Assad regroups after 1st, delivers season-high 7 innings

MIAMI -- Javier Assad had a tough first inning on Sunday afternoon, surrendering a pair of solo homers to Connor Norby and Jesús Sánchez. But the right-hander regrouped and was resilient as he threw a season-high seven innings in the Cubs' 7-2 series finale loss at loanDepot park.

Norby drove the first pitch of the game over the right-field wall for an opposite-field homer. The leadoff shot went 352 feet and could have rattled Assad, but the Cubs' righty knew he could not let it overtake his start.

“Stay focused and try to continue to give it my best,” Assad said of his mentality after the home run. “It was very early on the game. There's a lot of game left. Of course, you don't want the first pitch to go for a homer, but you just stay focused.”

Two batters later, Sánchez belted his second homer of the series. The 420-foot blast doubled the Marlins' lead and could have had Assad questioning if he had his best stuff. But, as manager Craig Counsell said prior to Sunday’s game, Assad’s ability to continue competing is one of his greatest assets, and it kicked in against the Marlins.

“He does have this great ability to make pitches, and it's impressive, and he doesn't let the moment frustrate him necessarily and that's important,” Counsell said. “When you're going on and things aren't going well, you feel things, right, and does that affect how you make the next pitch? And for Javi, he's kind of proven that he can still make the next pitch, and that's a great trait.”

Despite the challenging first frame, Assad battled his way through six more innings, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out three and walking one.

“They jumped on him in the first inning, took some good swings, but you get seven innings from your starter and three runs, that's a very good outing,” Counsell said.

Assad had not completed seven innings pitched since Sept. 2, 2023, when he tossed eight scoreless against the Reds.

“I felt like I attacked the zone really well,” Assad said. “Stayed ahead of the batters a lot. I know in the first inning, they had those two hits, but overall, I felt really good.”

“That's a good arm,” Norby said. “They've got a good bullpen. They have a good staff. He's a good one. He does what he wants to do up there. He locates well, mixes well.”

Christian Bethancourt, who began the season with the Marlins, delivered for his new club with an RBI single in the second that drove home Dansby Swanson to put the Cubs on the board. But Chicago could not get its offense going again until the ninth when Ian Happ smacked a two-out, RBI ground-rule double to left that closed the scoring.

“We had a bad day offensively. We didn't do much,” Counsell said. “Oller kind of just beat us a little bit with fastballs. He got it by us or just kind of got weak balls in the air. We didn't miss out on anything with hard hit balls today. They just kind of beat us with the fastball and just didn't have a good day with our offense at all.”

Despite the loss on Sunday, Counsell is happy with the Cubs’ recent stretch of success, which includes three consecutive series wins as the team heads to Pittsburgh for a three-game set vs. the Pirates beginning Monday.

“It's a good series, it's a road win series, but had a chance to make it a great series today, and couldn't finish it,” Counsell said. “A little reminiscent of the Toronto series, I think, where we could have finished it off and just couldn't do it. But winning series is a good thing, we need to keep doing that.”