May 6, 2018 • Chicago Tribune, Column: Baffling Cubs continue streaky season with blown game against

Cardinals http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-streaky-cubs-blow-game-sullivan-20180505-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Defensive lapses continue to plague Cubs in loss to Cardinals http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-kyle-schwarber-defensive-lapses-20180505-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Kolten Wong's 2-run homer in 10th sends Cubs to fourth straight loss

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-cardinals-20180505-story.html • Chicago Sun-Times, Rizz kids: Cubs expect hitting to ignite once Anthony Rizzo catches fire

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/rizz-kids-cubs-expect-hitting-to-ignite-once-anthony-rizzo-catches-fire/

• Chicago Sun-Times, Reality check: 30 games in, Cubs don’t look very good, lose again to Cardinals

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/reality-check-30-games-in-cubs-dont-look-very-good-lose-again-to-cardinals/

• The Athletic, 30 games in, the Cubs are breaking down in all phases

https://theathletic.com/343935/2018/05/05/30-games-in-the-cubs-are-breaking-down-in-all-phases/

• The Athletic, No longer Team Launch Angle, are Cubs overcorrecting or about to take offense to

next level? https://theathletic.com/343851/2018/05/05/no-longer-team-launch-angle-are-cubs-overcorrecting-or-about-to-take-offense-to-next-level/

• Cubs.com, 20 years later, 20-K gem a fond memory for Wood

https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/20-strikeout-game-still-special-for-kerry-wood/c-275524670

• Cubs.com, BBs, errors costly as Cubs fall to Cards in 10th https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-lose-to-cards-in-10th-after-walk-errors/c-275394634

• Cubs.com, Schwarber falls, makes catch, replaces shoe https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/kyle-schwarber-falls-makes-catch-fixes-shoe/c-275416866

• Cubs.com, Cubs strike deal with outfielder Adams

https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-strike-deal-with-outfielder-lane-adams/c-275388288

• ESPNChicago.com, 'What even is that pitch?' An oral history of Kerry Wood's 20-K day

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/46796/remembering-kerry-woods-20-k-day-those-guys-didnt-have-a-chance

• ESPNChicago.com, Cubs pitching still struggling to find the strike zone

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/46815/cubs-pitching-still-struggling-to-find-the-strike-zone

• ESPNChicago.com, Cubs LF Kyle Schwarber trips over shoe, gets up to make catch

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23416867/chicago-cubs-lf-kyle-schwarber-falls-field-recovers-catch-ball

• NBC Sports Chicago, Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game is the greatest pitching performance ever

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/kerry-woods-20-strikeout-game-greatest-pitching-performance-ever

• NBC Sports Chicago, Glanville: Kerry Wood was ahead of his time

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/glanville-kerry-wood-was-ahead-his-time • NBC Sports Chicago, Tough losses adding up for Cubs: 'We're not playing our best baseball right

now' http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/tough-losses-adding-cubs-were-not-playing-our-best-baseball-right-now

-- Chicago Tribune Column: Baffling Cubs continue streaky season with blown game against Cardinals By Paul Sullivan When asked about the Cubs up-and-down homestand Wednesday at Wrigley Field, outfielder Jason Heyward gave an interesting response. “You guys go way too high and way too low,” he said. The outfielder-turned-critic made the remark during a streak of nine straight games in which the Cubs scored three or fewer runs and averaged only two runs per game, a woefully inadequate output from one of the deepest lineups in the league. That streak ended Saturday at Busch Stadium, where the Cubs scored six runs but blew a ninth-inning lead in an 8-6 loss to the Cardinals, one of the more crushing defeats of the season. Oops, there we go again. Too low? Sorry, guys. In truth, the Cubs look like a team that is likely to go to extremes in 2018. They have the kind of talent necessary to go on an extended winning stretch, yet can look hopeless for long periods.

Just when you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, the Cubs turn in a game like Saturday’s, their fourth straight loss after a five-game winning streak. They blew a 4-0 lead, took a 6-4 lead, and blew that as well. Up and down. Down and up. “Regardless of whatever your plan may be, teams are going to go through these moments,” manager Joe Maddon said before Saturday’s game. “It just happens to be ours right now. I want to continue to work like we’ve been working. I believe in our guys and believe in our methods. It’s just the ebb and flow of the season. Right now it’s our turn. We’ll come out of it and be fine.” Yes, every team goes through these things and it’s too early to reach for the Zoloft. After they sleepwalked through the first half in 2017, then turned it on immediately after the All-Star break to win National League Central, we know they’re eminently capable of doing it again. But there are a few things that need to be cleaned up, not the least of which is their penchant for walking opposing hitters. The Cubs began the day ranked fifth worst in baseball with 4.26 walks per nine innings. Tyler Chatwood ranked third-highest among pitchers with 20 or more innings at 6.91 walks per 9, while Yu Darvish was No. 12 (4.80) and Jose Quintana was No. 15 (4.26). Chatwood had another difficult day finding the zone Saturday, walking five in four innings, throwing 89 pitches and blowing his early 4-0 lead. Darvish has been a mess, and Quintana ineffective as well. Another pressing issue is Javier Baez’s surprisingly poor play in the field. Baez was one of the better defensive infielders in baseball last year and has helped carry the offense in the early going in 2018. But he already has committed eight errors in 2018, making plenty of spectacular plays while also mixing in some unforced errors. “This year I’ve been hot at the plate, but I still feel I have to work on my defense,” Baez said. “This year there have been many errors that are routine (plays), and that can’t be happening.” But the most glaring problem is the spotty offense, despite their 12-hit output on Saturday. The revolving door at the leadoff spot gets most of the attention, but the Nos. 2-3-4 hitters — Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras — have a combined 32 RBIs so far. That’s not going to cut it from the heart of the lineup. No one seems too worried in the Cubs’ clubhouse. “We know how good we are, plain and simple,” Albert Almora Jr. said. “We’re a confident group. It’s baseball. We’re not going to go 162-0.” The Cubs still have the swagger of 2016, albeit without the dominance to back it up. I’m confident they’ll either turn it on eventually and breeze to another World Series, or continue to lack a sense of urgency and miss the postseason for the first time in four years. Too high? Too low?

Take your pick. -- Chicago Tribune Defensive lapses continue to plague Cubs in loss to Cardinals By Mark Gonzales Left fielder Kyle Schwarber turned a potential disaster into a remarkable recovery. Schwarber fell down but got up in time to catch Matt Carpenter’s high fly in the sixth inning, and then he changed his right shoe. But for every dazzling display, the Cubs’ failure to execute routine plays continues to haunt them. In the fourth, an error that was assessed to shortstop Addison Russell preceded Schwarber’s inability to catch a deep drive from Carpenter that resulted in a two-run, game-tying double. “We hold ourselves to a high standard defensively,” manager Joe Maddon said. “And when we make a mistake, it jumps at you.” Russell was charged with the inability to catch a throw from first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who initially was assessed with the two-base error on his attempt to nail Kolten Wong at second base. Official scorer Gary Mueller changed the call after the game after watching a replay and determining that Russell should have caught the throw that would have prevented Paul DeJong to score the second run of the inning. “It was executed perfectly, but we just didn’t come up with the catch,” Rizzo said before the call was changed. “It was a tough play for Addi, but I’d do the same thing 100 times.” Schwarber seemed to glide toward the corner but couldn’t catch up with Carpenter’s game-tying drive. “(The defense) is not as good as we can be,” Maddon said. “Then again, we’ve had some wonderful moments on defense.” Slump busters: Rizzo has hit three home runs in his last four games and is batting .353 (6-for-17) during that span after batting .149 with one homer. Rizzo hasn’t drawn a walk since April 20. Jason Heyward snapped an 0-for-12 rut with a single in the second and later was stranded at third after hitting a single in the 10th inning. Extra innings: The Cubs won two challenges that extended a rally in the second and wiped out a Cardinals run in the bottom of the inning. … The Cubs have agreed to terms on a minor-league contract with outfielder Lane Adams, a .264 hitter over parts of three seasons with the Royals and Braves. -- Chicago Tribune Kolten Wong's 2-run homer in 10th sends Cubs to fourth straight loss By Mark Gonzales

