The Rundown: Murphy’s Law Catches Up, Energy Runs Out

The Cubs may have made it past Daniel Murphy, but his bastard law appears to have stopped them dead in their tracks against the Dodgers. Everything that could go wrong for them did exactly that Tuesday night in a 6-1 loss that pushed them to the brink of elimination. It was a sluggish affair and one that offered little fun beyond Kyle Schwarber’s early homer.

With all due respect and credit to the Dodgers for being a better team, I’m not sure the Cubs could beat the Reds the way they’re playing. Of course, that would require that the Reds be playing in the NLCS, which they are not. Whether it was playing deep into October for the third consecutive time, the emotional toll of that win over the Nats, or just the cumulative effort of those things and more, the Cubs looked flat-out gassed.

They put forth a weak effort Tuesday night, but it never appeared as though they weren’t trying. Rather, they were running on the powdery sand of the beach while LA jogged on the firm surface nearer to the water. As such, nearly everything broke the Dodgers’ way and the Cubs didn’t seem to have the energy to do anything about it.

Consider that Chicago has held the lead by scoring first in all three games so far, each time on a home run. And each time the Dodgers have come back to tie the game within an inning. And each time, the Cubs’ home runs have represented their only offense. It’d be something to marvel at if it wasn’t so damn frustrating.

By the time the game had reached its bell lap, I was actually taking more pleasure in writing a eulogy than in watching the euthanasia on TBS. And I’m talking about an actual eulogy for an actual person, not just a postmortem for the Cubs. Ah, but I can’t find it in me to be truly upset about this season puttering out like the last inorganic farts of an untied balloon.

At the same time, I can’t find it in me to be excited about much of anything right now.

Cubs fatigue

Were I doing this for a living, I supposed I’d be more inclined to apply more words to the page. As it is, I’m sitting here waiting for a guy to come fix our icemaker and feeling just as fatigued as the Cubs looked last night. I’ve got neither desire nor inspiration for anything further at this point, so I’m going to do us all a favor and cut this one short.

Here’s to hoping the Cubs can salvage a W tonight, as I would like to get to Game 5. Then again, not being there might be better for my overall well-being.

Javy and Puig

Okay, I guess there was one more fun part in last night’s game. Javy Baez applied a tag to Yasiel Puig and then gave him the ol’ Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. You can’t see it from the GIF below, but Puig was smiling back, so it was all good.

Never a dull moment with Javy pic.twitter.com/tz5hyGAd1e

— Cubs Insider (@realcubsinsider) October 18, 2017

More news and notes

• The Yankees came back with a late rally against the Astros bullpen to take Game 4 and even the series.
• Other things happened across baseball, but nothing about which I feel strongly enough to note here.