ST. LOUIS – Wondering if Cubs pitchers have a side gig selling souvenirs at a ballpark near you?
It’d be an interesting theory – if they weren’t giving them away for free.
Fans in the outfield seats – including those shirtless ones in St. Louis – need to be on the lookout for flying baseballs when Cubs hurlers are on the hill. No pitching staff in the sport has surrendered more home runs this season.
“It’s bothersome,” manager Craig Counsell said after Friday’s game.
The count was at 82 when the sun came up Saturday, three bigger than it was 24 hours prior, before lefty Shota Imanaga yielded a trio in a series-opening loss to the Cardinals on Friday night.
Imanaga has been a glaring recent culprit, with eight homers allowed in three consecutive ugly outings. But the problem is, mostly, staff-wide.
Cubs starters came into Saturday having allowed a league-worst 54 home runs, with the staff as a whole on pace to give up 229 this season. And this has been a particularly rough month, the Cubs coming into Saturday having allowed a league-worst 46 homers in May. That included 17 multi-homer games by opponents.
Now, the way hitters mash these days, such a total might not even end up leading the league. The Rockies were baseball’s most homer-happy pitching staff last season, yielding an eye-popping 251 bombs. In 2019, the Orioles allowed more than 300.
But here’s the scary news for a Cubs team with big playoff dreams: It’s been more than a decade since a team that ranked in the top five in home runs allowed even reached October at the end of a 162-game season, when the Yankees did it in 2015.
Bothersome, indeed.
As of Saturday, no major league pitcher had allowed more long balls to opposing batters than righty Jameson Taillon, with a whopping 19 of them in 11 starts. It’s the most in baseball by a healthy margin.
Imanaga wasn’t far behind, with 13 allowed, tied for the second highest total in the game.
Counsell has explained that giving up homers can just be part of the package for guys like Taillon and Imanaga, fly-ball pitchers who are going to give up fly balls that don’t always land in outfielders’ mitts.
Certainly, though, there’s a difference between being just something that happens and a real problem, the sort of thing that leads to crooked numbers on the scoreboard and “L” flags flying over Wrigley Field.
“It’s understanding it can be a part of your game while also trying to limit it the best you can,” Taillon told the Sun-Times on Saturday. “We’ve got some ideas. When I’m ahead in the count, good things happen. When I’m behind, bad things happen.
“I’m being a little predictable right now. The gameplan’s pretty straight forward when you face me. For me, there’s some pretty actionable things we can look at. … There’s lots for me to work on and improve on.”
Taillon came up with a lengthy list, explaining why the Cubs haven’t got this thing ironed out overnight. As that process continues, he said there might be some overlap between figuring out how he can keep opposing hitters in the yard and how Imanaga can do the same.
“[Imanaga’s situation is] similar to me,” Taillon said, “where he knows what makes him good, he knows his strengths. Unfortunately, hitters know that, too, and they know how to game-plan that.
“I think we’re fighting a similar battle right now. You don’t need to completely change everything, but how can you protect what makes you good?”
Right-hander Ben Brown has been the exception, with just one home run allowed all season. But he can’t pitch every day.
Lefty Matthew Boyd and righty Edward Cabrera are working their way back from injuries, but even once the Cubs get healthier, veterans like Taillon and Imanaga aren’t expected to go anywhere. It’s critical for a team with championship-level expectations to get those guys as right as they can.
Otherwise?
Fans – and maybe even the manager – will start using stronger words than “bothersome.”