The Cubs’ major problem Saturday lurked well before closer Brandon Morrow suffered his first blown save and Kolten Wong’s drive off Luke Farrell landed in the right-field seats. For the Cubs, and particularly Tyler Chatwood, the lack of control overshadowed any progress they showed in an 8-6 loss to the rival Cardinals in 10 innings at Busch Stadium that extended their losing streak to four games. Chatwood took full responsibility, even after the Cubs recovered briefly after blowing a four-run lead thanks to home runs from Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo. But Chatwood’s control issues persisted, even after the Cubs snapped a futile streak in which they had scored three runs or fewer in nine consecutive games when they scored four in the second inning. “I’m putting myself in bad situations, and it’s hurting the team,” Chatwood said shortly after Wong hit a two-run, game-winning homer off Farrell. “There’s no reason for the fourth inning to happen right there. Just throw the ball over the plate and let them get themselves out. “I just have to make better pitches.” Chatwood alluded to a mechanical issue that he believes he can fix. Nevertheless, he has walked at least five batters in four of his six starts, thus taxing a bullpen that survived until Morrow issued a leadoff walk to Harrison Bader that set up Marcell Ozuna’s two-run, game-tying double in the ninth. Chatwood has walked 27 batters in 32 2/3 innings, with 12 of those walks occurring in two starts against the Cardinals, including five Saturday. “His stuff is high end,” manager Joe Maddon said. “We just have to get them over the plate. The way he throws, his delivery is subject to that. There are a lot of moving parts. “He needs to find that rhythm. It’s a complicated delivery. Sometimes when you’re like that, if you’re not all together and not in rhythm, you have a hard time finding your release point.” Chatwood described his flaw as a “simple fix.” “I know what it is,” said Chatwood, who declined to divulge details. “I feel it’s an easy correction but I’m fighting it right now. So it’s just a matter of having it click.” Chatwood’s problems became acute in the fourth when he walked the first two batters and hit Wong to load the bases and set up the Cardinals’ four-run rally. The Cubs wasted a 12-hit attack that included a tie-breaking home run from Baez in the sixth, and Rizzo’s homer in the seventh gave the Cardinals a two-run deficit to overcome. When Morrow entered in the ninth, he had converted all seven of his save chances. But Morrow walked Bader and gave up two hits and two runs to tie the game as he labored throughout the ninth. In the 10th, Farrell walked Paul DeJong to set up Wong’s walk-off homer to cap the Cardinals’ largest comeback victory this season. “I’m betting on Morrow,” Maddon said. “He has great stuff. The leadoff walk hurt us the entire game. We got through it. Morrow in the ninth, two-run lead. I’ll take it.”

Morrow said he struggled with locating his fastball. But the bigger issue is that the Cubs remain out of sync, as control issues and poor defense offset the revival of their offense. “We know we’re not playing our best baseball right now,” Chatwood said. “But there’s a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Rizz kids: Cubs expect hitting to ignite once Anthony Rizzo catches fire By Gordon Wittenmyer ST. LOUIS — The Cubs have found little rhythm, rhyme or reason to their hitting so far this season. They’ve scored eight or more runs nine times, two or fewer runs 12 times and Saturday against the Cardinals ended a streak of nine games in a row without scoring more than three runs. They’ve used four leadoff hitters and six No. 3 hitters and have had their two best hitters — Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo — in the lineup together in only 18 of the 30 games they’ve played. ‘‘You can’t discount what [Rizzo] and Kris mean in the heart of that lineup,’’ hitting coach Chili Davis said. In particular, Rizzo’s early-season slump has had a ripple effect through the lineup. Even after a two-hit afternoon that included a home run, he’s hitting only .187 with a .594 OPS. More telling is that he has drawn only four walks, none since April 20. ‘‘That tells me he’s putting bad pitches in play,’’ manager Joe Maddon said. ‘‘When guys get off to a slow start numerically, they have a tendency to want to get back to a bigger number fast . . . and try to get hits, as opposed to just working good at-bats. ‘‘I talked to him about it. He gets it. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to put his regular numbers up.’’ Rizzo does have three homers in the Cubs’ last four games, his first since the season opener. But he downplayed any changes in his approach or differences in how he feels at the plate. ‘‘I wish I could say there’s something different,’’ he said. ‘‘But it’s just baseball. You have ups and downs.’’ Taking the ‘E’ out of Baez? The Cubs’ most skilled defensive infielder is off to an uncharacteristically fast start offensively but an inexplicably rough start in the field. ‘‘This year I’ve been hotter at the plate, but I’ve still got to work on my defense,’’ said Baez, whose eighth error of the season Friday led to three unearned runs in a 3-2 loss. Just 30 games into the season, Baez already is more than halfway to his career high in errors (15). He vowed to clean it up.

‘‘There’s been a lot of errors that are [on] routine [plays], and that can’t be happening,’’ he said. ‘‘I do think this is an anomaly moment,’’ Maddon said. ‘‘He’s one of the best defenders in all of baseball. Stuff happens.’’ Perp walks Right-hander Tyler Chatwood is by far the biggest perpetrator of walks on a pitching staff that ranks among the worst in baseball at 4.4 per game. His five against the Cardinals raised his major-league-leading total to 27 and marked the fourth time in six starts he has walked at least five. It was a big part of the reason he lasted only one batter into the fifth. ‘‘It’s a simple fix for me,’’ said Chatwood, who wouldn’t reveal the mechanical flaw that he has been fighting to correct in games. ‘‘In my bullpens, I’ve proved I can do it. It’s just a matter of taking it into the game and doing it. You’ve just got to trust it.’’ This and that A scoring change after the game charged shortstop Addison Russell with an error for allowing a throw to second by Rizzo to get past him as a run scored in the fourth. The error initially was charged to Rizzo. • Right fielder Jason Heyward’s single in the second snapped a season-high 0-for-12 skid. • Setup man Carl Edwards Jr.’s 1-2-3 eighth (two strikeouts) extended his scoreless streak to 12 appearances. -- Chicago Sun-Times Reality check: 30 games in, Cubs don’t look very good, lose again to Cardinals By Gordon Wittenmyer ST. LOUIS — They haven’t pitched well since Tuesday. They haven’t come close to fielding the ball like they should for even two or three games in a row for weeks. And only Saturday did they start to score runs again at an adequate pace — and most of those came in one inning. Thirty games into the season, the Cubs don’t look like a very good team, especially after blowing a ninth-inning lead and losing 8-6 to the Cardinals on a walk-off home run by Kolten Wong in the 10th. ‘‘Obviously, we know we’re not playing our best baseball right now,’’ said right-hander Tyler Chatwood, who walked five more batters to raise his major-league-leading total to 27 and lasted only four innings. ‘‘But there’s a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track, and I think we will.’’ For now, their longest losing streak of the season is at four games with one to play in St. Louis before coming home.

