Cubs, Peter Bourjos Agree To Minor League Deal

You’re not way off with your retort. It is all perspective. If my team lost a 3 games to 1 lead, my first reaction would be to say they choked. If my team came back from that deficit, my first reaction would be to say they fought back. But well over a year after the fact, I’d be able to give it a more nuanced look and see what really happened – because a 7-game series is never as simple as one team choking or the other team fighting back.

With the Cubs, they were down 3 games to 1, but they had their rotation set up to make that comeback. Lester, Arrieta, and Hendricks pitched those final three games. One was the reigning Cy Young winner, and the others finished in the top-3 for Cy Young vote that year. The Indians answered with Bauer, Tomlin, and Kluber. The Cubs had a significant advantage in games 5 and 6. Remember, Bauer had recently cut his hand open and proved to be pretty ineffective in Game 2. And while Tomlin dominated the Cubs in Game 3, most saw that as a fluke. He was, after all, a mid-4 ERA pitcher who dominated on the biggest state, in the biggest moment, against one of the league’s best offenses. Did anyone think he was going to do that twice in a row? And as for Kluber, he was making his sixth start of the postseason – his third start in eight days. Yes, he’d dominated throughout October, but is it fair to say he choked when fatigue was the more likely reason for his Game 7 failure? The bottom line for the World Series was this: the Cubs had a significantly better rotation than Cleveland, and they weren’t forced to overuse any of their starters to get to that moment.

The same could be said of Cleveland’s bullpen, specifically Andrew Miller who really struggled in Game 7. He was single-handedly making up for Cleveland’s rotation shortcomings throughout October, tossing 19.1 innings in October. To give you a little context on this, Miller tossed 74.1 innings over a 6-month season. Look, I get that October is unique from the regular season because of the scheduled off days, meaning that guys have more built-in rest days, but if Miller had pitched 19.1 innings every month of the season, he’d have tossed 116.0 innings. That’s insane for a relief pitcher regardless of off days. You can say he choked all you’d like, but again, the more likely reason for his Game 7 struggles was because he ran out of gas after being overused throughout the postseason.

Should we get more nuanced? Game 5 was a toss-up with the Cubs winning mainly on the efforts of one big inning and a dominant relief outing from a premier relief pitcher (Chapman.) That’s not choking. That’s just losing a game. Two nights later, the Cubs jumped all over Tomlin. It was 3-0 before the first commercial break. It was 7-0 before the Indians had batted through their order. I don’t see that as choking. I see it as the most likely outcome, a mediocre pitcher getting lit up by one of the best offenses in baseball. And then you had Game 7, a game where Kluber ran out of gas, Miller ran out of gas, and the Indians fell down early only to storm back by getting big hits off Lester and Chapman before falling in extra innings.

And here’s the thing – had the Cubs blown a 5-1 lead in Game 7, I wouldn’t say (a year later) that they choked it away. I’d say that Maddon over managed and cost his team. I’d say he burned out Chapman. I’d cite keeping him on the mound for the 9th inning of Game 6 with the Cubs leading 9-3. I’d point out that he did this two nights after using Chapman to retire the final 8 batters of Game 5. I’d bring up that after all of that, he was asking Chapman to retire the final 7 batter of Game 7. If someone told me the Cubs bullpen had been ineffective throughout the World Series, and that Chapman was the only reliever Maddon trusted in that situation, I’d remind that person that Kyle Hendricks was cruising into the 5th inning – and that despite not trusting his bullpen, Maddon pulled him after just 63 pitches in favor of Jon Lester who had just gone 6 innings three nights earlier. Essentially, Maddon intentionally put himself in a position to need Chapman for the final 7 batters. So would it have been a choke had they blown a 5-1 lead? Absolutely not. It would’ve been terrible game management by Maddon that cost the Cubs.

And see I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re thinking: This post is way too long. But that’s the thing. It needs to be long. Because in baseball, there’s a lot more that goes into who wins and who loses. It’s never as simple as choking and/or fighting back. That’s what makes baseball the best sport in the world.