Late homer off Harris lifts Cubs over Nats (updated)

There was still some love in the air between the Cubs and their former teammates who now wear the curly W on their caps Tuesday night. After Kyle Schwarber enjoyed a tribute video before Monday night's game, it was Jon Lester's turn to have his moment after starting last night's game on the mound. He was treated with a tribute video on the big scoreboard at Wrigley Field and was given the famed W flag that flies after Cubs victories covered with signatures and notes from his former teammates.

But after the pleasantries were over, it was time to play ball again. Though it was in a different fashion, the result was the same on this night as the Cubs showed the Nationals a rude time in the friendly confines by handing the visitors a 6-3 loss in front of 11,142 fans rooting for the home team.

It was a back-and-forth affair during this rainy night at Wrigley Field. The Cubs twice grabbed leads in the middle frames and twice the Nats battled back to tie the game, and even had a few chances to take the lead themselves.

Never being able to grab a lead (something that has eluded them in both games to start his series) kept the Nats vulnerable to fall behind again, and as the game progressed, a feeling was settling in that one big blow could do the Nats in. And it did.

Manager Davey Martinez had been careful with his usage of Will Harris up until this past weekend after the right-hander spent the first part of the season on the injured list with right hand inflammation. Harris pitched on back-to-back days for the first time on Friday and Saturday in Arizona, and the skipper said he's ready to use the reliever again in his normal role.

That role came up tonight with the game tied 3-3 entering the bottom of the sixth. Harris entered in place of starter Patrick Corbin to face the Nos. 5-7 hitters in the Cubs lineup. But the outing was doomed from the start as he issued a leadoff walk on four pitches to Matt Duffy, then surrendered a go-ahead two-run homer to David Bote on an 88 mph cutter up and outside in the zone two batters later, not exactly where Harris wanted it.

"No, it was up," Harris said during a postgame Zoom session with reporters. "I was probably trying to induce a ground ball right there, so I was looking more for a down-and-away cutter in that situation. I don't think I had faced him before, so I was figuring that a down-and-away cutter there would be a safe place to keep him on the ground and try to roll a double play. I just didn't execute it at all."

And it wouldn't get better for Harris, as he let relief pitcher Keegan Thompson single on the first pitch of his at-bat for the first hit of his career. Harris only retired two of the six batters he faced, both via strikeout (although he wasn't helped by a throwing error from Trea Turner), when Martinez finally came out to take the ball from him.

"I talked to Yan (Gomes), it wasn't a horrible pitch," Martinez said of the homer to Bote. "But a four-pitch walk to Duffy to start the inning off, that was concerning. But after the home run, he settled down and threw the ball well. He could've got out of the inning, but Trea overthrew (Ryan Zimmerman) and he was already at 21 pitches, so I didn't want him to stay out there."

The Nationals were able to threaten again with two outs in the eighth, but they couldn't bounce back this time as they fell to 16-22 on the season while going 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and leaving 11 men on base.

"It was just one of those days again. Just not having that one big hit, driving in that one key run," said Martinez. "I mean, Starlin (Castro) comes up the first inning, even though he didn't hit ball hard, (Anthony) Rizzo makes a good play. If that ball falls in there, we get something going early. It just ain't happening right now. But we gotta keep our heads up, gotta stay positive and we gotta come back tomorrow. I'm seeing some good at-bats. Juan (Soto) had some good at-bats today again. Josh Bell, pinch-hit, had a good at-bat. Zim had good at-bats.

"But you know, with guys on base, I think we gotta be a little bit more aggressive. I really do. In the strike zone. Early in counts. I'm seeing a lot of two-strike hitting with men on base. The first two pitches are probably the best two pitches you're gonna hit. I want us to be a little bit more aggressive with guys on base and get the ball up where you can drive the ball."

The night started like a normal Corbin outing: a good combination of sliders and sinkers to pitch to contact and a lot of groundball outs. With his sinker sitting at 91 mph and topping out at 94 mph, Corbin was able to induce double play balls in the first and second innings to get around two singles.

In total, Corbin was able to get eight groundball outs, though he was still giving up contact to the Cubs hitters. That contact caught up to him in the third, even though some of it could be attributed to some back luck.

"I thought I felt pretty good" Corbin said after the game. "Fastball command felt good. Pitching down in the zone to some of these guys. It was just tough the two runs that they did score there early, got some ground balls on some pitches I wanted. It was a tough playing surface out there, it was really wet and slick, so today was probably not the best day to get a lot of ground balls. But they turned a couple of good double plays for me. They just found some holes that weren't hit directly to people. Just one of those games where some of those ground balls found some holes."

While making good pitches, Corbin gave up back-to-back infield singles - the first on a chopper by Bote that hit in foul territory then bounced fair and the second on a hard hit ball by Nico Hoerner that Turner couldn't make a play on - to lead off the inning. And then, after a sacrifice bunt by starting pitcher Zach Davies to move both runners into scoring position, Wilson Contreras hit a two-run single to right field for a 2-0 lead.

The Nats hitters were able to finally get to Davies with some small ball in the fifth inning. Yan Gomes was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, then Corbin was able to bunt him over to second base. After Victor Robles lined out, Turner, Juan Soto and Zimmerman came up with three straight singles to tie the game at 2-2.

But the Cubs were able to respond in the bottom of the frame. Out of the first four batters in the inning, three of them singled with Davies able to drop another sac bunt as the second hitter in the frame. The last of those singles was an RBI knock by Kris Bryant right to Turner, who again couldn't field it cleanly to make a play, for a 3-2 lead. But Corbin was able to limit the damage with two straight strikeouts to end the frame.

The Nats were able to knot the game at 3-3 in the sixth with a leadoff home run by Starlin Castro, who finally broke out of an 0-for-20 slump. The longball traveled 443 feet to straightway center field and gave the Nationals a chance to even take the lead. But Gomes, pinch-hitter Yadiel Hernandez and Robles couldn't drive in Josh Harrison, who singled and reached second base on a wild pitch.

"Feels good," Castro said of his slump-breaking homer. "I've been feeling good since we've been at home. I don't have the results that we want, but we gotta continue grinding, gotta continue with head up, keep working hard and everything's gonna be all right."

With two outs in the eighth, Bell singled and Robles was hit by a pitch to put the tying run on first base. But Turner grounded out to the pitcher to end the Nationals' last legitimate chance. In the bottom of the frame, Ian Happ homered off Wander Suero to seal the 6-3 Cubs victory and let a different W flag fly at Wrigley.

In a close game like this, one mistake can cost you the game. You need your best at their best when you need them.

Despite his manager's confidence, Harris still might not be at his best right now. He might not be ready for what would be normal use for him. Even with two days off after his back-to-back outings, the 36-year-old now sports a 6.75 ERA in just 5 1/3 innings.

"I just didn't have a lot of feel tonight for really anything," Harris said. "Just not the start you're looking for in a tied game in the latter part. In that instance right there, you can get the lineup to probably turn over. So it wasn't in the game plan. Like I said, I didn't execute very many pitches tonight to the caliber that I expect to."

With other more reliable arms in the bullpen, Martinez might have to practice more patience with Harris before he can be fully relied upon.

Even Harris also admits he's not fully out of the woods with what he dealt with at the beginning of the season and still thinks it's playing a factor in his inconsistent start.

"Probably a little bit of both. It's hard to decode what's what," said Harris. "I know tonight my stuff was probably the worst it's ever been in my career, and to have the outcome that I had wasn't a surprise for the way that I was pitching. Could've had good fortune; he could have popped it up. That's the game that we play, right? You can got out there, see stuff and still get the job done, which I expected to do. But that wasn't the case."