AWFUL LOSS: Chicago Cubs Do EVERYTHING Wrong In St. Louis

AWFUL LOSS: Chicago Cubs Do EVERYTHING Wrong In St. Louis

embarrassing starting pitching mental mistakes in the outfield from a star player and reprehensible managing we have a packed show tonight you are Locked on Cubs your daily Chicago Cubs podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day you are locked on Cubs part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day i’m Sam Olbert i’m a lifelong fan taking my passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs thank you for being part of the show and making Locked on Cubs your first listen today and the best way you can help us grow the show is to listen every day like the video and give us a comment below this episode is brought to you by Monarch Money take control of your finances with Monarch Money use code lockdown at monarchmoney.com/lockdonmlb for 50% off your first year oh boy we got a solo show for you it’s been a while i haven’t had to get into this this mode i haven’t had to get into this mood really all season long and and I’ve enjoyed it i know some people like this some people don’t i don’t i don’t like being like this i don’t like being this guy but it calls to be this guy tonight we’re going to get to some Porter Hodgej updates Ben Brown going down to Triple A some news and notes if you’re watching on YouTube for the for the plan for today’s show I put embarrassing mortifying and news and notes because there’s just a lot to discuss um I’m going to discuss the Danby Swanson batting fifth which to me is the thing that is most irritating from this game um that’s coming up but we start with just another really bad loss for the Cubs and and and it is now time I believe to start getting very concerned about this team maybe I don’t need to put the word very in there but this is just the type of loss that you you you really start to look around and it starts with Jameson Tyion uh it was we talked about how this might be and and I actually thought about it after the show was the wrong take cuz he he had some important starts down the stretch in 2023 but we joked a little bit and talked about how this could be the biggest start of JO’s Cub career in hindsight probably wasn’t it’s too early for that um but how did he come out after what was batting practice in his last start against the Brewers four innings eight hits eight runs they were all earned three more home runs most of those home runs most of those hits coming 0212 in the count where he just threw hanging breaking ball after hanging breaking ball after hanging breaking ball and I’m usually not the guy like like when a guy struggles for example like what Ian Hap did last night when he ground into a double play that’s really really irritating and frustrating but that’s part of baseball and you know guys are gonna do that and it and it it makes you want to pull your hair out but it’s part of the game it’s why it’s such a hard game you talk about it you you move on but you don’t criticize you know you don’t criticize it more than it needs to be you address it you get really upset like I did and you move on it’s a normal It’s normal baseball struggles this is a step up for me because it’s just you’re not learning from your mistakes you’re not adjusting you’re not you’re not making any effort and and Jameson Tyion by all accounts seems like one of the nicest dudes out there super great guy from everything I’ve heard so I’m not criticizing that part of it it’s just how can you make that mistake over and over and over again i I I mean I know I know when he’s right he attacks the zone but but to to give up that many home runs attacking overattacking making mistake after mistake it’s it’s it’s really mind-boggling to watch and you know I I gave Jam Mo a lot of credit just two weeks ago when he was pitching to the conditions but like I said in that show we knew the regression was coming just like it was with Carson Kelly you’re not going to come out every single night and go “All right well Jamo pitched good today but it was because of the conditions the regression’s coming.” You got to give guys their credit when they deserve it and you got to get after them when when they deserve it as well and Jameson Tyion is is really making it hard to to accept his good outings for anything more than a than a strikethrower taking advantage of really really good conditions to pitch because these last two outings against the two teams that are and I’m putting air quotes chasing you because it doesn’t feel like they’re going to be chasing you for long um is disastrous and he’s making a lot of money $18 million a year and I know well what does that matter it’s just you get paid a lot of money to do a job uh just like I get you know I don’t get paid $18 million But you know I get paid to to show up to work tomorrow when when my alarm goes off tomorrow I’m going to be in a really bad mood i’m going to show up i’m going to do what I need to do and if I make mistakes over and over and over again I’m going to be held accountable that’s just how it goes um he he’s a professional and his performance tonight was nothing short of a disaster it was a disaster the Cubs offense scored seven runs seiya Suzuki was tremendous three-run home run and two more