Offensively, there were no extra-base hits. On the mound, there was no victory (still) for the luckless left-hander Justin Steele. It was yet another agonizing one-run game. And just when it seemed the Cubs had a ninth-inning rally brewing, hope was yanked from them by a stunning defensive play.
Thursday night’s 3-2 defeat against the Rays at Tropicana Field left the Cubs still with just one series victory since May 10-12 (a two-game sweep of the White Sox). It dropped them to 13-15 in one-run games. As if that wasn’t enough, they had a late-night getaway flight to Chicago and an early wake-up call for Friday’s afternoon game against the Cardinals.
"Things just didn’t go our way," second baseman Nico Hoerner said. "It’s frustrating, but we have to move on."
Hoerner had every right to be extremely frustrated. In the ninth against Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, Michael Busch drew a one-out walk. Hoerner then drilled what appeared to be a single up the middle, a probable first-and-third situation and a chance for redemption.
But Rays shortstop Taylor Walls dove deep in the hole to stab Hoerner’s sharply hit ball, then shoveled it out of his glove to second baseman Brandon Lowe, who turned a stunning double play.
"That was probably the best play ever made against me," Hoerner said. "That was more than game-changing. It was game-ending."
"That was one heck of a great defensive play," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "So credit to [Walls]."
There was some blame to spread around on the Cubs’ side.
Steele pitched six innings of scoreless ball, lowering his ERA to 3.22 in the process. But it still wasn’t enough to register his first victory of the season.
The Cubs, leading 2-0 entering the bottom of the seventh, turned to Mark Leiter Jr. Six batters later, Leiter was lifted and the Cubs trailed 3-2.
"I let the team down," Leiter said. "I didn’t make enough pitches. We played good enough to win the game, but I put us in a bad position."
Tampa Bay's rally began with Amed Rosario’s soft grounder to third base. Patrick Wisdom collected the ball, but threw wide of first base for an error that put Rosario on second. Leiter then walked Jose Siri -- the critical at-bat, according to Counsell -- and Josh Lowe collected a one-out RBI single. Lowe stole second, putting two runners in scoring position. From there, an RBI groundout by pinch-hitter Ben Rortvedt tied the game and a run-scoring single by Yandy Díaz handed the Cubs their first deficit.
"Steele is really good," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "He creates a lot of deception. He really kept us off-balance. But we hung in there and had some good at-bats against Leiter to get back into the ballgame."
Steele, who faced one batter over the minimum through five innings before escaping a bases-loaded situation in the sixth, was diplomatic about seeing the victory disintegrate.
"As a pitcher, you can only control the controllables," Steele said. "I just try to put my team in a position to win every time I go out there."
"He deserved better," Leiter said. "We let him down. I let him down."
"Justin was awesome," Counsell said. "They made him work in that sixth inning, but he made some big pitches. … For [Leiter], there wasn’t a lot of hard contact. It was a tough play for Patrick. He had a shot, but wasn’t able to make it. That got the ball rolling for them, and I thought the walk hurt."
For Counsell, the larger issue continued to be Chicago's inability to generate consistent offense. The Cubs played small-ball in the fifth inning, scoring both of their runs on squeeze bunts (after Wisdom set up the sequence with a sacrifice bunt of his own). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was only the sixth time since 2015 that a team bunted a ball into play in three straight plate appearances within a single inning.
After that, though, the Cubs had just three more baserunners, all on walks. Two reached scoring position, but that was followed by three strikeouts -- one in the sixth, two in the seventh -- to end those innings.
The Cubs were held to three or fewer hits for the seventh time this season. They had eight such games in all of 2023.
"All of this is going to help us in the long run," Steele said. "It’s a long season. Down the road, I feel like we’re really going [to improve] and come out better."
