Chicago Cubs first baseman Justin Turner found himself caught in between. The throw from second baseman Nico Hoerner was coming in just above the dirt.
“It’s just that kind of tweener one,” Turner said. “Not sure if it’s going to bounce or stay up.”
A double play they couldn’t quite spin turned out to be costly for the Cubs on Sunday at Wrigley Field. The ball squirted under Turner’s glove and into foul territory, giving San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. time to score from second base. It proved to be the winning run in San Diego’s 8-7 win.
A double play would’ve ended the inning and stranded two Padres runners. Instead, the Cubs blew a four-run lead and lost a chance to sweep the Padres.
The Cubs snapped their five-game win streak. At 7-5, however, they remain atop the National League Central early in the season. Here are three takeaways from the home opening series.
1. The Cubs blew a four-run lead in a strange Sunday finale.
Closer Ryan Pressly was three-for-three on his first three save opportunities this season, but they weren’t all easy. On Sunday, manager Craig Counsell sent Pressly into a tie ballgame in the ninth inning.
Pressly walked the leadoff hitter but still gave the Cubs a chance to escape the inning. Pressly induced two potential double-play ground balls. Tatis beat out the first one. The second one was the error.
“We had the ball on the ground,” Counsell said.
Added Turner: “(I was) trying to get out there and get it before it bounces and just missed it. No excuses. Ball’s got to be caught.”
It was a missed opportunity for a Cubs squad that battled back from an early hole. Cubs starting pitcher Ben Brown struggled in the first inning and gave up three runs without the Padres ever hitting the ball out of the infield.
The Cubs, however, had an answer. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki both walked to start the bottom half of the first. Kyle Tucker drove in a run with a hard-hit single to right field and Turner knocked in another on a sacrifice fly. Later, Padres starter Kyle Hart loaded the bases with his fourth walk of the inning. The Padres pulled Hart after just two-thirds of an inning and replaced him with the right-handed reliever Logan Gillaspie.
That’s when things got really weird.
The umpires called back-to-back balks on Gillaspie for stopping during his windup. Each balk scored a Cubs runner from third base.
“It was just a lot of weird stuff in the game today,” Turner said. “Walks, balks, infield hits. So obviously it wasn’t a clean game by any means on either side. I think we let that one get away from us.”
The balks put the Cubs ahead by two runs at the time. Tucker hit a two-run home run in the second inning that stretched the lead to 7-3.
2. Kyle Tucker continues his hot streak with his first home run at Wrigley Field.
Tucker blasted his first home run at Wrigley Field into right-field bleachers Sunday. The Cubs traded for the hard-hitting lefty in December. On Sunday, the hometown crowd had its first chance to see how much his presence could impact the middle of the lineup.
Tucker reached base three times, including the run-scoring single in the first inning and his two-run home run in the second. He also drew a walk in the seventh.
The home run was his fifth of the season to go along with 15 ...
