strike when you’re in the middle of a stretch that we’re in right now. That’s counterproductive as well, but that one in particular felt like, in the moment, that he kind of swayed with a high-profile player and a borderline pitch.”
The current skid for the Cubs is the longest since May of 2012, when they dropped 12 in a row. Dale Sveum was the manager then.
The Cubbies sit 8 ½ games out of first-place in the Central, a division they were on top of less than a month ago, and sit 7 games out in the Wild-Card race.
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