bullets down the third baseline kyle Tucker King Tuck who probably won’t be extended by this team or or you know if he is man would that be a nice piece of news if Jed wants to drop that tomorrow because we need it he was outstanding today his at bats were excellent uh Nicoer we’ll talk about him and his spot in the batting order he was excellent cubs scored seven runs could have scored some more but Jameson Towns bullpen was great bullpen was great this was a game that the Cubs should have won and the biggest reason they didn’t win it is because Jameson Tyion did not give them a chance to win he was brutal uh uh on uh on Tuesday night in addition to Jamo P cro Armstrong had a play that just could never happen at this level i’m not going to harp on it too much and and and the reason why is because I truly believe and I don’t I don’t care about wins above replacement whatever that says that’s not for me i just with my own eyes without Pete crow Armstrong this team is essentially the exact same team as it’s always been and so he’s been the difference or at least the biggest difference uh from last year to this year so I’m not going to get on him too much because I think he holds himself accountable and gets on himself enough um but he forgot how many outs there were in center field and it there was a man on second two outs and he scored on a fly ball to center field on a sack fly and the Cubs ended up losing the game by a run and and that just can’t happen and those things start to happen when when when you’re struggling you know and I’m sure hopefully Craig talked to him about it if it happens again then you probably got to take action uh but it was a really bad play and then to compound that really bad play Cubs had a real good rally going uh runners on the corners one out in the seventh down a run peed at the plate left on left he bunted the ball you know it’s one of those plays where if it works it’s a great play if it doesn’t it it’s terrible uh but it was a really bad bunt he bunted it right back to the mound and uh Kyle Tucker made the right play he didn’t have a read he couldn’t score and um you know the five hitter came up after that and uh that was the inning so rough day for Pete no question i I love that he had a really good at bat uh in the uh in the ninth but to me when when you look back at this this this pitching staff has regressed to the mean as fast as anything I’ve seen that that performance from Tyion compounded with that performance uh uh from Ben Ben Brown yesterday Colin Ray the day before it it is it’s hard to take and you know we know Jed needs to make moves unfortunately you know Cubs are dropping ground really really fast i mean they had I think they had a six and a half game lead a week ago at this time because that was the game that beat the the Brewers they’re up six and a half games and in seven days they’ve dropped four games in the standings and now are just have a two and a half game lead and a lot of it is you know most of it is because they’re not competing um wi-i with their pitchers uh we know offensively we talked about it the Cubs offense is has been okay for a while here against righties it’s the lefties that really uh you know really bother you but but but the pitching right now is the headline we’ll have plenty of shows talking about how to get it fixed if I were Jed I think he needs to get on the phone right now uh because it’s it’s a complete you know it’s a complete freefall in this series against by the way with all due respect with all due respect a completely mediocre Cardinals lineup um they don’t slug that much they’re not that good of an offense their starting pitchers in this series the Chicago Cubs Ben Brown and Jameson Tyone nine innings 17 hits 16 earn runs and seven home runs six of those seven coming to left-handed hitters oh my goodness gracious the hope is uh uh Matthew Boyd on the mound Shota maybe you could neutralize the lefties a little bit and get back on track but it is pretty crazy the stat that I just told you isn’t the most frustrating part for me individually uh from from Tuesday’s game i’m going to tell you my most frustrating part coming up next we are back here on Locked on Cubs and for what feels like maybe the 30th consecutive game Danby Swanson uh is batting fifth for the Chicago Cubs and Craig Councel has said it a lot i’m not I’m I’m paraphrasing here he didn’t use these exact words but he just doesn’t think batting order is is that big of a deal like like like I do or or or other people do and I just I don’t understand it danby Swanson is hitting 145 this season with runners in scoring position um David Ross made a lot of mistakes as a manager of the Cubs and you know one one of his biggest mistakes I just thought uh uh hitting Nico her leadoff was just it it was infuriating to me because I wanted Nicoer to have opportunities with runners in scoring position that’s what his skill set is he’s the best hitter on the team with runners in scoring position exactly what I talked about yesterday with Ian Hap his ability to put bat on ball is huge in contact situations danby Swanson is a seven eight or nine hitter on a good team that runs into some home runs every now and then but is not a good pure hitter and I I I the the the argument of well you