Cubs lose floor in WC after Steele’s off night time

PHOENIX — It was an uncharacteristically dangerous night time for Justin Steele, and the timing of the Cubs’ Cy Young Award candidate’s tough outing got here on the mistaken time. 

The Cubs have now misplaced six of their final eight video games, and with the D-backs’ victory, have additionally misplaced the tiebreaker to Arizona.

“I actually felt really good coming in today,” Steele stated. “I felt like the off-day really helped me yesterday … I felt really good. I had a lot of 94-95 stuff. I made a few mistakes, and they did what they were supposed to do.”

After his tough first body during which Steele surrendered a first-pitch three-run homer to Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the lefty settled in a bit, permitting simply three hits from innings two by means of 5, earlier than issues unraveled once more within the sixth. Steele issued a free cross to Walker and Gabriel Moreno singled to proper area, which prompted pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to pay a go to. 

On Steele’s subsequent pitch, Illinois native Alek Thomas slugged his ninth house run of the season to stake Arizona to a 6-0 lead. Steele completed the body, wrapping his night time with six innings, permitting seven hits, six earned runs and placing out 5. 

It was the primary time Steele has allowed two house runs in a sport since July 16.

“Just execute the pitches a little bit better,” Steele stated. “The two homers I gave up just weren’t executed as I would like to. I was just trying to get a strike [against Gurriel] to start the count 0-1. Like I said, he did exactly what he was supposed to do with it and hit it out of the ballpark. And then the same thing with Alek Thomas.”

It was an entire turnaround from Steele’s begin in opposition to the D-backs final Saturday, when he held them to at least one run over seven innings. Arizona definitely had a special sport plan, however supervisor Torey Lovullo made certain to maintain it a secret.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Lovullo said. “We might face the guy again. But I think we recognized certain pitches and certain counts and we didn’t miss them.”

D-backs starter Brandon Pfaadt held the Cubs scoreless over 5 1/3 innings, permitting 4 hits and one stroll. Last week, the Cubs scored 4 earned runs on seven hits in opposition to Pfaadt at Wrigley Field.

“I thought he filled up the strike zone,” Cubs supervisor David Ross stated. “It’s a lot easier to pitch with a three-run lead, coming right at you, throwing strikes, getting the secondary for strikes. Then he threw some nice 3-2 breaking balls. But I didn’t think we got a real good sense of what he was trying to do to us at any time.”

Marcus Stroman, who was activated off the injured checklist earlier than Friday’s sport, took over and pitched two innings, permitting one hit and placing out the facet.

After being quiet for a lot of the first two hours of the competition, the Cubs’ offense wakened within the ninth inning.

Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki and Christopher Morel every homered, with Suzuki’s plating two runs, however it was too late for a comeback as Paul Sewald retired Nick Madrigal on a popout to finish the sport.

“Hopefully the carryover is positive for the last inning,” stated Happ, who hit his 18th house run of the season. “There were some good swings. I think that’s a good team, and [Pfaadt] pitched well. There’s going to be days like that, but the team’s pretty professional and we’ll come out tomorrow and swing the bat.”