Column: The Chicago Cubs are in a tailspin despite a 6-0 win. Someone notify David Ross and Marquee Sports Network.

Panic time at Wrigley Field?

Not yet perhaps, but the Chicago Cubs’ struggles in September have fans on edge during the final regular-seasonseries of the season at Wrigley Field.

[ [Don’t miss] An unforgettable debut at Wrigley Field for local Quinn Priester — with a chance to spoil Chicago Cubs’ postseason hopes ]

A 6-0 victory against the lowly Colorado Rockies on Friday was exactly what the Cubs needed to pacify a crowd of 32,150, but it could be a temporary reprieve unless they sweep the series.

Marcus Stroman was named the surprise starter for Saturday’s game, though manager David Ross ended his interview session without allowing any questions on his decision.

Ross noted after Thursday’s loss to Pittsburgh that the Pirates were not a team of “our caliber.” If that’s the case, neither are the 97-loss Rockies, who sent Noah Davis, a pitcher with a 9.58 ERA, against the Cubs on Friday.

Seiya Suzuki’s two-run homer in the fourth and a combined shutout by Jameson Taillon and two relievers helped the Cubs end a two-game skid and move a game ahead of the Miami Marlins and 1 1/2 games in front of the Cincinnati Reds for the No. 3 wild-card spot.

The Cubs were expected to beat the Pirates and Rockies in September but lost four of their previous six games to the two bottom-feeders over the last week and a half.

Every game is huge from now on.

“It hasn’t been really going our way this last stretch,” Suzuki said Friday through his interpreter. “I can see that everyone is grinding and trying to get the ‘W.’ All these games are really meaningful.

“If we focus too much on winning or losing, the results wouldn’t go our way. Just focus on every game, and if it doesn’t go our way, try to reset ourselves and focus on the next game. In that sense, results will follow.”

Ross preferred to look at the Cubs’ poor play over the last two weeks in a different light, pointing to the fact they were still in a race.

“Expectations are one thing, but they’ve all felt big,” Ross said Friday morning. “They felt big in Arizona, right? The Pirates, we need to beat those teams and we didn’t. We start dwindling down (in games) and you’re in a race and there’s a bunch of teams around you. That’s the exciting part.

“This is an opportunity we’d all sign up for in spring training, right? We’ve got nine games left and we’re in the hunt for the playoffs. We’re right there. We’d all sign up for that.

“This is a really positive moment. It feels maybe a little bit negative to everybody because of how we’ve gone about the last 10-15 days, but we’re still in position to have a chance to get in the playoffs. This is a good thing. We’re in a good spot to make the playoffs. We’ve just got to do it.”

Despite the win, the Cubs have lost 10 of 14 games since sweeping the San Francisco Giants on Sept. 6, a plunge that has seen them fall from 1 1/2 games behind the division-leading Brewers to eight games back after Friday. The Brewers should clinch this weekend.

That would mean the Cubs’ only chance to get into the postseason is via the wild card — and with a season-ending six-game trip to Atlanta and Milwaukee, the odds aren’t in their favor.

Giving Stroman a start Saturday shows the urgency of the final week. He pitched back-to-back games in relief in Arizona last week in his return from a right rib cartilage fracture and last started a game July 31 against the Cincinnati Reds.

“I know I’m an elite starter in the league, but where we’re at right now, I know I can be a weapon out of the bullpen,” Stroman told reporters Wednesday.

Now he’ll be pitching on six days of rest, though he figures to be an opener working on a limited pitch count.

“I’m not scared of anything,” he said of being used in different roles.

[ [Don’t miss] Wrigley Field concessions workers OK strike ahead of Cubs’ final home weekend ]

Stroman was unavailable Friday after Ross’s announcement.

The return of Stroman could give the Cubs a much-needed boost, assuming he pitches like he did for most of the first half, when he dominated opposing hitters.

“We can’t forget he was one of the best starters in baseball the first three months,” Taillon said. “Any version we get back of him is going to be great.”

Stroman had a 9.00 ERA in his last seven starts.

Which version of the Cubs we’ll get down the stretch is a question no on can answer. The bullpen that combined for a 3.57 ERA in July and a 3.94 ERA in August came into Friday with a 4.83 ERA in September, allowing 1.49 home runs per nine innings for the month. Defensive lapses and a lack of clutch hitting also led to the skid.

But all’s well, according to the Marquee Sports Network, whose postgame show Thursday focused on a bad call on Suzuki’s strikeout in the ninth inning instead of the fielding mistakes and poor relief pitching that led to the 8-6 loss to the Pirates.

It’s good to own the team and TV network providing the narrative for a team that’s seemingly in a free-fall. While NBC Sports Chicago continues to deal out harsh criticism of the White Sox on its pre- and postgame shows, Marquee pretends everything is fine with the Cubs.

That was one of the worries when the Cubs decided to start the network. Would the coverage be objective or just pro-Cub? It’s easy to cover a team when things are going well. But it’s times like these when Marquee can show it truly understands what Cubs fans are going through.

Cubs fans have seen these kinds of September swoons before, most recently in 2019.

They can handle the truth.

The Cubs can make it a moot point by going on a hot streak and getting into the postseason. If they don’t, there’s no way to sugarcoat a team collapse, even for Marquee.

Originally Published: Sep 22, 2023 at 1:32 pm

Fonte