Another homer by Michael Busch? Check.
Another three-hit game from Pete Crow-Armstrong? Check.
Solid starting pitching from Jameson Taillon? Check.
Those things all went right Monday night in San Diego. Unfortunately, because of rough outings from three different Cubs relievers, that did not lead to victory. Instead, because the pen was hit for eight runs in less than two total innings, the Cubs lost to the Padres 10-4. San Diego, for their part, remains undefeated at home so far this year (11-0).
Taillon and Dylan Cease matched zeroes for the first two innings and then Fernando Tatis Jr. homered in the bottom of the third to make it 1-0 San Diego.
The Cubs, though, put together a nice rally in the fourth. Justin Turner led off the inning by reaching on a Padres error.
Busch followed with his fourth homer [VIDEO].
For Busch it was also the third straight game in which he had homered. You will likely remember that right around this time last year, Busch had a five-game homer streak, also on a West Coast trip.
One out after the homer, Nico Hoerner doubled and PCA doubled him in [VIDEO].
The Cubs nursed that 3-1 lead into the sixth, when with one out. Taillon walked Manny Machado.
Craig Counsell came out to lift Taillon at 89 pitches. Taillon’s season high is 95, and he didn’t appear to be laboring. Was it the right call to take him out? Or should Taillon have been allowed at least one more batter? I thought Taillon threw pretty well overall. Here’s more on Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].
Brad Keller loaded the bases on a single and walk and then a single by Jose Iglesias scored a pair and tied the game, with one of the runs charged to Taillon.
Now, the first hit off Keller wasn’t entirely his fault — Gavin Sheets hit a fly to short left that was catchable, but it dropped between Happ and Dansby Swanson. Catch that ball and maybe the entire sequence of Padres hitters is different.
The Cubs didn’t score in the top of the seventh and Nate Pearson was the next man out of the bullpen.
Pearson was just bad. He issued a leadoff walk to Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez doubled Tatis to third. Counsell ordered Machado intentionally passed to load the bases. Pearson unloaded them by wild-pitching Tatis in to give the Padres the lead. Sheets then doubled in two runs to make it 6-3.
Pearson has talent and throws hard but the results this year have been… not good. His ERA now sits at 10.38.
The Cubs got one of those runs back in the top of the eighth off former Cub Jason Adam. The first two Cubs were routine outs, then PCA singled, his third hit of the game. PCA stole second, his seventh of the year, and scored on this double by Miguel Amaya [VIDEO].
More on PCA’s three-hit game from BCB’s JohnW53:
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s first game with at least three hits was on July 28 of last year. Last night’s game was his ninth starting then — three more in that span than by any other Cub. Michael Busch, Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki have had six each. Miguel Amaya has had five and Dansby Swanson, four. Six more players have combined for the remaining 12 of the total 54 such games. The Cubs have played 74 games during the span.
In his nine games with at least three hits, PCA is 28 for 39, an average of .718. In all his other games during the span, he is 46 for 227 — .203.
So the Cubs trailed by two heading to the bottom of the eighth, and Eli Morgan entered and had himself a rough inning, including homers by Tatis and Arraez.
Then Morgan left with an apparent elbow injury [VIDEO].
Here’s what Counsell said about that postgame (Bluesky link).
That could be any one of a number of relievers coming up from Triple-A Iowa. Here’s the Iowa roster — see if you can figure it out.
Eventually that wound up a four-run inning, and that wrapped up the scoring for the night.
Anyway, the Cubs are once again in a position where they’re going to have to do some mixing and matching in the bullpen. Some guys have done well. Others haven’t. In addition to a possible IL stint for Morgan, Pearson has just not been good this year and does have an option remaining, so maybe a stint at Iowa would do him good. As always, we await developments.
The Cubs will try to even up the series Tuesday evening in San Diego. Shōta Imanaga will take the mound for the Cubs and Randy Vásquez will go for the Padres. Game time is again 8:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
