The Cubs were embarrassed by the Reds on their home field on Friday night. That should be the nail in the coffin for manager David Ross.
Never mind the fact that the Chicago Cubs were shut out. Never mind that they allowed nine runs to the Cincinnati Reds who are 17th in scoring this year. Those were bad enough, but the fact that the Cubs were nearly no-hit in Friday afternoon’s series is just plain embarrasing.
It should mean the end of the road for manager David Ross.
Look, credit where credit is due to Hunter Greene and the Reds pitching staff, which held the Cubs to two hits all game. Greene had a no-hit bid going through six innings and was pulled solely due to his pitch count, which had cracked six figures.
That’s the only good thing you can say about the Cubs, is that they forced him to throw 5.5 pitches per batter, his season average coming into the game was 4.2.
But Greene, while a budding young pitcher, is not someone the Cubs should be nearly no-hit against in a game where they have Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, and Ian Happ.
David Ross’s time is up with the Cubs
Blaming a manager is sometimes an empty criticism, a cop-out to take when you can’t actually diagnose the issues on the team. With Ross, there’s probably legitimate reason for fans to take that route, though.
Fans have rightly called Ross out for batting Mike Tauchman too far down in the order (he was finally in clean-up against the Reds, which is a credit to Ross, but too little, too late) and politicizing that Christopher Morel wasn’t ready for the majors when he has proven he’s more than ready.
This is an uninspired team. Ross has been rightly questioned, a lot. While he did keep his strategy moving even in the late parts of the game on Friday, it just wasn’t enough.
What’s wild is that, according to recent rumors, Ross isn’t even on a seat that’s generating some warmth. With the way the team is playing, he should be on a very hot seat, asked to explain why he still is in tow. The “rebuilding” excuse has worked for the last few years, but the Cubs have an actually talented team now. They must now ask whether they have the right leader in place.
While Ross probably should be canned, he won’t be. Sorry, Cubs fans.