And while their 7-1 record against a good Brewers team is impressive, they’re 9-13 against everyone else, including losses in three of four games to the National League Central-leading Cardinals so far. ‘‘It’s vs. them,’’ first baseman Anthony Rizzo said of the loss to the rival Cardinals. ‘‘And we’re here [in St. Louis]. It’s tough. But we’ll bounce back tomorrow.’’ Rizzo, who has slumped and been sidelined by a sore back in the first five weeks of the season, might be a beacon for the Cubs if his three homers in the last four games is any indication. He won’t suggest that he’s doing anything different or better lately, and he hasn’t drawn a walk since April 20. But if his recent power is a sign he’s warming with the weather after the worst April of his career, that might be the biggest answer for what ails the lineup. What ails the rest of the team was underscored in the Cubs’ third consecutive start of less than five innings, sloppy plays in the field and four walks leading off innings among the seven their pitchers allowed. Three of the leadoff walks and four of the seven overall scored, including closer Brandon Morrow’s leadoff walk in the ninth and Luke Farrell’s leadoff walk just ahead of Wong’s homer in the 10th. ‘‘That’s the worst time to have one — at the start of the inning — especially when you kind of give them a little bit of momentum and hope,’’ said Morrow, who hadn’t allowed a run this season until yielding a tying two-run double to Marcell Ozuna three batters after the walk. ‘‘I just had trouble locating my fastball.’’ Chatwood has had command problems all season but said he thinks it can be solved with a ‘‘simple’’ mechanical fix he wouldn’t divulge. Meanwhile, the Cubs — who lapped the field in defensive runs saved during their 2016 championship season — have performed like a shadow of that team this season, despite having mostly the same players. Shortstop Addison Russell’s inability to catch Rizzo’s throw to second with one out in the fourth became a run-scoring error when it got past him into the outfield. And Matt Carpenter followed with a slicing drive to left that Kyle Schwarber seemed to have trouble tracking as it sailed past his outstretched glove for a tying two-run double. Schwarber had so much trouble that he fell down when Carpenter lifted a routine fly ball toward him in the sixth. It was so routine that Schwarber was able to get up and still make the catch about two feet from where he fell. ‘‘[The fielding is] not as good as we can be,’’ manager Joe Maddon said of his 30-game evaluation. ‘‘We hold ourselves to a really high standard defensively, and when we make a mistake, it jumps at you. ‘‘But two-run lead, ninth inning, Morrow pitching — I’ll take it.’’ -- The Athletic 30 games in, the Cubs are breaking down in all phases By Patrick Mooney

ST. LOUIS — This is a fundamental question to think about while watching your 2018 Chicago Cubs: What can you count on tomorrow? Sure, Jon Lester starting “Sunday Night Baseball” is a comforting thought and the Cubs should be amped up for the chance to play in front of another sellout crowd at Busch Stadium. The St. Louis Cardinals are a flawed team, too, and you might have heard that it’s still early. Of course, the Cubs have elite talent all over their roster, a sense of clubhouse chemistry and the muscle memory from three straight trips to the NLCS. But rewinding the 10 innings from Saturday afternoon’s 8-6 walk-off loss to the Cardinals shows how the Cubs are breaking down in every phase of the game. The issues that could be brushed aside during the five-game winning streak to close April are piling up with this four-game losing streak to begin May. Generally speaking, that would be the offense, the defense, the rotation and the bullpen. It’s been a 30-game snapshot that won’t be hanging in manager Joe Maddon’s oil-painting gallery. “Any day of the week, eight out of seven days, I’ll take [Brandon] Morrow with a two-run lead in the ninth,” Maddon said afterward. “It’s just they got us. It’s Cinco de Mayo. There won’t be as much celebrating tonight as anticipated. “Hey, we lost with our best guy out there. It just happens once in a while.” Don’t worry about Morrow, who experienced the rite of passage for all Cubs closers: The first blown save at Busch Stadium. Morrow had put together 11 scoreless appearances to open the season and gone 7-for-7 in save chances before giving up a leadoff walk and watching Marcell Ozuna knock a two-run, game-tying double down the left-field line. That put Luke Farrell out there for the 10th inning, when Kolten Wong crushed a 92-mph fastball out toward the right-field foul pole for a two-run homer. Wong flipped his bat, tossed his helmet after he rounded third base and skipped into home plate with his arms raised above his head. “The arm was a little live today,” Morrow said. “I was kind of flying open and just having trouble getting it down pretty much the entire inning. It happens with everybody. You get out of whack a little bit for a couple batters or an inning or whatever.” That keeps happening with Tyler Chatwood — even after his escape from Coors Field — and there is a chain reaction when Cubs starters keep exiting early. Combined, Chatwood, Yu Darvish and José Quintana have made 18 starts this season and failed to finish the fifth inning eight times. The bullpen can’t keep this up across a 162-game season. Staked a 4-0 lead in the second inning, Chatwood left a 4-4 game after giving up a leadoff walk to Yadier Molina in the fifth inning. Looking at Chatwood’s numbers — 27 walks and 32 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings — and listening to Maddon’s explanation makes it sound like the Cubs could have the next Jake Arrieta or another Carlos Marmol rollercoaster. “The stuff is high-end — we just got to get him over the plate,” Maddon said. “There’s a lot of moving parts. More than anything, it’s delivery-related. He needs to find that rhythm. Again, it’s a complicated delivery. Sometimes when you’re like that, if you’re not all together there, it’s not in rhythm, you have a hard time finding your release point.”

Yes, Chatwood walked Dexter Fowler and Paul DeJong to open the fourth inning, but he doesn’t look rattled or uncomfortable pitching around traffic. Without going into details, Chatwood (2-3, 3.31 ERA) called it “an easy fix,” a mechanical adjustment he’s already made in the bullpen and needs to carry over into games. “I’m putting myself in bad situations,” Chatwood said. “It’s hurting the team. There is no reason for that fourth inning to happen right there. Just throw the ball over the plate and let them get themselves out. It’s just me beating myself right now.” With that razor-thin margin for error, Chatwood needs his defense to make the plays the Cubs didn’t in that fourth inning. There was first baseman Anthony Rizzo throwing the ball that shortstop Addison Russell didn’t catch at second base for a run-scoring error. There was Matt Carpenter lifting a flyball over Kyle Schwarber’s outstretched glove in left field for a two-run double. There was Rizzo with the postgame explanation at his locker: “I think it was executed perfectly. He just didn’t come up with the catch. It was a tough play for Addie, but I’d do the same thing a hundred times over.” The Cubs make highlight-reel plays look routine and have their moments of individual Gold Glove brilliance. The clip of Schwarber tripping and getting back up to catch another Carpenter flyball and changing his cleat in the sixth inning will be played over and over again. But pay closer attention and notice that the Cubs have made 26 errors in 30 games that have led to 16 unearned runs. “Not as good as we can be,” Maddon said. “We held ourselves to a really high standard defensively. And when we make a mistake, it kind of jumps at you.” That’s not even getting into the nature-vs.-nurture debate the Cubs are having as they try to coach up young hitters like Javier Báez and Albert Almora Jr. and implement their evolving offensive philosophy. “Why do scorpions bite?” Maddon said. “It’s their nature. Why do young guys like that swing? Because it’s their nature. How do you change that? You’ve got to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. You might get better at it, but I don’t know if you’re ever going to get it to the point where you’re going to be in love with that [walk] number. I think they can be better with it. But in the meantime, you got to be patient.” That’s also what the Cubs have going for them now. A 16-14 start isn’t a reason to panic. But trust what you see. “Obviously, we know we’re not playing our best baseball right now,” Chatwood said. “But there’s a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track. And I think we will.” -- The Athletic No longer Team Launch Angle, are Cubs overcorrecting or about to take offense to next level? By Patrick Mooney ST. LOUIS — Joe Maddon getting snarky about launch angle and exit velocity — combined with hyping Chili Davis as a graduate-level professor for Cubs hitters — puts extra attention on an offense that ranks near the bottom of the majors in home runs and walks. Right now, the Cubbies don’t have the same intimidation factor or look like the American League East-style lineup that Theo Epstein envisioned.

