CHICAGO -- With a black ski mask leaving only his eyes exposed to the frigid conditions at Wrigley Field, Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong sprinted in pursuit of a fly ball off the bat of Jeimer Candelario in the sixth inning on Tuesday night. The catch soon became trickier than expected.
As Crow-Armstrong slid across the grass, the ball tailed away from him, eluding his outstretched glove and bouncing deeper into center field. It was the kind of opening both teams were searching for all night amid a tough playing environment, and one that contributed to the Cubs slipping to a 2-0 defeat to the Angels.
Crow-Armstrong said it had nothing to do with the elements -- he simply made the wrong last-second decision.
“I just [messed] up, because I slid instead of dove,” said the center fielder.
Crow-Armstrong -- a Gold Glove winner in center last year with the most five-star catches (0-25 percent catch probability) on record for a single season (19) -- being unable to complete the catch resulted in a double for Candelario. Per Statcast, the ball in play had a catch probability of 65 percent, so it was not necessarily a surefire out.
And the way Cubs manager Craig Counsell viewed things, the missed catch by Crow-Armstrong was not the biggest issue.
“I don’t have any problem with that at all,” Counsell said of Crow-Armstrong’s aggressive attempt to make the grab. “He’s just going to make a play.”
Counsell pointed to the previous plate appearance, when Cubs reliever Phil Maton worked Jorge Soler into an 0-2 count before falling behind and issuing a leadoff walk. That was the initial domino that opened the door for Candelario’s unlikely hit and the rally that followed.
“If I would pick it at that inning, it’s that we walked Soler to lead off the inning,” Counsell said. “Probably, the pitches that Phil would like to have back, I would say would be the pitches to Soler.”
The hit put runners on second and third for Maton, who nearly escaped the jam. The righty followed with a strikeout of Jo Adell and then induced a chopper back to the mound off the bat of Josh Lowe. Maton made a slick snag on the comebacker, held the runners and finished the throw to first for a key second out.
That brought up Logan O’Hoppe, who pulled a pitch from Maton with an exit velocity of 104.6 mph to Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman. Earlier in the night, Bregman made a highlight-reel catch of a 111.6 mph liner from Mike Trout. This time around, the third baseman was unable to corral the sharply hit ball from O’Hoppe, helping Los Angeles to two runs.
On an evening when the temperature dropped to 44 degrees at first pitch with a strong wind blowing in, that felt like an offensive outburst. It also spoiled an encouraging start from veteran Cubs righty Jameson Taillon, who was looking to turn the page on a tough spring, in which he gave up 26 earned runs in 13 1/3 Cactus League innings.
Taillon gave the Cubs 4 2/3 scoreless innings, limiting the Angels to two hits and navigating around the potential harm of four walks.
“It felt good,” Taillon said. “It’s a weird thing. Spring Training, I was pretty atrocious -- really can’t get any worse. But I think in the back of my mind, I was always just telling myself, ‘Let’s get out of Arizona. Let’s get to Chicago, get to Wrigley, just get where it matters and we’re game-planning a little more.’ Glad to see I wasn’t crazy for thinking that the whole time.
“It felt good to just get back out there and start the year on a decent note. I know I can be a lot, lot better. But this was a good start.”
Facing Angels starter José Soriano, the Cubs were kept off the board over six innings. Chicago had four baserunners over the final three innings against the L.A. bullpen, but could never break through.
“We had four singles, four walks,” Counsell said. “Soriano, he’s pretty good. That’s obviously an electric fastball and the split-finger -- kind of a hard split-finger -- keeps the left-handers honest. He’s had two really good starts and pitched well.
“Challenging, for sure, but regardless, you’ve got to put more pressure on a pitcher in any situation and we just didn’t apply any pressure tonight.”