want slug in the five hole you have Kyle Tucker Seya Suzuki Pete Crow Armstrong hitting in front of that position there’s going to be guys on base running around the bases get a guy that just has an approach there even if you want to put Michael Bush there I know the reason why council doesn’t put Bush there is he doesn’t want Bush hitting behind Pete Crow Armstrong because late in the games that’s going to force lefties to come in and it’s going to really neutralize Pete and therefore neutralize Michael Bush even more uh when lefties come up if if if you really don’t want Nico there then then put Pete lead off and put Ian there or put Ian four and put um you know Pete five then because Ian’s done a nice job overall from the right side it’s just you have to change it up because it was a huge part of the game today seventh inning second and third two outs down a run you just need a base hit swanson pops out to foul territory was a great catch by Berles to Dansby’s credit and this isn’t like this isn’t a knock on Dansby that’s just not who he is you’re asking him to do something he’s not good at and I actually think in that situation Dansby tried to go to right field i really do like he he was trying it’s just it’s not what he’s good at he’s good at ambushing some fast balls the bottom of the order and hitting some home runs and then in the ninth inning he came up same situation second and third two outs he he he almost hit the ball so softly it worked there was an incredible play by by Aronado give him credit but the the process the thought process makes absolutely no sense to me because early in the year when this team we talked about urgency urgency urgency council moved Dansby down to the eight- hole and it worked amazing why is he forcefeeding Dansby to hit five and hit four verse verse lefties it makes no sense i I I got to feel like I’m missing something i don’t care that Nicoer only has one home run his skill set the batting average there plays more than Danby Swanson’s skill set and you know I I just I I I think I I I really think it’s one of the more mind-boggling managerial decisions I’ve seen in a Cub uniform i just you know batting order you’re going to have gripes with batting order you’re not going to love it but this one to continue hitting this guy fifth w with his skill set he’s striking out over a third of the time he’s he’s hitting you know under 200 the last month of the season it’s just and maybe it’s just my overall frustration with baseball because all all the guys the guys even that are smart way smarter than me because Craig Council absolutely is far far smarter than me even these guys they just look at OPS they look at Slug like who cares what the WRC Plus says who cares what the OPS says in big spots i want a guy that I feel like can get a big hit and and I would understand if your team was void of slug but you got slug pca’s got 20 plus homers sea got 20 plus homers uh Tucker’s on pace for 30 plus homers you don’t need to have slug in that five hole diversify optimize maximize and balance your lineup i’m tired of watching Nicoer bat with nobody on base he came up against Phil Mton same guy that got out Danby nobody on base i literally went to Twitter and I said you know he’s getting a hit here you know would have been great would have been great to have him in a spot uh uh you know where it actually mattered you know base hit through the left side it’s just the I I always have an issue when the process doesn’t make sense when when when Craig ran out Hennessy Cabrera there that process made sense to me he he he doesn’t want to burn relievers that’s the guy that he has that’s that it is what it is to continue hitting this guy fifth is is just in my opinion in my opinion some of the most managerial malpractice I’ve seen not from just Craig Councel but from from any any Cub manager i mean it’s it’s just unbelievable i’m looking at the stats right now coming in at today 222 with a 247 on base percentage are his numbers in June 222 247 and and here’s Nico herers coming into today by the way and he had a huge day today nico’s batting 274 i mean th those are th those hits and people say well that’s just batting average that’s that’s the stat that matters that’s the stat that matters in that specific spot it doesn’t matter as much holistically you know but in that spot second and third two outs what’s a walk going to do you anyway i mean it’s great you pass the baton but a base hit is a two-run homer there and I just think you know with where the Cubs are at right now um your manager should be making things easier for you and helping you and I think I’ve been really fair to Craig a lot most of this year and he and he’s hurting the Cubs right now and and starting on Wednesday night uh in St louis where there is about 674 people watching the game and about 420 of them are Cubs fans uh the this Cardinal team their fans don’t even care about this team in their two and a half games behind the Cubs uh the lineup card needs to change uh they he’s got to get Danby Swanson out of there he’s got to he’s got to uh Cubs tomorrow with a with a I I I don’t believe in must wins when you’re in first place in June i don’t believe in that i’m not going to go that far but it’s definitely a really important game tomorrow