The Cubs could rationalize the changes after seeing the inconsistencies while scoring 800-plus runs last season and watching too many easy at-bats against the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers during the playoffs. Davis commands instant respect as a former All-Star player with a successful track record working as a hitting coach for the Oakland A’s and Boston Red Sox. But does shifting the point of emphasis run the risk of overcorrection and sacrificing some of the elements that made this such a dangerous lineup on paper? Did the Cubs expect their hitters to take a small step back now, so they could make a huge leap forward later? “Nobody’s made any changes,” Maddon insisted before Saturday’s 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in front of a sellout crowd at Busch Stadium. Until this 8-6 loss, the Cubs had scored three runs or fewer in nine straight games for the first time since 2006. “By me saying what I’m saying to [the media about launch angle], that’s not impacting what Chili’s doing with the guys at all. We’ve just been stressing middle of the field, opposite field. That’s all. “Now when it comes to individual hitters, if some guys in an indigenous manner just want to lift the ball because of their swing, that’s wonderful. [Anthony] Rizzo does it by nature. To a certain extent, [Kyle] Schwarber does it by nature. The point is, I don’t think it’s necessarily the right thing to teach somebody that’s already an accomplished major-league hitter. “My innuendo has been out there based on all the discussion about it. I would not teach a young kid to do that. If you came down from Mars tomorrow — and I wanted to teach you hitting — I would not start with launch angle. That would be the last thing I talk about. “It’s not like we created this new method of teaching hitting. We’re not big advocates of taking the guy and all of a sudden trying to teach him to lift the ball now.” But that had been a clear focus for John Mallee, the hitting coach for the 2016 World Series team who absorbed data, helped implement the organization’s vision and quickly latched on with the Philadelphia Phillies. “Yeah, it was about launch angles,” Maddon said. “That’s a very popular buzz phrase. Again, John is outstanding. John Mallee did a great job here. It’s all philosophically based. We all teach the same subject. Your method’s going to be different teaching the same subject. It just depends on where you came from, what you believe in, all of the above. “I also believe that in order to be a good hitting coach, you have to say the same thing in other words so that it resonates with each one of you. It’s not as easy as it appears to be a really good hitting coach. You have to tailor your instruction to each individual based on what he does, not what you want to see him do. “What Chili does well is that he tailors to the guy. It’s more approach-based than mechanically based on top of that.” In many ways, a hitting coach has an impossible job in a game that revolves around failure, getting a disproportionate amount of scrutiny/blame when things go wrong and not much credit/glory when things go right. Whether you’re focused on launch angle or making contact, good luck at a time when every at-bat is recorded and dissected and the numbers show where all the defenders should be positioned and which reliever with upper-90s velocity should be pitching.

“Just keep trying,” said Javier Báez, who notched his eighth home run on Saturday afternoon when he reached for Ryan Sherriff’s 0-2 slider and lifted it 379 feet into the left-field seats. “We’re not going to get our pitches all the time. We got a guy out there making adjustments, too. Obviously, with Yadi [Molina] behind the plate, it’s a big thing, too. We got a long way to go.” These are highly paid professionals with ingrained habits who are trying to stay cool and think clearly in high-stress situations. Rizzo — who has now homered three times in his last four games — sounded a little like Aramis Ramirez when he said, “At this point, I always say I try to be my own hitting coach as much as I can.” “I rely on Chili and [assistant] Andy [Haines] a lot just for approach and what I’m feeling, what I’m thinking,” Rizzo said. “At the end of the day up here, I think it’s just more psychological than swinging. Everyone can hit up here.” Rizzo heating up has raised his batting average to .187 and boosted his OPS to .593. Báez hasn’t walked since April 11. Ian Happ has 36 strikeouts in 75 at-bats. FanGraphs ranks Albert Almora Jr., Jason Heyward, Addison Russell and Willson Contreras as top-20 players in terms of soft-contact percentage across the majors (roughly between 25 and 30 percent). That group has combined to hit four home runs in 422 plate appearances. This is only a 30-game sample size for a 16-14 team with playoff expectations — too small to make any sweeping conclusions but also too big to completely ignore. “Regardless, whatever your plan may be, every team’s going to go through these moments,” Maddon said. “It just happens to be ours right now. I want to continue like we have been working. I believe in our guys. I believe in our methods. It’s just the ebb and flow of the season. Right now, it’s our turn. We’ll come out of it. We’re going to be fine.” -- Cubs.com 20 years later, 20-K gem a fond memory for Wood By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Sandy Martinez still has his glove and mask from the game. You probably have the scorecard tucked away someplace, or maybe one of the "K" cards. There's still debate as to whether Ricky Gutierrez had a hit or third baseman Kevin Orie should've been charged with an error. Can you believe it's been 20 years since Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game? Wood struck out 20 Astros on May 6, 1998, at Wrigley Field in his fifth big league start -- setting a National League record and tying a Major League record. He would pitch a total of 14 seasons, although those years were interrupted by injuries -- including Tommy John surgery. He reached the playoffs with the Cubs and the Yankees, but that one drizzly day in May at Wrigley was special. "I look back on [the 20-strikeout game] with great memories, and every year [when the anniversary] rolls around ... I get to see the highlights again," Wood said in an interview in late April. "I've sat down this year, watching a few innings at a time ... but I still have yet to watch the whole game in its entirety."

Wood, 40, said he planned to do that one day with his son, Justin. Martinez -- now a Minor League instructor with the Nationals, based in the Dominican Republic -- called it the best game he ever caught. It was also the first time he'd ever caught Wood. "I tried to get him to catch me all the time after that," Wood said, laughing. "I didn't have that much pull. I had 27 innings after that game. You can't call your catcher at that point." No one questioned official scorer Don Friske's call on Gutierrez's hit, which happened in the third inning, until late in the game. Last year, Friske had a chance to talk to Wood for the first time about the game. Wood said he never doubted it was a hit. When Friske was driving home after the 20-K game, he heard Ron Santo on a postgame radio show. "They asked him if he thought it was a no-hitter and [Santo] said something to the effect that, 'Whether it's a no-hitter or not, I don't think he gets 20 strikeouts if that ball's called an error because it changes the whole game,'" Friske said. "It'd be in the back of his mind that he's pitching a no-hitter and in the sixth, seventh, eighth innings. Who knows what would happen? "I brought that up to Kerry and he said he never thought of that, and said it's probably true." And when you saw Wood pump his arm after he struck out Derek Bell to end the game, it wasn't because of the strikeouts. Wood had no idea how many he had. "The fist pump was for no walks," said Wood, who threw 122 pitches in his first complete game. Wood finished 1998 with a 13-6 record and was the NL Rookie of the Year. Because of the injuries, he eventually transitioned from starter to closer -- totaling 34 saves in 2008 with the Cubs. Fans can cheer for Wood again on Tuesday night, when he throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Cubs play the Marlins at Wrigley. "You can look at my career any way you want," Wood said. "You could look at it as a disappointment, that I didn't achieve what I was supposed to achieve. Or, you could look at it that I battled adversity and came back and grinded through and got 14 years out of a career that a lot of people and doctors said I wasn't going to get. "Six years after I was pitching with a tear [in my shoulder], I got to close, I got to set up Mariano [Rivera], I got to pitch in the playoffs two more times," Wood said. "I had opportunities after I was told I was never going to throw again. I look at it as I had a great run early and learned a lot about myself. I made some adjustments and didn't quit and came back and was able to help teams win in a different way." -- Cubs.com BBs, errors costly as Cubs fall to Cards in 10th By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- For the first time this season, Cubs closer Brandon Morrow gave up some runs. Manager Joe Maddon could deal with that. What else was problematic on Saturday afternoon? Walks issued by starter Tyler Chatwood, which has unfortunately been a recurring theme.

