Another Direction with Andere Richtingen

This post comes from another long time poster, Andere Richtingen, who can’t seem to locate his keys to the blog.

The Cubs hit a bit of a rough spot the last three weeks, going 6-15.  On June 19th, the team hit its apex so far for the season, completing a three-game sweep of the Pirates at Wrigley. They led the division by 12.5 games, an achievement the team hadn’t made since 1929, and had a record of 47-20.  That sweep completed a 15-6 stretch, after which things fell apart.  Really fell apart.

And it was mostly due to the pitching.  Mostly the starters.

So how bad was it?  In the last 21 games:

-The Cubs got a total of six quality starts (two from Lester, two from Lackey, one each from Hendricks and Hammel).  The last QS came on June 29th.

-Cubs’ starters gave up 82 runs (75 earned) in 109 innings, good for a 6.19 ERA.  116 hits, 48 walks, 98 strikeouts and 30 home runs.

-There were 76 relief appearances (average of 3.6/game).  Relievers gave up 48 runs (44 earned) in 79.2 innings (4.97 ERA). 70 hits, 33 walks, 86 strikeouts and twelve home runs.

That’s a pretty bad stretch, I’m guessing worse than what you expect any time in a season from a team that wins 100 games.  It’s not a simple matter of bad luck on balls in play either.  Overall, Cubs pitchers averaged giving up two home runs per game during the bad stretch (0.75 before).  Strikeouts still look pretty good, but in the last 21 games the team has averaged nearly four walks per game (2.88 before).  My eyes tell me the Cubs were sloppy defensively the last few weeks, but I think the defensive factor is largely insult on top of injury.

The news remains mostly good.  This is just 21 games we’re talking about.  The pitching staff remains, as far as we know, fairly healthy.  Despite Pittsburgh getting hot and picking up a bunch of games in the standings, I would have been quite pleased if someone told me in March that the Cubs would have a seven-game lead in the division at the All Star Break.  Certainly, the 24-game stretch without a day off didn’t help, and the break gives everyone a reset.  I have to imagine that the Cubs’ management is looking very hard at shoring up the pitching in the next couple of weeks.