Blown leads typify Cubs’ mediocrity
Cards tie it in 9th, then walk off in 10th as Cubs’ skid hits 4
ST. LOUIS — They haven’t pitched well since Tuesday. They haven’t come close to fielding the ball like they should for even two or three games in a row for weeks.
And only Saturday did they start to score runs again at an adequate pace — and most of those came in one inning.
Thirty games into the season, the Cubs don’t look like a very good team, especially after blowing a ninth- inning lead and losing 8- 6 to the Cardinals on a walk- off home run by Kolten Wong in the 10th.
‘‘ Obviously, we know we’re not playing our best baseball right now,’’ said right- hander Tyler Chatwood, who walked five more batters to raise his major- leagueleading total to 27 and lasted only four innings. ‘‘ But there’s a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track, and I think we will.’’
For now, their longest losing streak of the season is at four games with one to play in St. Louis before coming home.
And while their 7- 1 record against a good Brewers team is impressive, they’re 9- 13 against everyone else, including losses in three of four games to the National League Central- leading Cardinals so far.
‘‘ It’s vs. them,’’ first baseman Anthony Rizzo said of the loss to the rival Cardinals. ‘‘ And we’re here [ in St. Louis]. It’s tough. But we’ll bounce back tomorrow.’’
Rizzo, who has slumped and been sidelined by a sore back in the first five weeks of the season, might be a beacon for the Cubs if his three homers in the last four games is any indication.
He won’t suggest that he’s doing anything different or better lately, and he hasn’t drawn a walk since April 20. But if his recent power is a sign he’s warming with the weather after the worst April of his career, that might be the biggest answer for what ails the lineup.
What ails the rest of the team was underscored in the Cubs’ third consecutive start of less than five innings, sloppy plays in the field and four walks leading off innings among the seven their pitchers allowed.
Three of the leadoff walks and four of the seven overall scored, including closer Brandon Morrow’s leadoff walk in the ninth and Luke Farrell’s leadoff walk just ahead of Wong’s homer in the 10th.
‘‘ That’s the worst time to have one — at the start of the inning — especially when you kind of give them a little bit of momentum and hope,’’ said Morrow, who hadn’t allowed a run this season until yielding a tying two- run double to Marcell Ozuna three batters after the walk. ‘‘ I just had trouble locating my fastball.’’
Chatwood has had command problems all season but said he thinks it can be solved with a ‘‘ simple’’ mechanical fix he wouldn’t divulge.
Meanwhile, the Cubs — who lapped the field in defensive runs saved during their 2016 champion- ship season — have performed like a shadow of that team this season, despite having mostly the same players.
Shortstop Addison Russell’s inability to catch Rizzo’s throw to second with one out in the fourth became a run- scoring error when it got past him into the outfield. And Matt Carpenter followed with a slicing drive to left that Kyle Schwarber seemed to have trouble tracking as it sailed past his outstretched glove for a tying two- run double.
Schwarber had so much trouble that he fell down when Carpenter lifted a routine fly ball toward him in the sixth. It was so routine that Schwarber was able to get up and still make the catch about two feet from where he fell.
‘‘[ The fielding is] not as good as we can be,’’ manager Joe Maddon said of his 30- game evaluation. ‘‘ We hold ourselves to a really high standard defensively, and when we make a mistake, it jumps at you.
‘‘ But two- run lead, ninth inning, Morrow pitching — I’ll take it.’’