Game Recap: Palencia injured as Nationals double up Cubs

David Banks - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 7 hours ago

CHICAGO - As tough as it was to see the Chicago Cubs (81-62) drop a series to the Washington Nationals (58-84) at Wrigley Field this weekend, this team has even bigger problems to worry about at the moment. With the NL Central seemingly out of reach at this point, the Cubs' best chance at making the playoffs is to secure one of the three wild-card spots, and barring a colossal meltdown, that shouldn't be an issue.

You have seen meltdowns from this team the past two seasons in September, so hopefully this isn't a sign for what is to come over the final few weeks. What is a concern is the health of this team as they are dealing with several injuries and added another to the list on Sunday. With Kyle Tucker (Calf) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (Knee) listed as day-to-day, the Cubs have a bit of a shorter bench than they would like, as they need to decide on an IL stint for Tucker sooner rather than later.

As much as those injuries hurt this team from an offensive end, losing their closer Daniel Palenica for what could be a lengthy amount of time isn't something this team was prepared for, but after leaving the ninth inning with right shoulder tightness, the Cubs are now put in a position where they may not have their closer going forward. That was only the beginning of the end for the Cubs as the Nationals went on to score five times in the ninth inning to erase a 3-1 deficit and turn this into a 6-3 Nationals win.

Given the first-inning struggles from Colin Rea this season, Craig Counsell elected to use Drew Pomeranz as an opener, and that proved to be a great decision. Rea took over in the second and proceeded to throw 5 1/3 innings of one-run, three-hit baseball for one of his better outings in quite some time. He walked none and struck out six as he did his part on the mound.

Facing off against left-hander Andrew Alvarez, it was the Cubs giving Rea an early lead as Carson Kelly took the left-hander deep in the second to put the Cubs on top 1-0. Kelly had a massive day at the plate, connecting for two homers and driving in two as his impressive season behind the dish continues. Chicago had a chance to add some runs later in that inning with Alvarez walking two of his three walks, but they were unable to come away with the two-out hit they needed.

It wasn't until the fifth inning that the Nationals were able to get on the board, and it still didn't come easy, as Daylen Lile opened things up with a leadoff single before advancing to third on the Luis Garcia one-out double. The Cubs caught a break on that double as it was ruled a ground rule double, but with Brady House tacking on a sacrifice fly shortly after, this was now a 1-1 game.

Sparked by a one-out Kevin Alcantara walk in the bottom of the fifth, it was the Nico Hoerner double that set the offense up as Chicago had two runners in scoring position and one down. Alcantara was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice play for the second out, but it was Seiya Suzuki coming through with a rare two-out hit to put the Cubs on top 2-1, as that was his 90th RBI of the season.

Already with one homer under his belt, Kelly connected for his second homer off Mason Thompson in the eighth as Chicago pushed their lead to 3-1 with Palencia set to take over in the ninth. More often than not, when Palencia has more than a one-run lead, he tends to get the job done, but there have been a lot of cases as of late where he hasn't been as sharp as he would like to be.

This was one of those games as Robert Hassell opened the ninth inning with a solo shot to pull the Nationals within 3-2. That was only the start of what was a nightmare inning for the Cubs, as CJ Abrams' single paired with a James Wood walk set the Nationals up with two runners on and no outs.

That is when the biggest hit of the game followed as Josh Bell uncorked the Nationals' second homer of the inning to put Washington on top for the first time, 5-3. Palencia would face one more hitter, allowing another triple to Lile before leaving the game with what the Cubs are calling right shoulder tightness.

Porter Hodge took over from there, and despite retiring all three hitters he faced, a run did score as the House sacrifice fly capped off a massive ninth inning with the Nationals now on top 6-3. Looking to come through late against Jose Ferrer, the Cubs had their shot as a leadoff single from Matt Shaw and an Ian Happ walk brought the tying run to the plate in Suzuki.

You usually want your RBI leader up to bat in situations like this, but Suzuki hasn't been great with runners on base, and that continued with Ferrer getting Suzuki to ground into a game-ending forceout, handing the Nationals a 6-3 series win.