A rare bad day won’t change the fact that the Cubs boast what has been, arguably, the best bullpen in baseball.
But it was a bad day Saturday, as the Cubs threw nothing but relievers at the rival Cardinals and suffered an 8-6 loss.
Lefty Drew Pomeranz’s perfect 0.00 ERA is no more. Righty Chris Flexen allowed his second home run of the season. And righty Brad Keller, who has been so good and entered with a 1.82 ERA, watched that number inflate by more than a full point, allowing five runs in a game-deciding eighth inning.
“They’ve been so good to us,” first baseman Michael Busch said of the relief corps. “There’s 42,000 people [in the stadium] who would want Brad on that mound in the eighth.
“They’ve meant so much to us the entire year, holding down those games and giving us a chance in a lot of them.”
All three of the aforementioned relief arms have been excellent this season. That Pomeranz and Flexen came in with a combined two earned runs allowed on the season says it all.
But Pomeranz, who opened Saturday, walked two of the first three hitters he faced and gave up a base hit to the fourth to load the bases and earn a quick exit. Flexen stepped in and allowed a two-run single, as well as a solo homer later in his 3 2/3-inning appearance.
After a parade of relievers – righty Ryan Brasier, lefty Caleb Thielbar and righty Ryan Pressly – all held serve, the Cardinals hit a pair of homers off Keller in the eighth, including pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo’s three-run, tie-breaking moonshot onto Waveland Ave.
“I’ve got to make better pitches in those moments,” Keller said. “It’s frustrating, but I’ll live to fight tomorrow.
“We’re a pretty close group down there [in the bullpen]. Obviously, we’ve been throwing pretty well, and we try to rattle off good, positive things to each other and sit down and talk about outings in between games and stuff. I’ve already talked to a bunch of these guys. Just flush it, and on to the next one.”
Considering the Cubs started the day with a 3.22 relief ERA that ranked as the second lowest in baseball, a bullpen game probably didn’t sound too bad to fans. Bullpen games are commonplace, even among contending teams blessed with ample starting pitching.
The Cubs are contenders, mostly thanks to one of the most productive offenses in the sport. But they’re not blessed with that volume of high-quality starting pitching, even less so after an injury to righty Jameson Taillon intensified the need for Jed Hoyer’s front office to make something happen at the trade deadline.
As manager Craig Counsell and his staff plot out how they’ll make up for the absence of Taillon in the final week leading up to the All-Star break, the bullpen figures to once more play a big role.
Counsell mentioned Flexen both Friday and Saturday as someone who can step into a larger role of throwing multiple innings at a time, like he did Saturday.
“What a luxury to have a guy like Chris Flexen, who can throw multiple innings,” Taillon said Saturday. “Flex forgot how to give up runs somewhere along the way.”
“It’s fun to watch him pitch,” Keller told the Sun-Times last month. “He’s very smart when he’s on the mound, which is cool. He’s very deliberate about everything he does, methodical. It’s fun because you can kind of see his mind working once he’s on the mound.”
There could be one more bullpen game in the offing on the team’s next road trip through Minnesota and New York. An off day Monday figures to set the Cubs’ healthy starters to make five starts over those six games.
Then it will be on Hoyer & Co. to figure out a more permanent solution to what’s been the team’s No. 1 need for months. Taillon is expected to miss more than a month, only brightening the glare on what the front office will do next.