Joe Maddon's Moves Failed Miserably In Series Finale Against Pirates

There is no stronger Joe Maddon defender than me and it's silly that the most successful manager in franchise history needs defending, but that being said his moves flat out stunk during Sunday's series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs had a chance to sweep and after the Milwaukee Brewers lost 4-3 earlier in the day, Chicago also had a chance to be in first place. The Cubs blew that opportunity Sunday and the biggest problem most fans had watching was what happened in the fifth inning. Kyle Hendricks gave up a leadoff home run, but other than that he was cruising right along against the Pirates. He threw 87 pitches through five innings and that was all Maddon let him throw. After not doing anything through the first four innings against Ivan Nova, the Cubs offense finally got something going in the fifth. Addison Russell leadoff with a single and then Chris Gimenez hit a ground ball that should have been a double play, but a Pirates error gave the Cubs life with runners at first and second and no outs. Down by one and the pitcher's spot up, Maddon elected to pinch-hit Tommy La Stella for Hendricks. It's nothing new for Maddon, who has been aggressive in these spots before, deciding to go for it with pinch-hitters earlier in the game, opposed to waiting for another chance to develop later on. Unfortunately the move back fired for Maddon, as La Stella, who is the best pinch-hitter in the game, hit into a double play. Then, Javier Baez struck out swinging to end the inning. That was another move that didn't go well. Maddon's been putting hitters who have struggled at the leadoff spot, hoping to give them a spark and for the most part it has worked. For Baez? It did not, as he went 0-for-4. So, with Hendricks out of the game, Maddon went to Brian Duensing, who gave up a couple runs, left with the bases loaded and then Luke Farrell gave up a bases-clearing triple. Just like that, the Cubs went from down 1-0, to 6-0, and the game was essentially over from that point on. You can argue that Maddon should have just had Hendricks bunt the runners over in the fifth and the worst case scenario would be the Cubs still down 1-0, but at least Hendricks would still be pitching in the sixth inning and maybe the Cubs eventually break through against Nova.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all and at least the Cubs didn't lose any ground in the division with Milwaukee losing as well. Speaking of Milwaukee, the Cubs start a series against the Brewers Monday. Hopefully the Cubs don't go on a similar streak as the one in early May, when after winning five in a row, they lost five in a row and the offense really struggled. I bring that up because during the five-game winning streak at the end of April, the Cubs scored 12 runs. Including Sunday's 7-1 loss to the Pirates, the Cubs have only scored 10 runs in their past four games. Good thing the Cubs have Jose Quintana on the mound for the series-opener, as he's been awesome against the Brewers.