it’ll be Matthew Boyd versus Eric Fetty uh for the first time in this series the spread actually makes sense to me so that’s good news cubs were like minus 115 both games and it didn’t add up it just felt very trappy i talked about that um but now they’re up to minus 135 with Boyd on the mount think it’s very simple why uh Vegas didn’t feel confident that Ben Brown and Jameson Tyion could get out these left-handed bats uh with St louis they were right matthew Boyd should be able to neutralize them a bit and hopefully this offense could continue to do damage against righties they did enough to win on Tuesday night but Jameson Tyion and company made sure that did not happen coming up next it was a very big news day before the game we’re going to get into that and uh you know talk more Cubs coming up next we are back here on Locked on Cubs where before u the disaster in St louis on Tuesday night the Cubs made the decision that we all knew that was coming they sent Ben Brown down to Triple A and they c uh called up Porter Hodgej uh be we’ll talk about Brown in a second very odd interview from councel with Porter Hajj before the game mcgre Taylor McGregor said that Hajj isn’t quite 100% yet and so because of that they’re going to you know try and ease him back in i listen to that interview a little differently i don’t think that Hajj isn’t 100% i just think he’s not back into form i don’t think like I don’t think he’s hurt or they wouldn’t call him back up i I hope uh but you know his last outing in Iowa he gave up six runs in a third of an inning um it it didn’t go well and and council really spoke strongly about Porter Hajj um I’m not going to go into exact quotes but to paraphrase a lot of things that we’ve talked about on this show with Porter to be honest uh you know he he needs to throw more strikes and if he’s going to walk that many guys he has to strike out more guys because you know in this league it’s very simple if you walk a lot of guys and you’re not getting a ton of strikeouts you got no chance because you know bounces are going to happen guys are going to get broken bat hits they’re going to get blue pits and if you if you constantly have traffic on the bases you you know you’re you’re in trouble so if you are going to walk a lot of guys but the ball’s not in play a lot you’re striking out a lot of guys that could work if you’re not striking out a lot of guys you got to limit the walks and it just seemed like councel was very you know not I don’t want to say stern but just it just sounded like Porter Hajj has has a has a ways to go uh there were some times this year where I thought he looked like the dominant guy that he was last year and then there were some times that he didn’t and now this injury and maybe this setback start uh outing in in in Iowa um you know has forced the Cubs to where you know Council said he’s going to be you know ease back in he’s going to be in low leverage here for a bit so you know you’ll see Porter Hodgej when the Cubs are trailing or you know maybe in the fifth or sixth inning or or something along those lines and I think that’s a pretty big story because this is a guy that about I don’t know whenever I was doing the solo show a couple months ago when Palencia took over for him the Cubs lost their closer and and now with really no blowup outing no terrible outing um at the at the major league level it feels like he’s been demoted a little bit now Council did say that that Porter is still a huge part of of what the Cubs are trying to do and I I suspect Porter Hodgej will get right but right now it feels like your high leverage guys are who who were awesome today pomearance Theelbar um Keller will pitch tomorrow hopefully Palencia and then Haj slides under there but it could be a good opportunity and a good good upgrade for this bullpen because you know we just saw Henness Cabrera we just saw Nate Pearson so if Porter Hodgej is going to play that role for a while that’s a nice upgrade having a guy come in down a run down two runs that keeps you in the game but it’ll be really interesting to keep an eye on Porter Hodgej because him coming back I thought and the way he looked up until the trade deadline was going to determine what the Cubs do with the reliever market and and now you almost feel like they need a reliever we know they need a starter we know they probably need another bat matt Shaw is probably its own episode coming here soon uh but but you know if Porter Hodgej isn’t going to be a high leverage guy by the time the trade deadline rolls around you know Cubs need to think about upgrading uh uh that spot as well so uh pretty big story there uh Ben Brown being moved down to AAA you know being sent down i uh you know I I I think we covered it you know just you know and council said all the right stuff all the things that I agree with i mean he is getting better he is growing and when I say getting better I don’t mean results but I just mean when you have outings like that you face adversity you grow from it but this team is trying to win a division title and they just they don’t really have the the patience you know with Kyle Tucker on a one-year deal here uh to to wait for Ben Brown to go and go grow and go through these growing pains anymore they really don’t and so