Morrow served up a game-tying two-run double to Marcell Ozuna in the ninth inning, and Kolten Wong smacked a walk-off, two-run homer in the 10th to spark the Cardinals to an 8-6 victory over the Cubs and Chatwood at Busch Stadium. With the game tied at 6 in the Cardinals' 10th, Luke Farrell walked Paul DeJong to open the inning, and Wong launched his second homer of the season to right for the game-winner. "It's really bothersome," Farrell said of the walk. "You can understand giving up a hit in that situation, but you want to attack guys and challenge guys, so a leadoff walk is frustrating." Morrow felt the same. The Cubs had a 6-4 lead after welcome solo home runs by Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo. Baez connected with one out in the sixth, while Rizzo hit his third homer in his past four games with one out in the seventh. But the Cardinals rallied in the ninth. Morrow walked Harrison Bader to start the inning, and one out later, he gave up a single to Jose Martinez to set up Ozuna's double. Morrow had been a perfect 7-for-7 in save situations and had not given up a run in 11 previous outings. "That's the worst time to [walk someone] is to start an inning," Morrow said. "You give them a little momentum and hope. I was leaving the ball up a little bit and trying to fight it down the whole time. I gave up the soft hit [to Martinez], and the one mistake I made in the zone, [Ozuna] got the double on. I finally got out of it, but too late. "I had trouble locating my fastball all inning, really," Morrow said. "My arm was a little alive today and I was flying open and I was having trouble getting it down the entire inning." Maddon wasn't concerned about his closer. "Any day of the week, eight out of seven days, I'll take Morrow with a two-run lead in the ninth," Maddon said. The Cubs had not scored more than three runs in any of their past nine games, but they totaled four runs in the second, sending nine batters to the plate against starter Luke Weaver, who now has a career ERA of 12.00 against the Cubs and would most likely prefer to skip this series. But the Cardinals, playing in front of their largest crowd of the season -- 47,154 -- made the most of walks by Chatwood to tie the game in the fourth. The right-hander is among the National League leaders in walks, and he issued five more, including back-to-back free passes to start both the first and fourth innings. "I know what it is," Chatwood said of the problem, although he wouldn't go into specifics. "I feel it's an easy correction, but I'm fighting it now. It's just a matter of having it click. I know what it is. I'm kind of fighting it back and forth." Said Maddon: "I think it's delivery-related. He's pretty tough. I think he needs to find that rhythm. It's a complicated delivery. If you're not all together, you have a hard time finding your release point." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Safe bet: The Cubs loaded the bases in the second against Weaver and took a 1-0 lead on Baez's groundout. Chatwood then bunted and Weaver flipped the ball to catcher Yadier Molina, who tagged Addison Russell at home. Russell was called out, but the Cubs challenged the ruling, saying he had

reached around Molina to tag the plate. After a review, the call was overturned, giving the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Ben Zobrist and Rizzo each added RBI singles for a 4-0 cushion. "Addison was adamant on the play," Maddon said. "I didn't know the plate was blocked so much. Normally they don't alter that on a play on the infield regarding blocking the plate. If I had just asked for them to look at that, there's multiple ways for him to be safe. I didn't see that until I'd already made my challenge. I learned a lesson -- slow down and see everything before you ask." Costly error: Chatwood walked the first two batters in the Cardinals' fourth, then hit Wong to load the bases, and the Cardinals tallied on pinch-hitter Greg Garcia's sacrifice fly. Rizzo fielded Bader's grounder and tried to get the force at second, but Russell couldn't handle the throw for an error, allowing a run to score. Matt Carpenter then doubled to left, driving in two runs to tie the game at 4. Russell's error was the ninth by the Cubs in the last 10 games. "We're not as good as we can be," Maddon said of the Cubs' defensive efforts. "We hold ourselves to a really high standard defensively, and when we make a mistake, it jumps at you." SOUND SMART Rizzo's homer was his first against the Cardinals since Sept. 14, 2016. He's now hit safely in his past four games and has an RBI in four of his past five. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS In the St. Louis sixth, left fielder Kyle Schwarber fell running backward to get a fly ball by Carpenter, but he got up in time to catch the ball. Then he raised his arms and pointed to his right shoe, which may have been the reason for the fall. Schwarber took off his shoe and trotted in to get a new pair to finish the inning. Center fielder Jason Heyward made a much more graceful running catch of Jose Martinez's fly ball to end the sixth. HE SAID IT "I'm putting myself in bad situations, and it's hurting the team. There's no reason for that fourth inning to happen there. Just throw the ball over the plate. It's just me beating myself now and the team. I just have to fix that." -- Chatwood MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY The Cubs won their second challenge of the game in the St. Louis half of the second. The Cardinals had two out and two on when pinch-hitter Bader hit a grounder to Russell at shortstop. He flipped the ball to Baez at second for the force, but Weaver was called safe and the runner at third scored. But the Cubs challenged the ruling, and after a review, it was overturned and the inning was over. "That was a great play by Addison at second base," Maddon said. "Javy did the right thing, acting as a first baseman." UP NEXT Jon Lester will close the Cubs' series Sunday night. In his last start against the Rockies, Lester did not give up an earned run for the third time in six starts this season. He's 3-1 with a 1.63 ERA in six career starts in St. Louis. First pitch is at 7:08 p.m. CT from Busch Stadium. -- Cubs.com

Schwarber falls, makes catch, replaces shoe By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Shoeless Kyle Schwarber? Schwarber needed a new shoe after falling, then getting up to catch the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter's fly ball in left field during the Cubs' 10-inning, 8-6 loss to St. Louis on Saturday afternoon. With a runner at first and one out in the Cardinals' sixth inning, Carpenter lined a ball to left. Schwarber took about four steps, then fell backwards, but he got up in time to catch the ball and throw it in. Then he raised his arms and pointed to his shoe, which apparently was the reason for the fall. "Schwarber vindicated his offseason program by being able to fall down and get up," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "It's all the burpees he did in the offseason were demonstrated right there." Schwarber, who lost more than 20 pounds this offseason after a strenuous diet and exercise program, took off his right shoe and trotted in to get a new pair to finish the inning. Center fielder Jason Heyward made a much more graceful running catch of Jose Martinez's fly ball to end the inning. What happened to Schwarber? "It looked like he might have blown out his shoelaces," Maddon said. "I've had that happen sometimes. It looked like it was spread open and he can't put it back on and he might have popped the laces. I've had it in high school football, but never seen it in baseball." -- Cubs.com Cubs strike deal with outfielder Adams By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Outfielder Lane Adams has reportedly rejoined the Cubs. According to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Cubs have reached an agreement on a Minor League deal with Adams, who recently elected free agency after being removed from the Braves' 40-man roster. The Cubs did not confirm the signing. "I know I like him," manager Joe Maddon said when asked about Adams. "I know when I saw him in Atlanta, I asked, 'Who's this guy?' He's very athletic, great body and ran really well for a big guy. Had some pop. There were a lot of interesting facets about this guy." Adams, 28, was batting .235 in 15 games with the Braves this year. Last season, he hit .275 in 85 games with Atlanta, hitting five home runs, four doubles, one triple and driving in 20 runs. Adams was a 13th-round pick in 2009 by the Royals, and the Cubs signed him as a free agent in August 2016. He played in 22 games with Double-A Tennessee, batting .325, then played in seven games with Triple-A Iowa and went 6-for-26 (.231) and was then granted free agency in November that year and signed with the Braves.

