Let’s Dispel 3 Myths About Cubs’ Opening Day Loss with Some Perspective

The Cubs are the worst team in baseball and will remain so for at least eight more days. However, they could also move into a tie for best team in MLB for a week with a win on Wednesday. See how easy it is to make a game or two seem really big? Aside from knowing the season has actually started, you can tell Chicago Cubs baseball is on the air when people start jumping off metaphorical ledges all over the interwebs.

With that in mind, I felt it might be helpful to address some of the more persistent myths or questions I’ve seen out there following Tuesday’s loss to the Dodgers in Tokyo. Even though I’m mostly just preaching to the choir here, perhaps this offers an opportunity to proselytize a nonbeliever or three.

Shōta Imanaga was pulled too early

Absent context, it would seem odd to pull a starting pitcher after just four scoreless, hitless innings. The perspective changes when you consider that Imanaga had only made three Cactus League starts and would normally have gotten at least two more prior to his first regular-season appearance. It’s also important to note the massive leap of going from exhibition contests to an Opening Day in Tokyo that felt more like a World Series game.

For those reasons, the Cubs were not about to push the lefty beyond the 75-pitch mark he established during his last start on March 10. He could have gone deeper into the game were it not for uncharacteristic control issues and a strike zone that was still in spring training mode, but finishing the 4th inning nicely at 69 pitches meant his evening was done.

“Getting to 70 was about the pitch number,” Counsell said after the game. “You saw both starters were at about 70 pitches. So that was kinda the number we had for Shota and as he finished that inning, it was the right time to take him out. He also, you have to understand the energy that you use in an environment like this, and I think we saw that.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was able to complete five frames, but that’s because he worked more efficiently and only got to 72 pitches. Had he struggled likewise with walks, he’d have gotten an earlier hook. Despite walking four batters, Imanaga threw 43 strikes and kept the Dodgers from collecting a hit by generating plenty of chases and whiffs on his splitter and four-seam.

“I had two missions for this game,” Imanaga told reporters. “One was to have a good game. Two was to win the game. I feel like the first mission, I accomplished. The second mission, I did not. So I think I want to take what I can from this game and bring it back to the U.S. and work on it.”

That’s really all you can ask for given the circumstances. I mean, yeah, a win would have been nice, but those are hard to come by when you only muster one run.

The Cubs aren’t trying very hard to win

This one gets a little boost from Ben Brown‘s performance in the 5th inning, which was hampered by an errant Jon Berti throw on a failed double-play attempt. Brown needed 32 pitches to retire the Dodgers in his first inning of work, at one point allowing five consecutive batters to reach base. The fourth of those was Teoscar Hernández, who grounded to Matt Shaw and ended up safe at first when Berti yeeted the turn throw into the stands.

Shohei Ohtani came around to score from second on the play and Hernández was granted second base when the ball went out of play, putting him in position to score on a subsequent Will Smith single. Even a perfect relay from Berti wouldn’t have gotten the out at first, but it would have prevented a run for at least one more batter. Does Brown attack Smith the same way if he’s got runners on the corners with two outs in a 1-1 game rather than a runner on second and a 1-2 score?

Maybe, but leaving him out there was hardly a sign of Counsell waving the white flag. If anything, it was a show of faith in the young man who looks to be in line for the fifth spot in the rotation. Sure enough, Brown needed only 33 pitches to collect five more outs as he racked up five strikes to a pair of walks over 2.2 innings. There’s a big difference between not trying to win and understanding the parameters governing the game.

There’s no reason for the Cubs, or any team for that matter, to push all-in to win the first game of the season when there are 161 more to play. Besides, it would be foolish to suggest that elite athletes who need competition like they need oxygen are not doing everything in their power to win.

Being swept has an outsized negative impact on the season

This is one that might seem a little silly, but there’s merit to the idea of having to marinate on an 0-2 start for a week while trudging through five more spring games before getting to another one that counts. That said, losing the first two games of the season is by no means a death knell. Especially when those losses are to the consensus World Series favorite.

The 2019 Nationals were in fourth place at 33-38 on June 16 before putting together the best record in MLB from that point on their way to a world title. In 2021, the Braves were two games under .500 and 4.5 back in the NL East when they acquired Joc Pederson from the Cubs. Twelve days later, they were three games under and six games back. They finished the season at 88-73 with a 6.5-game division lead and rode that momentum to their own championship.

Though it didn’t result in a World Series title — at least not that year — the Cubs fell to 11.5 games off the division lead when they were no-hit by Cole Hamels and the Phillies on July 25, 2015. They then rallied to the best record in baseball down the stretch, pushing to the NLCS before breaking through the following year. People forget that.

If being well under .500 in mid-June or facing a double-digit division deficit in late July doesn’t rule a team out, surely losing the first two games of the season to a juggernaut isn’t a bridge too far. Regardless of what happens Wednesday, all that matters is how well the Cubs play over the remaining 160 games of the schedule. Unless you’ve already determined that the season is over, in which case I can’t offer you any solace.

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