you know he’s got to go get better AAA like Matt who who’s been all over this Ben Brown situation accurately said uh not only did Ben Brown get sent down but council mentioned he’s going to start but they’re really going to limit his innings they’re going to watch his innings so kind of like what Matt said yesterday probably maybe once through the order maybe three four innings tops uh and then he’ll be removed and and we’ll see you know maybe it’ll be a really fun story and Ben Brown he has the stuff maybe he can come back and contribute for the Cubs here uh down the stretch because uh they’re sure going to need it um I thought the one interesting thing with council 2 is he didn’t really talk about you know the third pitch that’s a goal for Ben Brown it’s a goal but it wasn’t the reason he was sent down he got sent down because the two pitches that he has weren’t competitive enough i think that’s an interesting distinction to make so uh just a pretty newsy day uh to wrap up just going around the NL Central well you know the Cardinals are on fire uh they’ve beaten the Cubs backto-back days to climb within two and a half uh Milwaukee won on Tuesday night after what was a a a really big break for the Cubs to lose that game to the uh to the Pirates on uh Monday night and uh the Cincinnati Reds are are are heating up as well so the NL Central from what some people you know a few weeks ago on the radio were talking hey World Series let’s think about October you have three baseball teams within four and a half games of the Cubs in Milwaukee two and a half out St louis two and a half out and um you know the Cubs now I I think I think it’s safe to say for the first time this year are spiraling a little bit i think when you when you look at the totality of it when you look at the totality of it I think they’re seven and 10 in their last 17 games that’s not as bad as as it feels but what it really has come down to is since that victory against the Brewers you know loss loss against uh the Brewers game two lose two out of three against Seattle and now lose two straight so you know that’s uh what is that there one game uh four games six games they’ve lost five of six a and the losses have just been bad they’ve either been really really ugly games like like blowouts or games that you felt like they should have they should have won so you know we talked about it on on Sunday heading into Monday cubs are facing adversity for the first time this year uh so far two games in not handling it well and you know the big million-dollar question that that we don’t know the answer to but we will in two three weeks and a month is is this just a bad stretch of the season for the Cubs that happens or is this more that like the team that they actually are and April and May were more of a uh you know a facade you know I’ve seen a lot of people on on the radio and social media say “Well hey the 2016 Cubs went through a really bad stretch.” Or “Hey the Dodgers went through really bad stretches.” The difference is everybody knew the true talent of those teams you know what I mean so it’s like oh like like nobody blinked when the Dodgers were were playing bad baseball because the true talent’s obvious the difference between this team is we don’t really know what this team is they have not proven that they can win in October they have not proven that they can get to October and you know PCA has been a huge huge part of it if that continues I think ultimately the Cubs are going to be fine because Kyle Tucker to me looks pretty locked in i I know people some people have an issue with his performance and maybe it’s fair to say defensively but he’s just exactly what you what you asked for say has been fantastic uh you know you’re without Justin Steel you’ve been without him we’ll see how Imanaga looks on Thursday but all in all we just don’t know so the apprehensiveness the worry you knew that 2016 team was going to October come on i mean they won 97 games the year before we know the Dodgers is are going to be playing in October the Cubs we don’t know we don’t know we don’t know what this team is we’re we’re we’re learning about them every day we learned a lot in April that was really good we learned some things in May and now in June we’re learning that you know there’s a lot of holes heal here they need to be filled and filled quickly and and you know it’s going to play out on the field uh but but Tuesday night’s game was was up there for one of the most frustrating games of the season and hopefully Matt and I are back on Wednesday talking about a much needed victory thank you so much for checking out this edition of Locked on Cubs you give us 30 minutes we’ll give you all things Cubs with a laugh or two along the way be sure to subscribe on YouTube smash the like button for the algorithm and leave a fivestar review on Apple Spotify and everywhere you get your podcasts i’m Sam Ol and this was a very challenging uh very challenging very disappointing uh uh conclusion of lockdown Cubs

Jameson Taillon gave up 8 more runs and 3 more home runs, PCA forgot how many outs there were, and Dansby Swanson continues to bat 5th. Sam talks about the Spiraling Cubs and gives an update on Ben Brown and Porter Hodge.

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