Long balls wear down Cueto in loss
Blister problems continue to plague pitcher as he allows 3 home runs, while Lester goes distance, striking out 10
CHICAGO — Johnny Cueto spooked the Cubs like no other starting pitcher last October. He threw a masterful Game 1 in the NL Division Series here at Wrigley Field. The only run against him came when Javier Baez lofted a home run that rattled in the basket that fronts the left-field bleachers.
The Cubs hit a few more jumpers against Cueto on Tuesday night. And they were all long-range.
Kyle Schwarber parked a 470-foot drive onto Sheffield Avenue in the first inning, Jason Heyward went deep four batters later and Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run shot in the fourth as the Giants lost 4-1 at Wrigley Field.
Cueto couldn’t match Jon Lester, who struck out 10 in a four-hitter. The previous time out, Cueto allowed five runs while failing to match the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw. The Giants need Cueto to be an ace with Madison Bumgarner out past the All-Star break, but his 4.64 ERA through 10 starts more closely resembles a rotation filler.
There is a perfectly sound explanation: In addition to the blister on his middle finger that has
bothered him all season, Cueto revealed that he developed another blister on his index finger while throwing on the side in St. Louis over the weekend.
“My fingers were bothering me, but that’s not an excuse,” Cueto said through Spanish interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I mean, I’m getting hit. … I’m not going to feel bad for myself. There are still a lot of games to be played.”
Cueto insisted that it made “no sense whatsoever to skip a start,” even though several starting pitchers around the major leagues have used the 10day disabled list for that precise purpose. He said he needs to stay on routine, keep throwing and build up callouses on the pads of his fingers.
In the meantime, there are few pitchers who can get by on guile as well as Cueto. He managed to complete six innings while striking out eight and giving up just two hits other than the three homers. He is pitching reliably deep into games.
But the Giants need more than that, especially after Bumgarner separated his throwing shoulder in a dirt-bike accident. And Cueto hasn’t had the stuff to match up well against No. 1s, or lift up a team that has the third-lowest scoring offense in the major leagues.
Cueto has not given up fewer than two runs in any of his 10 starts. Last year, he held opponents to one run or fewer in six of his first 10 starts.
His velocity is down a tick, the finish on his pitches isn’t always there, and catcher Buster Posey gave a diplomatic answer when asked if he had to rearrange the game plan against the Cubs.
“It seemed today they were on the fastball,” Posey said. “We ended up mixing more off-speed than we typically would. He did a nice job getting through six with the way the game started.”
Cueto had to mix more often than a Jamba Juice franchise. He threw a whopping 32 change-ups and 31 cutters along with 32 fastballs. Heyward’s homer was the first he has allowed on a cutter all year.
Schwarber’s tape-measure shot — the first onto Sheffield Avenue since they reconstructed the bleachers here — came on a 90-mph fastball with a full count. Rizzo jumped on a first-pitch, 90-mph fastball after Kris Bryant had hit a one-out single in the fourth.
Cueto has not brought the same presence to the mound that he did last October, when he thoroughly dominated the Cubs in a 1-0 loss in Game 1, and was set for a rematch in a deciding game against Lester at Wrigley Field before the Giants blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning of Game 4.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon on Monday reiterated what he said after the Cubs won the World Series: Their clinching comeback against the Giants was the most important game of the postseason, not the classic, back-and-forth Game 7 against the Indians in the Fall Classic.
“I’m telling you, man, Game 4 pretty much won the World Series,” Maddon said. “I did not want to see Mr. Cueto pitching back here again.”
The Giants couldn’t heat up much besides Cueto’s finger against Lester, who limited them to Brandon Crawford’s RBI double in the fifth inning; a bigger chance failed to materialize after Eduardo Nuñez was thrown out trying to steal second base and No. 8 hitter Gorkys Hernandez struck out.
Bochy lamented the minimized inning but took no issue with Nuñez, who would have been safe if not for an athletic throw from catcher Willson Contreras.
After a rain delay of one hour, five minutes before the first pitch, the game lasted just 2:05.
Lester didn’t walk a batter. He didn’t even have a three-ball count all night.
“We expanded quite a bit,” Bochy said. “That’s something we haven’t been doing. That’s a credit to him and his stuff.”
Center fielder Denard n Span did not grip a bat but said the swelling in his sprained thumb had subsided quite a bit. He is a game-time decision to return to the lineup Wednesday after missing the previous two games. X-rays were negative for any structural damage.
The Giants are nearing n a deal to sell the contract of first baseman/outfielder Chris Marrero to the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese Pacific League. Marrero, who hit eight home runs in the spring, opened the season as a right-handed platoon partner for Jarrett Parker before hitting .132 in 38 at-bats.