Padres 9, Cubs 4: Back to the drawing board

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports This play sums up how this game feltOn paper, this looked like a game the Cubs could win. Adbert Alzolay had been very consistent over his last few starts, and the Cubs had hit Ryan Weathers pretty well in Wrigley Field last week.

And then... the game started. Alzolay didn’t have command, the Cubs made some valiant efforts to get back into the game, and then the Anthony Rizzo error depicted above put the ballgame out of reach. It ended up a 9-4 loss to the Padres.

Alzolay wound up leaving the game after three innings, which made sense since he had thrown 82 (!) pitches, but then there was this:

Alzolay said the blister on his right middle finger actually…