Baffoe: Everything Cubs Is Fine, 3.0

By Tim Baffoe--

(CBS) OK, Game 1 of the World Series sucked if you're a Chicago Cubs fan or just don't want to support racism. But as was the case against the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, I'm here to provide your fistful of happy pills.

Everything is still fine. The Cubs still are the better team in this series and can very likely win four games before Cleveland wins three more. The better angels of your nature know this. But it's sports, which are inherently irrational, so you the Cub fan still has that acidic feeling creeping slightly upward from your gut, even if you're not outwardly moving (again) toward the ledge.

The Cubs lost a game, 6-0 to Cleveland and ace Corey Kluber on Tuesday night. It has happened before -- this very postseason in fact.

They lost to a really great pitcher with incredibly stuff in Kluber. Shut the hell out. That, too, has happened this very postseason. Losing 6-0 has happened this very postseason (before rattling off three straight wins). None of the baseball stuff about that loss is all that unfamiliar. So just as you forgot about the three previous 2016 postseason losses, wipe your brain of Tuesday, too. (And realize the Cubs will probably lose at least one more game before this is all over.)

"I'm not upset whatsoever," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said after the game. "I'm a believer."

Is that not the personification of every overpriced non-double-entendre T-shirt sold outside of Wrigley Field? Believe today, just as you believed Saturday-into-Sunday. Then again as you did leading into the evening's nervousness that couldn't be mitigated by the pregame festivities featuring sad American metaphor Pete Rose.

The Cubs had chances on Tuesday but only went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. What's good to know -- simplistic as it sounds -- is that they'll have more, because they're the Cubs, and the Cubs get on base. They will convert on some of those future chances, I promise.

"We faced two premier arms tonight (in Kluber and reliever Andrew Miller)," Kyle Schwarber said. "To be able to feel comfortable at the plate was definitely a plus for me. We had some chances, but Miller worked his way out of the jams."

Good pitchers like Miller sometimes find a way to wiggle out of tight spots, such as with the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh inning that we're not going to talk about ever again and will exhale from our systems. But the untouchable Miller was fallible in Game 1, giving up two hits and two walks to go with his three strikeouts. He walked the tightrope, and if he wants to venture out there again, chances are he falls off of it.

Miller also threw 46 pitches to do away with the Cubs over two innings, the most he has thrown since 2011, when he was still a starter. While Cleveland manager Terry Francona will undoubtedly say that Miller is available to pitch in Game 2, that might be a bluff. That or the Cubs could go up against a reliever who less than 24 hours before pitched the equivalent of half a start. Suddenly the monster that lurks in the opponent's bullpen seems a helluva lot tamer.

The Cubs struck out a lot -- 15 times a lot -- in Game 1, which won't repeat. When they weren't K-ing, though, they at least were putting the ball in the outfield.

And, yeah, so the Cubs lost a Jon Lester start. He wasn't bad, all things considered. A bad inning did him in. A playoff pitcher can't afford a bad inning, particularly the first inning, but it's not as though we walk away from Game 1 needing to think any differently of the Cubs' ace.

"The first inning was tonight's game," Lester said.

"Two walks can't happen, especially after two quick outs. I don't care about the base hit. The two walks after that, you gotta put the ball in play and make them earn it. I didn't do that."

Was he getting squeezed by home plate umpire Larry Vanover? In the moment, it sure seemed like it, but data shows the strike zone for Lester wasn't drastically different from Kluber's. Even if it were, Kluber was just nastier Tuesday. Swallow it, and move on.

The axiom of great pitching beating great hitting has proved true so far this postseason, particularly in the Cubs' case, as we've seen them enfeebled collectively at the plate when a starter is locked in. But we also know that if your pitching isn't great, the Cubs will murder you. And having great pitching top to bottom every single game is impossible. Cleveland right-hander Trevor Bauer, the Game 2 starter, knows that too, and that should only compound part of his mind stuck on how his gashed finger is holding up Wednesday night. Nobody loves unleashing a sudden apocalyptic inning like the Cubs, and they will find a loose thread and tear the whole fabric of Cleveland apart when -- not if -- that opportunity is presented.

Know what increases the definiteness of that? The return of the War Bear. Remember how you weren't sure if Kyle Schwarber was going to be too rusty? And then you didn't feel that way anymore when he hit a ball off the top of the Progressive Field wall?

"How about Schwarber having not played all year and having some really great at-bats?" Maddon noted. "I thought he had two really good at-bats against (Andrew Miller). I though his bat speed looked good."

It's also easy to forget when a start like Kluber's happens, but the Cubs have a lot of really good capable pitching. Jake Arrieta takes the bump in Game 2 determined to get the bad taste from his last start out of his mouth. And there's still Kyle Hendricks to come.

There's no negativity to this team after losses, which is a testament to Maddon and the whole team's thorough understanding of their mantra "We are good." A loss doesn't faze them, even when it's one as humbling as handed to them by Cleveland pitching (and Clayton Kershaw and…).

And if you want to add a bit of karma for the hell of it, Cleveland cops made farty cop jokes at the Cubs' expense. Knowing how creative the team Twitter account is and the city of Cleveland's propensity for being the butt of schadenfreude, it just feels like this is going to circle back.

But regarding levity, did you see Javier Baez on Tuesday night? He's representative of these young Cubs being no deers in headlights. His playfulness with childhood pal Francisco Lindor despite Lindor's team winning is a glass-half-full thing, despite any of your crusty uncles wanting to call it an affront to the game.

Ditto Anthony Rizzo smiling and laughing with David Ross in dugout down six runs in ninth inning. These are pro's pros. Their sphincters don't tighten. It wasn't their night, and they know future nights will more likely be different.

"I have no concerns," Maddon said. "It's the first game. I'm fine, we're fine."

And you're fine. You'll realize it after the Cubs' next win.

Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.

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