CHICAGO — Cubs Manager Joe Maddon stood by his decision not to use All-Star closer Wade Davis in Chicago’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series and questioned the criticism coming his way.
Maddon insisted Monday that Davis was only available for one inning in a save situation. He dismissed the second guessing, a day after John Lackey gave up a three-run homer to Justin Turner in the ninth to send Los Angeles to a 4-1 win and a 2-0 series lead.
Game 3 is Tuesday at Wrigley Field, with Yu Darvish starting for the Dodgers and Kyle Hendricks pitching for the Cubs.
Maddon said Davis was still limited after a seven-out save in Chicago’s wild Game 5 victory over Washington in their NL Division Series.
“I don’t understand why that’s difficult to understand,” he said. “And furthermore, you have to also understand it wasn’t the last game of the year – or the second-to-the-last game of the year. It was about winning eight more games. All these things are factors. I really hope that you all understand that social media doesn’t count at all. Twitter doesn’t count at all. And really, as sports writers, you should be doing a better job than relying on Twitter to write a story, quite frankly.”
The Cubs are in a tough spot, trailing the team that led the majors with 104 wins. But they’ve come back before, rallying from 3-1 down in the World Series last fall to beat Cleveland. In the Division Series this year, they pulled out a 9-8 win at Washington after they failed to close out the Nationals at Wrigley Field.
The Dodgers know better than to start planning a championship celebration.
“I think up to this point we’ve done everything we can to put ourselves in a good position, but there is a long way to go,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “And this team, the Cubs are not going to quit fighting and competing.”
While the Dodgers have gotten big contributions from Turner and their bullpen, Chicago’s sluggers and relievers are struggling.
“There is nobody in that lineup that I can (go) easy on,” Darvish said through an interpreter. “So it’s going to be a battle.”
The Cubs are counting on Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to get going with the two a combined 1 for 14 in the series. It wouldn’t hurt, either, if Javier Baez picked it up at the plate. The co-MVP of last year’s NLCS is 0 for 19 in the playoffs.
As for Chicago’s relievers?
A strength during the season, the Cubs bullpen has a 7.03 ERA in the playoffs, and some of Maddon’s moves have backfired in a big way.
The decision to bring in Lackey for Brian Duensing on Sunday with a runner on second turned more than a few heads.
Pitching on consecutive days for the first time in his career, Lackey walked Chris Taylor on six pitches. Turner then ended the game when he drove a 1-0 fastball out to center, setting off a wild celebration and raising more questions about Maddon’s handling of the bullpen.
Lackey gave up an NL-high 36 home runs during the regular season. Davis had been throwing lightly in the bullpen, though Maddon said he was “probably testing his arm” – not getting ready to enter the game.
“He was not coming into that game until we grabbed the lead,” Maddon said. “He was not going to pitch more than three outs. That’s it.”
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