The Cubs needed their bullpen to hold Tuesday night. Instead, it cracked wide open.
Chicago blew a 3-0 lead against the Milwaukee Brewers and walked off the field with a 9-4 loss, a result that dropped the Cubs out of the top wild-card spot. It was the latest ugly chapter for a relief group that has been leaking runs for days.
The sixth inning was where everything turned. After a leadoff single, William Contreras hit a ball hard to Matt Shaw, who closed his glove early and let it carom into shallow right field. Milwaukee had two on with nobody out, and after Matthew Boyd got Jake Bauers, Craig Counsell went to Daniel Palencia in a high-leverage spot.
Palencia never really got settled in. Before he even delivered a pitch, he was charged with a run on a balk.
Andrew Vaughn followed with a fly ball down the right-field line that Seiya Suzuki couldn’t make a play on near the foul line and wall, and it was scored a double that tied the game at 3-3. Then Christian Yelich stepped in and launched his 10th homer of the year, flipping the game and quieting Wrigley Field.
Milwaukee didn’t stop there. The Brewers tacked on two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth, feeding on a Cubs bullpen that has suddenly turned into a liability.
The numbers back it up. Since Aug.
19, Chicago’s bullpen owns a 5.88 ERA, which ranks 26th in baseball over that stretch. That timeline lines up almost exactly with when Dansby Swanson hit the IL.
If the Cubs are going to stay in the race, that has to change fast.
After the game, Counsell said what Cubs fans are already feeling.
“We’ve got to pitch better,” Counsell said. “There’s no question - we’ve got to pitch better.
But, these are the guys, man. This is them, so we’ve got to help them get better and we’ve got to get outs."
That’s the hard part for Chicago: there doesn’t appear to be a cavalry ride coming. The names people want to lean on - Justin Steele, Shelby Miller and Jaxon Wiggins - all come with questions, and none can be treated like a lock. Edward Cabrera’s season hasn’t offered much comfort either, and he made his first rehab appearance Tuesday at Triple-A Iowa.
So the burden sits right where Counsell put it. The Cubs need Palencia to become a reliable out-getter no matter when he’s called on. And they need the arms that have carried them for most of the season to clean it up quickly, because the home stretch isn’t waiting around.
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