A right-handed hitter, Adams could provide the Cubs some outfield depth if needed. Around the horn • Kyle Schwarber threw out Matt Carpenter at home in the first inning on Friday, and it was just another example of how much better he's getting in the outfield. "He's got a strong arm, we know that," Maddon said of Schwarber. "The balls he's been tracking down, the routes have gotten better and he's more confident under the ball once he gets there. He's not drifting. He's doing a lot of things better. "Part of it is he's able to move better," Maddon said of Schwarber, who wore a knee brace last season following surgery to repair two torn ligaments in 2016. "The arm's always been there. That was a great throw last night. [Schwarber] was pretty deep. I think that's why [third base coach Jose] Oquendo sent him. [Schwarber] is making a lot of progress." • After Justin Wilson struggled last season with a 5.09 ERA in 23 games with the Cubs, Maddon says he's seeing a much-improved lefty in the bullpen. "I can see he's feeling better about himself," Maddon said of Wilson, who struck out two and gave up two hits over one inning in relief on Friday against the Cardinals. "I said it during spring, he could be the lynchpin of the whole thing out of the bullpen. He gets out righties and lefties, good hitters, with that stuff. It's good to see that, and I want to keep getting him out there." So far this season. lefties are batting .188 against Wilson while right-handers are hitting .250. -- ESPNChicago.com 'What even is that pitch?' An oral history of Kerry Wood's 20-K day By Jesse Rogers It was an otherwise nondescript day. In fact, it was a forgettable one. Overcast and rainy, the Cubs were hosting the Houston Astros in an early-May matinee. School was still in session, so just 15,758 fans were in attendance. How many stayed to see history is unknown, as the rain picked up throughout the day. That didn’t stop 20-year-old Kerry Wood from a magical performance. He produced the highest game score in baseball history, posting a pitching line of 9 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 20 Ks. He did it with a dynamic fastball and a slurve, which the Astros would call unhittable. Here are the memories of some involved, including Wood. Current Cubs pitchers Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks add their two cents as well after watching the highlights in arguably the greatest-pitched game in Wrigley Field history. It was May 6, 1998. Twenty years ago. Kerry Wood: “I remember specifically having low energy that day. I don’t know why. Maybe it was a day game or the overcast skies. I was dragging at the ballpark. It wasn’t jumping right away, the way I wanted. I felt sluggish.” Cubs manager Jim Riggleman: “I do remember him saying that after the fact. He didn’t have a great warm-up.”

Astros second baseman Craig Biggio: “Our minor league guy [scout] said, ‘Hey, he has a good fastball, OK curve and be patient with him.’ We watched him warm up, and it was like, ‘OK, no big deal.’ Then the game started, and the kid put on his Superman costume, and the next thing you know, he struck 20 of us out.” Wood: “I was all over the place in warm-ups. I was erratic. Every other pitch in the bullpen, I was getting another ball because I was throwing it to the screen or bouncing it in. I didn’t throw one strike. The first pitch of the game, it didn’t change. I hit [plate umpire] Jerry Meals in the mask. I didn’t have the feel.” Plate umpire Jerry Meals: “To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen again. It’s the first pitch of the game, so things start going through my head. ‘Is there something I need to be addressing? Is there some bad blood? How do you get crossed up on the first pitch? What the hell is going on here?'” Wood: “I went to 2-0 on Craig Biggio, then struck out the side. I absolutely surprised myself. After the first I felt great, but I had zero of those feelings warming up.” Biggio: “He had a nice, smooth delivery. The ball was electric. I could relate it to [Craig] Kimbrel. He’s got that ball where he throws it and it pops in the glove, and it’s heavy and hard and firm. He was on.” Jon Lester: “In that game, it wasn’t a lot of long at-bats. You see a lot of swings-and-misses and takes, not a lot of foul balls. Nowadays, you know the spin rate and all this stuff, that would have been plus-plus. That’s the biggest thing, the way those pitches broke.” After four innings, Wood had eight strikeouts. An infield hit by Astros shortstop Ricky Gutierrez ruined any chance of a no-hitter, but by then, he was locked in and thinking about a complete game. Wood: “Bagwell’s second at-bat, I know I get to 3-1, and I throw hook-hook and buckle him back-to-back. After that, I knew I had a chance to finish this.” Meals: “He had everything working. He had a good-hitting team just baffled. They were flailing on the breaking stuff and couldn’t catch up to the fastball.” Kyle Hendricks: “The movement on his pitches was incredible. What even is that pitch [the slurve]? I don’t know how you snap that off. No clue. You can just see how much spin is being created. Those guys didn’t have a chance.” Biggio: “We didn’t have the technology they have today. Now you know everything about a guy. What he throws, how hard and stuff like that. You got everything. And you can go look at your at-bats as the game is going on.” Lester: “The only information you had back then was facing the guy.” Riggleman: “Somewhere around his 13th strikeout, [third-base coach] Tom Gamboa said, ‘You know how many strikeouts he has?’ It became interesting. ... I didn’t know 20 was a record.” Meals: “The weather turned crappy in the sixth. The grounds crew did a good job.” Wood: “My goal was not to walk anyone. That’s what I heard my whole minor league career and my short time in the big leagues: Just don’t walk anyone. In a 1-0 game, I was just focusing on not putting the tying run on base.”

Biggio: “We’re one swing away from tying the game, so we’re not thinking about the strikeouts. But when you go out there, you see the fans throwing up the K’s, and you’re like, ‘Holy shoot, how many strikeouts does this guy have?' You start counting them up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... I think they ran out of K’s.” During one stretch, Wood struck out five in a row looking. Wood: “With two strikes maybe they thought I was trying to trick them with off-speed, so a lot of those fastballs were them not pulling the trigger, thinking off-speed.” Hendricks: “The fastball is obviously electric. It rides up in the zone. A few of these breaking balls to a lefty, it goes up and in to him. The spin rate would have been unbelievable. It makes it more fun to watch, without all those stats on the screen.” Biggio: “We had 102 wins that year. That was no weak lineup. He carved us up like we didn’t belong there.” Riggleman: “This is probably a little bit of an indictment of everyone that managed in that period, I was probably thinking like 135 pitches for him. I have to let him try and finish this thing. “I didn’t want to take him out with men on base. That’s when you give life to the other club. Maybe at the end of the inning. I’m not sure we ever got anyone up though.” Wood: “Being from Texas and following Roger Clemens, I knew he had the major league record, but it’s not one of those numbers you think is attainable. ... I didn’t know how hard I was throwing or how many pitches I had thrown. We didn’t have that back then.” Riggleman: “There were games [in which] after six or seven [innings], he had 13 or 14 strikeouts, the pitch count was high, and we would take him out. I would get booed like crazy for taking him out. Later, when he was hurt, it was, ‘Oh, you pitched him too much.’” Wood: “In the seventh inning, I thought the umpires might call it for a moment due to rain. And I knew at that point, if there is a delay, I’m done. I remember thinking, 'Don’t call that game.'” The Cubs scored an insurance run in the eighth, giving them a 2-0 lead. Wood had 18 strikeouts yet still did not know he had a chance at a record. Wood: “I remember thinking in the eighth inning I just wanted to get back out there and finish this up. We scored another run, and I know I just wanted the inning to end. A young player should want his team to score as much as possible.” Lester: “That would be so hard now. I don’t know if you’ll see 20 again in the future. With bullpens and specialization. ... He was very unique. How big and tall he was and he had the levers working. When you think of Kerry Wood, you think of someone special.” Biggio: “He hit his spots and made his pitches that day. It was just a man amongst boys right there.” Wood (on getting strikeout No. 20 against Derek Bell): “His first swing in that at-bat, I knew I could throw the rosin bag up there and he would swing at it.” Meals: “I was thinking about almost calling a no-hitter. The crew chief pointed out he had 20 strikeouts. I had no idea. I wasn’t paying attention to the fans holding up the K’s.”

