In Game two of their opening domestic series, the Cubs laid an egg against the Diamondbacks. After a good start in the first couple innings, it was all Diamonbacks the rest of the way as they tied the series at one a piece.
A promising start
The cubs would get the scoring started in the 2nd inning with a Pete Crow-Armstrong double in the left-center gap. This scored Dansby and could have scored Nico Hoerner, but he was held up at third. Merrill Kelly would escape the rest of the inning without any more damage given up.
The Diamondbacks got hot
The Diamondbacks would respond in the bottom of the second with a two-run blast from Eugenio Suarez on a 436 foot blast. Taillon would rebound with a strikeout
The Cubs would suffer from Deja Vu in the 4th inning as Suarez hit another two run shot to extend the Diamondbacks lead to 4-1. Suarez has been a Cubs killer throughout his whole career and has hit three homers in the first two games of the series.
A single by Perdomo would make it 5-1 later in the 4th.
Jameson Taillon was relieved by Eli Morgan in the fifth inning after a rough night. In just 4.1 innings of work, the right jander allowed six runs including multiple homers to Eugenio Suarez. The starting rotation has been a big problem so far in this young season.
Eli Morgan would allow Pavin Smith to double, his third hit of the night, to score another run. This gave the Diamondbacks what felt like an insurmountable 6-1 advantage.
A nice outing from a seasoned veteran
Merrill Kelly would exit the game in the sixth inning. Despite a rosky start, Kelly rebiunceed to allow just one Cubs run over 5.1 innings. He allowed only three hits and forced plenty of weak contact from Cubs hitters. A great first outing of the season for the veteran 36-year old.
He gave way to the Diamondback bullpen, who dominated Cubs hitters. In their 3.2 innings of work, they allowed zero runs, hits, and walks.
The Diamondbacks added some insurance runs in the seventh. They harrassed recently promoted Cubs pitcher Brad Keller, resulting in a final score of 8-1.
Cubs offensive struggles
The Cubs’ bats went radio silent for the vast majority of this game, a stark contrast from yesterday’s ballgame. The Diamondbacks out-hit the Cubs 14-3. The Diamondbacks also hit twelve hits over 100 MPH. It’s hard to win baseball games when the opposing team is smashing the baseball and has double-digit more hits than you do.
The Cubs did have the advantage on defense as they were +3 in the error category over the Diamondbacks. But in a game as lopsided as this, some sloppy Arizona defense did little to deter their dominance.
The Cubs and Diamondbacks will meet tomorrow night in Game three of the series. The pitching matchup will be Shota Imanaga versus Brandon Pfaadt. Imanaga hopes to pitch a much cleaner ball-game than his last outing in Tokyo, where he walked a career high four batters.