Game Recap: Cubs offense goes quiet in loss to Giants

David Banks - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 21 hours ago

CHICAGO - No one is going to overreact over one bad series, but you had to think the Chicago Cubs (22-16) would fall on hard times sooner or later. Given that this is the ending of what has been a grueling 41-game stretch to open the season, the Cubs are starting to hit some of those hard times as they dropped their second consecutive home series.

This one came against a very good San Francisco Giants (24-14) club, who despite sitting 10 games above .500 are in third place in their division. Coming off their ugly extra-inning loss on Tuesday, the Cubs were hoping to bounce back at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as it was another cold and windy day.

What was expected to be a pitchers' duel between Robbie Ray and Ben Brown lived up to the billing as the Giants came through with the clutch hits they needed to get the job done to deliver the series-clinching 3-1 win. Brown will be the center of conversation over the next few weeks as his spot in the rotation remains in question, even with the injuries.

However, after dominating the Brewers on Friday and then turning in another strong start in this one, perhaps Brown is starting to turn a corner as he has an easy string of games coming up. Brown gave the Cubs five innings, throwing more than 100 pitches for only the second time in his career. He was charged with three runs, but with nine strikeouts in those five innings, Brown continued to show what he could do on the mound.

As has been the case in many of his starts, it does take Brown a few innings to settle in sometimes, and this was one of those games where he got sharper as the game went on. Any time you walk the leadoff hitter to begin the game, followed by a single, things aren't looking good, as the Giants had two runners on with no outs in the first.

Brown did his best to minimize the damage, but with Wilmer Flores cashing in with an RBI single, it was the Giants in front 1-0, and they would never look back. Given how potent the Cubs' offense is, scoring fewer than four runs tends not to be enough to beat this team, but with Robbie Ray looking like his Cy Young version of himself, the Giants were in good hands.

Ray may not be the pitcher he once was, indicated by his ERA, but the Giants are starting to see him round back into form, which is huge for their rotation. Ray handcuffed the Cubs from start to finish, holding them to three hits in six innings and allowing just one run. He also struck out five as the Cubs made him work for every out on the field.

Nico Hoerner was the one Cub who seemed to have Ray figured out as he picked up a two-out double in the second for the Cubs' first hit before adding a second RBI double off the wall in the fourth. The best scoring chance for the Cubs and their offense came in the third inning when Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker worked a pair of two-out walks. They also made Ray work extremely hard by fouling off more than 10 pitches only to come away empty.

You got a sense that once the Cubs wasted that scoring chance, they may not get another one, and with the Giants starting the fourth with a leadoff walk and another Flores single, it was the Giants who had a pair of runners on and no outs. Trying to limit the damage again, Brown served up an RBI double to LaMonte Wade to extend the Giants' lead as the Cubs were now behind 2-0.

San Francisco managed to add another run later in the fourth on the Christian Koss single, but it was Pete Crow-Armstrong coming up firing to nail a runner at home, making things 3-0 instead of 4-0. The lone run of the game for the Cubs came in the fourth, and once again, Hoerner cashing in as a two-out double off the wall set the Cubs offense out.

A few pitches later, Crow-Armstrong drove in the Cubs' lone run as his would-be pop fly resulted in a wind-aided double and pulled the Cubs within 3-1. That was the final run for either side, although the Giants had a golden opportunity to break things open against Gavin Hollowell in the sixth.

With Flores picking up his third hit of the game on a leadoff single, it was the Giants threatening as they loaded the bases off Hollowell with no outs. Hollowell did his best to keep the Giants off the board, inducing a double play to kill a rally before walking his second batter to load the bases again. Drew Pomeranz took care of the rest as he escaped the sixth without further damage and kept the Cubs within striking distance.

Trailing by two and down to their final at bats, it was Carson Kelly giving the Cubs hope as his leadoff single against Ryan Walker gave the Cubs a baserunner and brought the tying run to the plate. That is when Walker buckled down to shut the Cubs down, getting Justin Turner to ground into a costly double play before the Hoerner ground out ended the game to give the Giants a 3-1 win.