Wood: “My fist-pump on the mound was about no walks and completing the game. I hugged [reliever] Terry Adams and say something to him, because before the game, he said, ‘Hey rook, why don’t you pitch more than five innings. You’re killing us.’ But no one said anything about 20 strikeouts.” Meals: “[Umpire] Terry Tata was at first base. He says, ‘You had 19, I had one.’ Because he rang one up on a check swing. That was when I realized 20.” Wood: “Thirty seconds after it’s over, they bring me over to the camera, and my hands are shaking. My adrenaline is racing. That’s when I found out I struck out 20 and tied the record. I didn’t have anything to say, though.” Biggio: “You’re bummed out you lost, but 20 punchouts is pretty amazing.” Riggleman: “You meet a lot of people that say they were there that day, but it was a rainy day in May. Maybe it was 18,000.” Hendricks: “And to do it that young. He must have been in one of those once-in-a lifetime zones.” Riggleman: “[Former Cubs] Billy Williams and Ron Santo were at Wood’s game that day and said that it was even more dominating than Sandy Koufax’s perfect game [against the Cubs in 1965]. They were at that one, too. You could make a case, as old as that stadium is, that could be the greatest game anyone has ever pitched there.” -- ESPNChicago.com Cubs pitching still struggling to find the strike zone By Jesse Rogers ST. LOUIS -- Somehow his ERA is only 3.31. But Chicago Cubs starter Tyler Chatwood will see it rise precipitously if he keeps giving out free passes. Same goes for the entire Cubs pitching staff. “I’m putting myself in bad situations and its hurting the team,” Chatwood said after the Cubs’ 8-6 loss in 10 innings to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon. Staked to a 4-0 lead, the righty gave it all back in the fourth inning, when he walked the first two batters and hit the next one. After coming back out for the fifth inning, in a 4-4 game, he again walked the leadoff hitter. His day was done. “There is no reason for that fourth inning to happen right there,” a frustrated Chatwood said. “Just throw the ball over the plate and let them get themselves out. It’s just me beating myself right now.” The same can be said for a few other Cubs pitchers, including two relievers who walked leadoff men Saturday, contributing to the Cubs’ first ninth-inning blown save, then in the 10th to the eventual loss. “The leadoff walk hurt us the entire game,” manager Joe Maddon said. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Cubs rank 13th in the National League, walking 9.8 percent of leadoff hitters to start an inning. After Chatwood did it several times, closer Brandon Morrow

followed suit. And in the 10th, rookie Luke Farrell served up a free pass, then a home run to Kolten Wong as the Cubs lost their fourth consecutive game. “That’s the worst time to have one, to start the inning,” Morrow said. “Gives them a little momentum and hope.” Farrell added, “It’s really bothersome. You can understand giving up a hit in that situation. Not a walk.” The walk-a-thon is a reminder of the Cubs’ struggles in the second half of last season, including the playoffs, when they walked the house. A change in pitching coaches hasn’t changed the pattern just yet, though it’s Chatwood who’s inflating the Cubs' numbers on his own. After his outing Saturday, he leads all of baseball with 27 walks in six starts. Many pitchers have one more outing than Chatwood but many fewer walks. He and fellow free-agent signee Yu Darvish haven’t exactly paid dividends for the Cubs just yet -- though Chatwood hasn’t completely blown up despite the lofty walk totals. “I know what it is,” Chatwood said. “I feel like it’s an easy correction but I’m fighting it right now. It’s just a matter of having it click. “It’s an easy fix. I know I can do it. In my bullpen I’ve proven I can do it. It’s just a matter of taking it into the game.” Maddon added: “It’s a complicated delivery. ... His stuff is high-end. We just have to get it over the plate.” Chatwood possess great movement on his pitches but simply isn’t finding the zone enough. The wild day contributed to a bad stretch for the two-time defending Central Division champions as poor defense, a sluggish offense and now a bullpen meltdown have dropped them to 0-4 in May. Their play might be giving hope to a few other teams in the division, including the Cardinals, who jumped into first place after taking the first two games of the series. The top four teams in the division are bunched together, thanks in part to the Cubs’ poor play of late. “We’re not playing our best baseball right now,” Chatwood said. “There’s a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track, and I think we will.” -- ESPNChicago.com Cubs LF Kyle Schwarber trips over shoe, gets up to make catch By Jesse Rogers ST. LOUIS -- It was the last thing Chicago Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber needed. After being unable to track down a fly ball that plated two runs for the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth inning on Saturday, Schwarber tripped over his shoe and fell to the ground on another fly in the sixth, with the Cubs leading 5-4. But he kept his gaze in the air, and he recovered in time to make the catch. Then he pointed at his right shoe before taking it off and heading to the Cubs dugout for a replacement.

"Schwarber [showed] his offseason program by being able to fall down and get up," manager Joe Maddon said after the game. "All the Burpees (an exercise) he probably did during the offseason were demonstrated right there." Schwarber was easily tracking Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter's fly -- a ball Statcast rated with a 99 percent chance of being caught -- when all of a sudden, he went to the ground. "It looked like he may have blown out his shoelaces," Maddon said. "I've had that happen. It looked like it was spread open, and he couldn't put them back on. I think he popped the laces." Schwarber wasn't available for comment after the game. Maddon was grateful he finished the play. The manager was asked if he had ever seen that happen. "In high school football, but I haven't seen in baseball," he said. -- NBC Sports Chicago Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game is the greatest pitching performance ever By Tony Andracki The 1998 Cubs season was special in so many ways. Obviously the historic Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire home run chase was a huge part of that, but the team's foray into the playoffs also gave Cubs fans a lot to cheer about. And then, of course, there was also the greatest pitching performance in the history of the game. Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game, which he watched in our NBC Sports Chicago studio recently - the first time he ever saw the game broadcast from start to finish. It wasn't a perfect game or no-hitter, though it probably should've been at least the latter - there are plenty of Kevin Orie Truthers out there who think the then-Cubs third basemean should've been charged with an error on the lone hit by Ricky Gutierrez. Since 1908, no pitcher has put up a higher Game Score than Wood's 105 from that day (among games that lasted only 9 innings). Game Score is a metric used to determine the overall effectiveness of a starting pitcher. A Game Score of 100 is incredible and has only happened 15 times in a 9-inning game in Major League Baseball history. Here's how Game Score is calculated: Start with 50 points. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (or 3 points per inning). Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed. Subtract 1 point for each walk. Wood's performance came in over perfect games from Max Scherzer (2015), Clayton Kershaw (2014), Matt Cain (2012) and Sandy Koufax (1965), among others.

Curiously, Wood very nearly had some competition Friday night and the Astros were again involved. Houston pitcher Gerrit Cole turned in a 100 Game Score after striking out 16 Diamondbacks in a 1-hit shuout. Current Cubs closer Brandon Morrow also came very near to Wood's outing with a 17-strikeout 1-hitter against Joe Maddon's Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 8, 2010. The most incredible part about Wood's history-making outing in 1998 is that he was a 20-year-old rookie at the time. "I got to watch it on the big screen once and I thought, my god what a slider that was," Maddon said during last week's homestand. "It's incredible. Wow. I mean, I don't know that people really understand how good he actually was. That stuff there is cartoonish. It's that incredibly different. It's understandable why he's able to do that. "Great guy on top of it; I've gotten to know him the last couple years. My god, I mean, who's better than him? What stands out [about the 20 K performance] is that's a really difficult thing to do, but when you watch those pitches and how they were moving on that day, it's understandable. At that age, to have that kind of ability, he was sort of a prodigy." He also did this all against an Astros lineup that finished with 102 wins and led the National League in runs scored. Houston's starting 9 that day and their OPS at the time: 1. Craig Biggio - .856 2. Derek Bell - 1.062 3. Jeff Bagwell - .812 4. Jack Howell - .549 5. Moises Alou - .972 6. Dave Clark - .337 7. Ricky Gutierrez - .851 8. Brad Ausmus - .565 9. Shane Reynolds (pitcher) Wood also remarkably did not walk a batter - the only outing he had in 1998 where he did not dole out at least one free pass. He finished that year with 85 walks in 166.2 innings. He said he didn't throw a strike at all in warm-ups and then threw the first pitch off the mask of home plate umpire Jerry Meals. Check out the in-depth look at the greatest-pitched game in baseball history above. -- NBC Sports Chicago Glanville: Kerry Wood was ahead of his time By Doug Glanville In 1995, after my Triple-A season in Iowa, I was sent to Arizona to the Cubs’ Instructional League. It was a crossroads in my career, as Instructional League was usually reserved for younger rising prospects who

