DENVER — Marcus Stroman said it numerous times after the Cubs’ 6-5 loss to the Rockies on Friday night.
“Just gotta be better,” Stroman said. “Just not acceptable from my point of view, from my perspective. I was just kind of cruising through three and then kind of lost my way in the fourth mechanically and feel-wise. Just gotta be better.”
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It was obvious to the veteran righty that his four innings of five-run ball just weren’t good enough. Stroman tossed just 39 pitches in the first three innings of the game, allowing a double and a single, keeping Colorado off the board as his offense built a 3-0 lead. But the fourth inning was a disaster for the Cubs’ big offseason signing as he threw 41 pitches and gave up five runs, a three-run shot from the previously hitless Alan Trejo providing the finishing blow.
“In the fourth, my mechanics were all over the place,” Stroman said. “Nothing felt consistent. Just finding it a bit. It’s frustrating because I was cruising through those three. Then I couldn’t feel in sync or fluid in that fourth inning, it’s really frustrating. Back to the drawing board and get ready for my next start.”
The results were there for Stroman through those first three innings, but he never really seemed to be locating his pitches throughout the evening. For the most part, a pitcher who has relied on soft contact and groundballs to find success in his career was leaving far too many pitches up. It just so happened to be in the fourth when the Rockies made him pay.
The above is a heat map for Stroman’s sinker, a pitch he’s going to want to throw in the lower third of the zone or below. Clearly that wasn’t happening enough on Friday night. The slider — a pitch he traditionally throws second-most behind the sinker — worked at times, garnering two of the five whiffs he generated on the night (the other three came on his cutter), but was left over the plate probably a bit more than the Cubs would have liked.
Stroman gave up as many hits (two) as he recorded outs with the sinker. After garnering nine groundball outs in his first start of the season, Stroman recorded just two outs via groundball on Friday. Stroman isn’t going to miss a ton of bats even when he’s right, so pristine command and living down in the zone — or benefiting from late movement to generate awkward swings and weak contact — will be how he thrives.
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But on Friday, he just wasn’t able to do that. He mixed all his pitches, but couldn’t find one that was consistently effective. Colorado can have that effect on pitchers, but in general, the thin air seems to impact high-spin offerings more than what Stroman has in his arsenal. Still, Denver doesn’t have ideal pitching conditions for anyone, especially a command-oriented starter who appeared to be slightly off like Stroman did Friday.
With two outs and runners on second and third in the fourth, Stroman got ahead of Sam Hilliard 1-2. As he was about to deliver the fourth pitch of that at-bat, Hilliard was granted time and Stroman stopped himself mid-delivery, stumbling several feet backward off the mound. After gathering himself, he then threw two straight balls before giving up a two-run double to Hilliard to make it a one-run game. Stroman followed that up with a walk to Garrett Hampson before Trejo launched a hanging splitter 437 feet to give the Rockies a lead they’d never relinquish.
Manager David Ross wondered if that timeout threw off Stroman’s rhythm, but Stroman dismissed that, saying his mechanics were off in general that frame. It was a long inning, one that could have ended a lot sooner had Kris Bryant’s infield single to start the frame was turned into an out or if Stroman could have put away Hilliard after getting ahead in the count. But these are some of the bad outcomes that can occur with a contact-oriented staff and an infield defense that has made very few glaring mistakes so far, but generally doesn’t appear to be elite.
The Cubs offense has been strong seven games into the season. It’s not enough to draw grand conclusions, but they’re taking their walks (11.4 percent, fourth in baseball) and their 120 wRC+ is fifth in the game. They’re not chasing nearly as much as they had been in previous seasons, which is expected with the completely different roster that’s lacking in power, but generally strong with contact. The drawback there is that they lead baseball with a 52.9 percent groundball rate — no other team is currently over 49 percent) — and are tops in the game with 10 grounded-into double plays. Nico Hoerner had a critical one of those with two on and no outs in the seventh, a frame that ended with Willson Contreras taking three straight high strikes — one looking clearly above the zone — to end a bases-loaded threat.
In Thursday’s 5-2 win, the Cubs grounded into four double plays. It’s especially difficult to watch in Colorado, where even a seemingly simple fly ball — like the one Frank Schwindel hit that left the yard on Thursday — can find its way over the fence.
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The bullpen has been stout so far and even with Wade Miley starting the year on the injured list, the starters have been surprisingly solid. So to have all three losses this season come in games started by the duo expected to be the team’s rotation stalwarts, Stroman and Kyle Hendricks, isn’t ideal.
But there’s plenty of time for the Cubs’ big free-agent addition to get rolling. Stroman hoped that more reps over the next week would help him find his mechanics, but ultimately, he didn’t believe a shortened spring was to blame for this poor outing.
“I was just bad,” Stroman said. “I would never put it on that. I gotta be better in the fourth. It has nothing to do with anything, to be honest, I just gotta get better.”
(Photo: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)
