SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb presented a tough challenge for a Chicago Cubs team looking to end its trip west with a sweep.
The Cubs couldn’t get much going against Webb, managing just one run in eight innings off the right-hander in a 5-1 loss to end their three-game winning streak. At one point, Webb retired 20 of 23 Cubs hitters.
The Cubs (37-35) secured their first series win since sweeping the Cincinnati Reds from May 4-7 to snap a 10-series losing streak. Team historian Ed Hartig said the last time the Cubs lost or tied at least 10 consecutive series was in 2000 when they went 12 straight series without a win. This weekend also marked only the second time the Cubs have won a regular-season series at Oracle Park since 2014, with the last one coming in 2023.
1. The Cubs need more from Colin Rea.
Coming off an ugly start at Colorado’s Coors Field in which he surrendered seven runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings, the Cubs could have used a bounce-back outing from right-hander Colin Rea in Sunday’s series finale.
Knowing runs would likely be limited for the Cubs’ offense opposing Webb, Rea put them in a tough spot when he gave up three runs in the fifth and another run in the seventh. The Cubs used lefty Ryan Rolison as an opener for 1 1/3 shutout innings to limit Rea’s exposure to the lefties in the Giants’ lineup.
But Rea made it hard on himself with too much traffic on the bases between six hits allowed, three walks and a hit batter. Matt Chapman’s two-run home run in the fifth on a fastball over the plate was the big blow.
“We need a little better, honestly,” manager Craig Counsell said of Rea. “When you’re going up against this type of pitcher, you’ve got not a lot of room for error. He settled in pretty nicely and then in the fifth, he got stuck a little bit.”
Whenever left-hander Matthew Boyd is ready to rejoin the rotation — he’s expected to throw a bullpen early in the homestand to test his sore left shoulder — Rea’s recent stretch might lead him to be the odd man out.
“I’m just not getting it done, really,” Rea said. “I think we’ve been doing a good job of making some adjustments in between starts, as far as the delivery stuff and making sure the timing’s good, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to do a better job of executing when runners are on base.”
2. Ben Brown shows how to be successful even without his best stuff.
Ben Brown’s pitching line didn’t necessarily reflect a dominating outing — one run on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts in five innings — but his start Saturday night against the Giants was one of his best of the season.
Not because he flashed elite stuff, either. Brown, facing San Francisco for the second time in eight days, relied heavily on his sinker more than usual. It accounted for 34% of his 86 pitches thrown, up from his season average of 21%. The Giants’ recent familiarity with Brown meant they were able to stay off his curveball down in the zone.
“It was a new challenge for sure, and it was fun,” Brown said. “Sinker was huge for me.”
Brown added the sinker to his repertoire in the offseason, and it became a vital asset Saturday. He got six called strikes and one whiff with his sinker, predominantly using it against the Giants’ right-handed hitters. The pitch produced just one hard-hit ball and had an 80.9 mph average exit velocity. Over the course of his outing, Brown threw his sinker on the first pitch of an at-bat more than any of his other three pitches.
“The second time you face a team, I think that’s where something like this really comes into play, more to make the hitter think about the sinker,” Counsell said. “Being able to steal some strikes with that and give the hitter some different looks, very important.”
Since moving to the rotation May 8, Brown owns a 1.49 ERA spanning 36 1/3 innings. He’s allowed one run or fewer in six of his seven starts.
3. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch are providing needed power production.
The top of the lineup has been getting a boost from two hitters lately, and it continued against the Giants.
Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch are riding an 18-game on-base streak and a 20-game on-base streak, respectively, through Sunday’s game, both of which are career highs.
In this stretch, Busch, who became only the fifth Cub to homer into McCovey Cove on Friday, is hitting .324 with two doubles, a triple, four home runs, 15 RBIs, 11 runs scored and 13 walks. Meanwhile, Crow-Armstrong has posted a .377 average, six doubles, one triple, six home runs, 10 RBIs, 14 runs and a 1.143 OPS during his on-base streak.
Crow-Armstrong slugged his first big-league leadoff home run in Saturday’s win and fell a triple shy of the cycle. He said afterward he was “absolutely” thinking about it since he recorded the three hits in his first three at-bats, giving him two more cracks at it. He struck out both times.
“Sometimes you just run into them,” Crow-Armstrong said of his leadoff home run. “So I feel like I saw that well and got obviously a good enough swing on it.”
