Who are our good multiple-inning relievers? Hunter, Seranthony, Robertson, Nicasio? Arano? Morgan? Suarez has shown some potential but nothing where you could actually say he's better than playing match-ups, especially when you have a 36-man roster. Pivetta, who pitched his way back to AAA two weeks ago? Eflin and Velasquez were also among the "long" options and they're starting again.
And really, we're still clinging to the "never use your closer in a tie game on the road" rule? Seems like a lot of the second-guessing about Kapler specifically is because he doesn't do the traditional bullpen stuff that our old managers got second-guessed for too.
It just seems to me that the argument that Kapler should stick with pitcher X for three outs or extend pitcher Y over two innings isn't actually based on anything, other than a wish that relievers (all of them, but especially these guys) are better than they actually are and should just be able to get guys out regardless of match-ups and situation. Anyway, these are not the reasons we lost the game. We might have lost it sooner, even.
Cubs about to go up 4. One thing about them is they aren't even playing for the wild card spot. They are chasing the Cards, and have a better chance of catching them than we do of catching the wild card. They just seem like a sharper team - since they flopped so hard against us, that is.