Chicago Cubs at Tampa Bay Rays

· Major League Baseball

Chicago Cubs

33-36, 15-23 Away

Final
2 - 3

Tampa Bay Rays

33-36, 19-23 Home

Taj Bradley ties career high with 11 strikeouts as the Rays rally to beat the Cubs 3-2

Featuring a dominant splitter, Bradley (2-4) gave up only two unearned runs and three hits.

“That was amazing," he said. "I felt great. I was happy (manager Kevin Cash) let me run out there for the seventh.”

The seven innings matched Bradley's most in the majors. He threw 104 pitches, nine more than his previous career high.

After starter Justin Steele pitched six scoreless innings for the Cubs, the Rays scored three times in the seventh off Mark Leiter Jr. (2-4). Pinch-hitter Josh Lowe had an RBI single and pinch-hitter Ben Rortvedt drove in a run on a groundout before Yandy Díaz made it 3-2 with another RBI single.

“We just needed to take their starting pitcher out of there, and I think we'll be able to take advantage of that,” Díaz said through a translator.

Pete Fairbanks got his ninth save when shortstop Taylor Walls made a diving grab on Nico Hoerner's grounder up the middle to start a game-ending double play.

Tampa Bay took two of three in the series and is 8-14 over the last 22 games. The Cubs have lost 14 of 20.

Chicago has played the most one-run games in the majors, going 13-15.

“It's going to help us in the long run,” Steele said. “It’s a long season, and I feel like we’re really going to learn from this and we're going to come out better.”

Tampa Bay avoided falling five games under .500, which would have matched a season worst, with its 13th win in 18 one-run games.

Chicago used three consecutive bunts to take a 2-0 lead in the fifth.

Patrick Wisdom’s sacrifice moved runners to second and third. One run came home when catcher Alex Jackson was charged with an error for dropping a throw from third baseman Isaac Paredes on Pete Crow-Armstrong's bunt. Yan Gomes then picked up an RBI with a sacrifice bunt.

“We executed some bunts, for sure, to get some runs across, but in general they pitched tonight,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We had three singles and three walks, so that’s a tough way to put a bunch of runs on the board.”

The Cubs entered with four sacrifice bunts on the season. It was Gomes' fourth in 1,116 games.

Steele allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five. The lefty has a 3.22 ERA but is winless in eight starts since coming back from a strained left hamstring.

The 28-year-old Steele went 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA in 30 starts last season and made the NL All-Star team for the first time.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cubs: Relief pitcher Yency Almonte (right shoulder strain) will throw to hitters on Friday.

Rays: LF Randy Arozarena (right hamstring tightness) was back in the starting lineup after being limited to pinch-hitting duty the previous two games. He went 0 for 4.

Cubs: LHP Jordan Wicks (1-2, 4.44 ERA) will start Friday against St. Louis RHP Kyle Gibson (4-2, 3.76).

Rays: RHP Zack Littell (2-4, 3.63 ERA) faces Atlanta LHP Chris Sale (8-2, 3.01) on Friday night.

How can I watch Chicago Cubs vs. Tampa Bay Rays?

TV Channel: Cubs at Rays 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Rays: 42.6%

Cubs: 57.4%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Hoerner grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Busch out at second.
	9th Inning	Busch walked.
	9th Inning	Suzuki grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Fairbanks relieved Poché
	8th Inning	Caballero flied out to left.
	8th Inning	Siri flied out to center.

Statistics

CHC		TB
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
14	Ground Balls	13
11	Strikeouts	7
1	Runs Batted In	3
2	Sacrifice Hit	0
3	Hits	7
1	Stolen Bases	2
3	Walks	2
0	Catcher Interference	0
2	Runs	3
1	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
28	At Bats	32
0	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
7	Runners Left On Base	17
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
0	Doubles	0
5	Fly Balls	12
0	Caught Stealing	0
124	Pitches	137
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	2
0	Pinch Hits	1
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	1
3	Total Bases	7
33	Plate Appearances	34
0.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
0	Extra Base Hits	0
-0.2	Runs Created	2.1
.107	Batting Average	.219
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.500
.107	Slugging Percentage	.219
.143	Secondary Average	.125
.194	On Base Percentage	.265
.301	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.483
2.8	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	1.1
-0.2	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	2.3
10.0	Batter Rating	21.0
0.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
1.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.76	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	4.03
.000	Isolated Power	.000
0.27	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.29
.091	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.059
.036	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.094
3.0	Runs Produced	6.0
0.5	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.2	Patience Ratio	0.3
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.3
60.5	MLB Rating	72.0
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0