The Cubs drop a close one in Washington, 2-0.

The Cubs against left handed starting pitching this year have been very hit or miss. I wasn’t surprised that talented young MacKenzie Gore shut the lineup down, particularly without Kyle Tucker in the lineup. It remains intuitive that the Cubs would perform worse against lefties since it greatly neutralizes Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch. Ian Happ has always been worse against lefties as well and one wouldn’t expect Tucker to have a .950ish OPS forever against them. Ascending star or no, he’s at .857 in his career, so this season has been a pretty substantial step forward.

More than anything, the Cubs struggle against good pitching. I told you in the preview yesterday to look past Gore’s 2-5 record and see the 3.16 ERA that was 2.63 in

See Full Page