![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ctc-z-Cubs-Phillies-Baseball_261587712.jpg?w=1600&resize=1600,900\")
<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2014 Over the course of a 162-game season, there are days when the starting pitcher needs to stay in and provide innings during a rough outing.<\/p>\n
It was Chicago Cubs right-hander Javier Assad\u2019s night to wear it Monday at Citizens Bank Park. The Philadelphia Phillies tagged Assad for nine runs and 11 hits in 4 1\/3 innings in a 13-7 loss that was more of a blowout than the final score indicated.<\/p>\n
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Assad sounded unsure afterward about what exactly went wrong, stating multiple times he needed to watch video of his outing to dissect whether the issues stemmed from sequencing, location or pitch shape. He believed he threw some good pitches that the Phillies managed to make contact against.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time you go out there, you try to battle, so today was a bad day,\u201d Assad said through an interpreter. \u201cIt was just a bad day. It\u2019s in the past, move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Craig Counsell had to keep the rest of the series in mind with a taxed bullpen. He needed to get more outs from Assad as the fifth inning started to get away from the typically reliable right-hander. Six of the first seven Phillies hitters reached base to open the inning; the lone out came on a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t think he got his sinker going and didn\u2019t execute with his fastball,\u201d Counsell said of Assad. \u201cThere were balls in the zone, but he needs to get them in good places. And he didn\u2019t get the fastball and the sinker to good places.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A still-manageable 4-2 deficit coming into the bottom of the fifth made the spiraling frame a tough blow to the Cubs, who were looking for a strong start to a challenging two-week stretch in their schedule. Right-hander Jacob Webb retired the two batters he faced to get out of the fifth, and with the Cubs trailing by seven runs, Counsell turned to left-hander Charlie Barnes to finish off the final three innings.<\/p>\n
Barnes\u2019 first big-league appearance since Oct. 3, 2021, with Minnesota didn\u2019t go smoothly, either. Barnes, 30, surrendered four runs (three earned) on four hits, three walks and one hit batter.<\/p>\n
Kyle Schwarber took Assad deep twice in the first and third innings to help the Phillies go up 4-0. Dansby Swanson\u2019s two-run home run off Phillies left-hander Cristopher S\u00e1nchez to the opposite field cut into the lead. However, the Cubs couldn\u2019t take advantage of the baserunners and pressure they created against the Phillies\u2019 star pitcher (six hits and three walks allowed).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put some pressure on him, but the ball is just on the ground so much that he can get out of some trouble and he got out of trouble and gets two outs with one pitch multiple times tonight,\u201d Counsell said of S\u00e1nchez. \u201cSo he\u2019s tough, and I thought we did a pretty decent job with him. You\u2019re only going to get so many chances against a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs (7-9) finished 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base. They produced a five-run eighth inning, aided by multiple Phillies errors, but even that didn\u2019t put much of a dent in the hole the Cubs put themselves in.<\/p>\n
The Cubs aren\u2019t worried about how the offensive group hasn\u2019t fully clicked yet. Not even through the first month of the season, there remains plenty of confidence in the clubhouse that this is a talented team that will get in rhythm. At some point, though, they need more from their star players. The Cubs know that. Their offensive struggles become more exposed on nights like Monday when the Cubs can\u2019t get a quality outing from their starting pitcher while the lineup faces one of the best starters in the game.<\/p>\n
The rest of this series won\u2019t get any easier as the Phillies send right-hander Aaron Nola and left-hander J\u00e9sus Luzardo to the mound in the next two games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you look at just however many games in we are this year, when some of the circumstances and variables are kind of out of our hands in terms of weather and temperatures and winds and stuff like that, when they\u2019re a little bit more favorable, we\u2019ve done great as an offense,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve put pressure on teams, whether that\u2019s via the walk or consistently hitting the ball hard, passing the baton to one another, even tonight being able to work (S\u00e1nchez\u2019s) pitch count up and force them to use a couple extra bullpen arms, you can look at as a win.<\/p>\n
![\"Javier](\"https:\/\/img.mlbstatic.com\/mlb-images\/image\/upload\/t_2x1\/t_w1536\/v1776128825\/mlb\/yp2uwh1aoohmtr832r7e.jpg\")
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\u201cWe haven\u2019t obviously been able to consistently come up with a big hit, but guys are going up there with the right mentality and putting good swings on balls. It\u2019s just a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Over the course of a 162-game season, there are days when the starting pitcher needs to stay in and provide innings during a rough outing…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":176473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n