CHICAGO -- If Clint Hurdle had a fuse, one had the sense by the end of Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Cubs that he'd be getting down to the frayed end of it. He is a manager with boundless patience for and confidence in his players but those, too, appeared to be running low.
Gerrit Cole blamed himself. Several teammates had a little blame for home-plate umpire Chris Segal. But Hurdle couldn't help looking at the day's base traffic.
The Cubs had eight men reach scoring position and half of them scored -- none on a hit.