Excuses? No. But 3 quirks led to Cubs' loss

CINCINNATI -- There were a handful of small events that had a larger impact on Sunday's loss for the Cubs. A missed catch. An overturned call. A critical ball in play that could have been ruled dead.

Cubs veteran Jon Lester was not having any of it.

"Blaming it on little things that can go wrong is making excuses," Lester said after Chicago's 8-6 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park. "We just lost the game."

• Box score

A look through Lester's black-and-white lens will reveal this: The Cubs have lost five consecutive series on the road, with a 4-12 record in that stretch. The latest series defeat away from Wrigley Field wrapped up a 14-15 June for Chicago, marking the team's first losing month since May 2017. The loss in Cincinnati also dropped the Cubs into a first-place tie with the Brewers atop the very crowded National League Central.

The route that Chicago took to the loss column on Sunday, however, was a maddening one for the team.

"There were all kinds of little, really aggravating things that did go against us," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

Here were three such turning points:

1. Schwarber's missed catch

Two batters into the afternoon, Lester induced a flyout to left off the bat of Joey Votto. It was an important out, considering the Cubs starter had issued a leadoff walk to Nick Senzel to open the first inning.

Kyle Schwarber was in position to make the routine catch -- a description supported by the 99 percent catch probability, per Statcast -- but the ball struck his glove and fell to the grass. It was an important moment not in isolation, but for what happened next.

"He's got to catch that 10 out of 10 times," Maddon said. "He'll tell you that. That was unfortunate."

The Reds' next batter, Eugenio Suarez, then connected on a 3-2 fastball and sent it towering over center field. The baseball carried over the black batter's eye and landed at the base of a riverboat-shaped section of the ballpark. Statcast measured the three-run blast at 457 feet.

Lester then set down the next 14 batters he faced in order and worked into the sixth.

"I had plenty of other chances to pitch deeper in that game," said Lester, who logged 117 pitches. "One pitch doesn't define a start for me. The total of it, only getting into the sixth, I've got to figure out a way to go deeper in the game. We need innings."

2. Rizzo's flare to left

The Cubs' struggles with runners in scoring position have been well-documented, and the issues persisted again throughout Sunday's loss.

Chicago pushed six runs across on 11 hits, but a late three-run homer by Jason Heyward masked the club's 2-for-12 showing with RISP. One missed chance arrived in the third, when Anthony Rizzo stepped to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs.

"Then, the popup down the line," Maddon said.

Rizzo lofted a pitch from Reds starter Anthony DeSclafani up the left-field line and into foul territory, where it tailed toward the stands. A fan reached for the ball at the same time that left fielder Phillip Ervin was closing in fast on the wall. Initially, it was ruled a foul ball. After a replay review, the call was overturned and Rizzo was ruled out on fan interference.

The call came from Replay Headquarters in New York, but Rizzo continued to argue with crew chief Mark Wegner after the overturned call ended the inning. Catcher Willson Contreras and Schwarber got between them and guided the angered first baseman back to the dugout.

"In real time, the guy's going at a wall. He could make the catch, right?" Rizzo said. "Our left fielder just missed a routine fly ball, though, so could he have made the catch? Yes. Could he have not and ran into the wall first? No? Real time, he calls it no fan interference, but they went to replay and slow motion cam, you know. It gets overturned."

Maddon felt there were "too many ambiguities" to overturn the call.

"Too many conclusions jumped to, reached," he said. "Without a camera right on the line, I don't know how you can come to those conclusions."

3. Contreras' groundout

Following DeSclafani's exit, the Cubs' offense finally showed some signs of life.

In the seventh, Addison Russell doubled and came home on an RBI single by Albert Almora Jr. Schwarber then came through with an opposite-field, two-run homer off Michael Lorenzen to trim the Reds' lead to 4-3 at the time. Kris Bryant then doubled and moved up to third on a groundout to set the stage for Contreras.

Contreras then hit a 1-0 slider from Amir Garrett into the dirt, where the ball struck the ground underneath his raised left foot. The ball continued on a path to Suarez, who gloved the grounder and fired it from third to first for the frame's final, rally-ending out. Contreras, meanwhile, never left the batter's box, as he was insistent that the ball struck his foot.

"It hit my foot, but that's not reviewable," Contreras said. "You can't do anything about it."

Maddon agreed that there was no question that the ball struck the catcher's cleat.

"He was not faking it. It did hit him," Maddon said. "He said it. It was verified."

It was just one more dose of Murphy's Law for the Cubs on Sunday, bringing a sour end to a discouraging month.

"When things go in the wrong direction, you've just got to accept it, you know?" Contreras said. "This is a hard game. Things come and go. It will turn around. I know that we've been having tough games lately, but I'm pretty sure that's going to turn around."