CHICAGO — When a team is allegedly in a playoff race, the loudest cheers in the ballpark shouldn’t be for an ex-kicker who hasn’t played for the Chicago Bears in almost 10 years. That’s nothing against fan favorite Robbie Gould, who returned to Wrigley Field to do the seventh-inning stretch in his new role as an NFL analyst for Marquee Sports Network. It’s just how quietly the Chicago Cubs went down in Sunday afternoon’s 1-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at home.
Squandering a chance to bank a three-game sweep against a last-place team that sold at the trade deadline, the Cubs instead dropped back to three games under .500. The Cubs are 5 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s third and final wild card. The Cubs already lost the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Braves. There are also three teams between the Cubs and the Braves in those wild-card standings.
Cue this song for the video board: “Are You Ready for Some Football?”
“It takes all phases,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “To put together the streaks, you got to deliver in all phases. And we just weren’t able to deliver offensively today. Three one-run games, we came out on top in two of them. But obviously, you look at today as a missed opportunity.”
The swirling winds at the Friendly Confines made it harder to drive the ball through the air. Isaac Paredes, the newly acquired third baseman who’s supposed to be a glue guy in the lineup, was a late scratch due to right shoulder discomfort. The Cubs were only one big hit away from breaking the game open.
It’s a familiar refrain with this offense, which typically doesn’t blow teams out or wow you with its ability to manufacture runs. Injuries interrupt the continuity. The margins are so small that one or two calls become a focus when what the Cubs really need are some clutch hits from their highest-paid players.
Blue Jays right-hander Bowden Francis, who has spent parts of each of the last four seasons at the Triple-A level, shut down the Cubs with seven scoreless innings. That included striking out Dansby Swanson looking twice — with the bases loaded to end the fourth inning and with a runner on second base in the seventh. With the crowd of 36,117 stirring in the ninth inning, and another runner on second base, Swanson grounded out to end the game.
“Fastball hitter” Dansby Swanson takes a fastball for a clear strike 3, then complains to the umpire about the call. pic.twitter.com/0czjyILwlm
— CubsMuse (@CubsMuse) August 18, 2024
Standing at his locker, Swanson was asked what he saw on those two called third strikes from umpire Jim Wolf.
“The second one I didn’t really have an issue with,” Swanson said. “It looked worse than it was just because of the setup and everything. I was more or less just asking how good he could see the pitch, just because it felt like he had his view blocked. I was a little bit frustrated with the 1-0 pitch in the second at-bat. That was more of the tone-setter of what really frustrated me throughout the day.
“But I’ve said this over and over again: They have a hard job. I know they want to get all of them right, too. Sometimes they miss calls they don’t want to. It’s a part of the game. It can just be frustrating.”
Justin Steele’s scouting report on Shota Imanaga
Justin Steele had already watched Shota Imanaga enough to sense the numbers were off the charts, but recently seeing Imanaga’s strikeout-to-walk ratio on a scoreboard reinforced that belief in how dominant the Japanese lefty has been throughout his rookie season. It’s almost seven strikeouts for every walk, a rate that puts Imanaga near the very top of the major-league leaderboard and ahead of names such as Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Sonny Gray and Tyler Glasnow.
Competitive misses were a big idea for Steele as he transitioned from a prospect to a left-handed reliever to an unproven starting pitcher. No one’s perfect with every pitch, but you have to maintain a level of consistency and credibility with hitters and umpires to give yourself a better chance to succeed. Imanaga, 30, had the benefits of experience and maturity after throwing 1,000-plus innings in Nippon Professional Baseball.
“Every hitter that steps in the box, you can’t just go up there and try to be selective,” Steele said. “Because he’s going to be in the zone. He’s got really good stuff in the zone. And he’s going to make you beat him. He’s not going to beat himself out there.”
The Blue Jays beat Imanaga with one swing in the second inning. Joey Loperfido hammered an elevated 90 mph fastball that sailed over the right-field wall and into the bleachers patio for a home run. Imanaga wasn’t quite as efficient as usual, using 97 pitches over five innings. Through an interpreter, he said his body felt a little “heavier” and “it wasn’t moving as well as I wanted to.” He still gave his team a chance to win.
Joey Loperfido clubs his first @BlueJays homer!
The rookie outfielder tags his third Major League long ball 409 feet at Wrigley Field. pic.twitter.com/kG47K3U6Yi
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 18, 2024
“The pitcher that he is speaks and stands for itself,” Steele said. “It would be able to translate in any league, at any given time. Him getting comfortable right away over here says a lot about his personality and who he is as a person. He came over with an open personality, wanting to get to know his teammates, wanting to learn the language. He put himself into the culture, going out by himself and eating and getting coffee, different things like that. When you’re fully invested, it goes a long way with your teammates.”
Great news for Ryne Sandberg
Less than seven months after revealing that he was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg announced that he is cancer-free.
The Cubs immortalized Sandberg this summer with a statue outside Wrigley Field that showed the nine-time Gold Glove winner in a ready defensive crouch, wearing flip sunglasses, a pullover V-neck jersey, stirrups and blue low-top cleats. The 1980s style is instantly recognizable to generations of fans, but Sandberg still has a very current connection to the Friendly Confines as a team ambassador.
It’s cool to see Pete Crow-Armstrong rocking the custom-made “Ryno” cleats, or how the crowd reacts whenever Sandberg is shown on the big video board. Sandberg, who will turn 65 next month, can enjoy it as a devoted grandfather who maintains a home on Chicago’s suburban North Shore.
Ryno approved. 🥹✔️ pic.twitter.com/TSga8HwZyk
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 17, 2024
“WE won!” Sandberg wrote in a caption to an Instagram post. “What a Dream Team (of) family, doctors, friends, nurses, fans who supported myself and (my wife) Margaret through the last 8 months! We feel so blessed from all the love, prayers and thoughts and positive words that have come our way!”
It takes years to fully and fairly evaluate first-round picks. It will be no different with Jordan Wicks, who went to the Cubs at No. 21 in the 2021 draft out of Kansas State. As advertised, Wicks was a polished left-handed pitcher who moved briskly through the farm system and made his major-league debut last August, helping push the Cubs to 12 games over .500 and keep them in playoff contention until the season’s final weekend.
Wicks made the Opening Day rotation, but he has appeared in as many major-league games this year (seven) as last season due to forearm and oblique strains. He’s part of a group of talented young pitchers — Hayden Wesneski, Ben Brown and Cade Horton are among them — the Cubs were expecting to take steps forward. They’re all still in the picture, and it’s important to have multiple options, but injuries have made it difficult to count on them all being major contributors in 2025.
Wildly outperforming projections means getting breakthrough seasons like the one the San Diego Padres are watching with All-Star center fielder Jackson Merrill, a high school shortstop taken with the No. 27 pick in the 2021 draft. The Cubs just haven’t had enough of those pleasant surprises, though Imanaga (9-3, 3.11 ERA) and first baseman Michael Busch (16 homers, .800 OPS) should also receive heavy consideration in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Wicks, who is scheduled to start Tuesday for Triple-A Iowa, will likely have two more rehab outings before the Cubs make a roster decision on whether he should immediately slide back into the major-league rotation.
“Now it’s time to start really getting dialed in and working on some of the stuff to get back that sharpness,” Wicks said. “What this has taught me is having the appreciation for where your feet are and not looking too far ahead. It’s just doing everything you can today to put yourself in the best position.”
(Photo of Dansby Swanson: Matt Marton / USA Today)