were just learning how to be professionals. It was not often for those who were 25 years old and a first round pick, like I was, whose career was in limbo. It was during this six week program where I first saw Kerry Wood. He was drafted in June of that year and to get ahead of the pro curve, he was assigned to the same camp I was in. It would only take watching him pitch to one batter to know he was special. Not only was the ball coming out of his hand like a lightning flash, but it sounded differently. Maybe it was the sizzle or the pop of the glove, but it was clear that the hitter had little to no time to decide much of anything let alone determine if it was Wood’s 98 mph fastball or his wrinkle in time bender that was coming. Like many who make it to the big leagues, he was a top draft pick (1st round, 4th overall). But across the board, professional baseball organizations are full of players who were the best somewhere at some point in their lives. Maybe a legend in their neighborhood, their high school, state, their college division. They also had a moment or a game-changing experience that propelled them to greatness. We were all great players in our own right, all coming from another time and place. But Wood still stood out amongst the best of the best. It was not the numbers, since he had not amassed many by then, it was the potential, the magnetism of watching him pitch, the way the ball came out of his hand. Later, I also faced Wood when I was with the Phillies, and it was like facing time. A moment when doing something great against him would immortalize you or it could work the other way, you would be in the photo marking what he would do against you that could mark a great moment in baseball history. Every time he touched the ball, there was this expectation. Rightfully so. I am sure that was a lot of pressure on him, battling injuries, fighting with command of his arsenal of “too good” stuff. But he carried it well, especially at such a young age. Once you get settled into the major leagues, your eyes keep looking up. Your goals get bigger as you learn that the obsession is about the ring. Winning a championship. A World Series. But we all know that this will only be the ending for a select few. Your next best hope is that you may be able to look back and realize that you had created something indelible. Something so good, it is permanent. Twenty years ago on this day, Wood did just that at the ripe old age of 20. A complete game, one-hit wonder, with no walks, and 20 strikeouts. Everything that came out of his hand, mocked physics, and danced with the gods. I was playing with the Phillies at the time, and even then, the buzz around the league was obvious. What were we watching? Hard to tell because no one could explain the kind of domination he unleashed, the metrics could not quantify it. Even the English language did not have the right words. It was before its time. Language and math needed to catch up. At the time, I was in my third major league season. Still not fully secure, but on my way. Wood came into that game with a 5.89 ERA. 18.1 IP, 15 H 12 BB 25 Ks. Most likely trying to figure out where his future would go. Unsure if his lifetime of being the king of the hill could run into the uncharted ego-checking terrain in the big leagues. The same thought that all of us have at one time or another when the game was no longer automatic like it had been for the vast majority of our past. Welcome to rookie year. Yet this game would stand alone. It didn’t matter his ERA going into the game. It did not matter what hitters hit against him before. No shifting, no pitch framing statistics. It transcended our analytic world and let artistry in.

There are moments when sport becomes art, when it becomes clear that what a player physically can do is as enchanting as beautiful music or the rising of the sun over Malibu Beach. That day, Kerry Wood was an artist, and he did not make macaroni art with Elmer’s Glue, but he painted one of baseball’s greatest masterpieces. His moment became our moment, the game’s moment. And with the clean lines of his performance, it will forever hang with the best our game has ever offered. A timeless artifact of baseball history. No matter how many times you watch it. -- NBC Sports Chicago Tough losses adding up for Cubs: 'We're not playing our best baseball right now' By Tony Andracki ST. LOUIS — Welcome to the Jekyll and Hyde Cubs. After trading off wins and losses for most of the first month of the season, the Cubs ended April on a five-game winning streak as the starting rotation flashed its potential for dominance. Almost a week later and the Cubs will have to wait until after the Cinco de Mayo holiday to pick up their first win in May. Saturday's 8-6 loss marks the fourth straight loss for the Cubs, with the last three coming as very different, difficult ways to fall. First, it was Wednesday's "throw it in Lake Michigan with cement shoes" game when the Cubs played what will probably be their worst collective game of baseball in 2018. Then came Friday's game when the only two earned runs scored in the contest came from the Cubs offense, but not until the ninth inning. Saturday's was the toughest of all, with the locker room after the game as quiet and solemn as it's been since at least 2017. "Obviously we know we're not playing our best baseball right now," Saturday's starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood said. "But there's a lot of season left and a lot of time for us to get on the right track and I think we will." Chatwood was part of the issue Saturday. After the Cubs offense finally recorded a mini-breakthrough and staked him to a 4-0 lead, Chatwood struggled to find the zone and let the Cardinals back in the game with a 4-run fourth inning that began when he walked the first two batters and then hit Kolten Wong to load the bases. "I'm putting myself in bad situations and it's hurting the team," Chatwood said. "There's no reason for that fourth inning to happen right there. Just throw the ball over the plate and let them get themselves out." Chatwood walked 5 batters on the afternoon, the fourth time in six starts with the Cubs where he has walked at least 5 hitters. He's surrendered 27 free passes in 32.2 innings in 2018.

The 28-year-old starter has obviously been trying to clean up the walks all year and said Saturday evening he feels like he has pinpointed what the mechanical issue is and knows how to correct it in his between-start bullpens. "It's an easy fix for me," Chatwood said. "I know I can do it in my bullpens; I've proven I can do it. It's just a matter of taking it into a game and doing it." Joe Maddon doesn't see the alarming number of walks as a mental issue for Chatwood. "I just think it's the way he throws — his delivery is subject to that," Maddon said. "There's a lot of moving parts. I think more than anything, it's delivery-related because he's pretty tough. "I just think he needs to find that rhythm. It's a complicated delivery. Sometimes when you're like that, if you're not all together, it's not in rhythm, you have a hard time finding your release point, for lack of a better term. So I think that's what you're seeing with him." The Cubs didn't help Chatwood out in that disastrous fourth inning with Anthony Rizzo's throw deflecting off Addison Russell's glove to allow the second run to score and prolong the inning. The play was initially ruled an error on Rizzo, but changed to an error on Russell after the game. The next batter, Matt Carpenter, sent a ball out into deep left field where Kyle Schwarber wasn't able to come up with the catch on a tough — but makeable — play. The Cubs stormed back to regain the lead thanks to solo homers from Javy Baez and Anthony Rizzo, capping off a nice day from the offense that finally scored more than 3 runs for the first time in 10 games. The good vibes didn't last long, as things went south agan for the Cubs in the ninth as closer Brandon Morrow allowed his first two runs of the season after going roughly six weeks and 10 innings without surrendering a tally. "Any day of the week — eight days out of seven days — I'll take Morrow with a 2-run lead in the ninth," Maddon said. "They got us, it's the fifth day, Cinco de Mayo, there won't be as much celebrating tonight as anticipated. "...Hey, we lost with our best guy out there. It just happens once in a while." After Victor Caratini was robbed of a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI by a nice leaping snare from Carpenter at third base in the top of the 10th inning, Luke Farrell served up the walk-off blast to Wong. The end result is a guaranteed series loss this weekend in St. Louis, where the Cubs celebrated clinching the division the last time they were in town. The Cubs will have to avoid a sweep Sunday night and have to avoid falling 3.5 games behind the first-place Cardinals, even if there is still nearly five full months of season left to play. "We were in a position to win and we came up short," Rizzo said. "Vs. them, we're here, it's tough, but we bounce back tomorrow." --