I believe that is the 20th game the bullpen has lost.
They get the blame for a poor offense often. I'm not sure if this updated with tonight's numbers but the bullpen is 7th best in the majors in ERA with a 3.06 ERA. They also have 8.36 k/9 3.69 bb/9. The cubs are 25th in the league in runs scored. That combined with Arrieta averaging 5.1 IP per start and Jackson averaging 5.2 IP per start leads to a lot of bullpen usage in high leverage situations.
As a comparison, we talk about Shark not getting run support with his 2.78 ERA and 8.35 k/9 2.69 bb/9. Statistically they are a slightly worse version of Shark over 212.0 IP compared to his 97 IP. Also, the cubs are 13th in bullpen innings per game and most of the teams high in that have a high blown save rate which supports the idea of high usage being detrimental which is also sort of common sense. Looking into it a bit deeper, Grimm in particular has been shelled in medium/high leverage situations but has an ERA under 1 in low leverage. Russell has been pretty crappy in med/high leverage as well. Strop and Rodon have been more average. Schlitter(excluding tonight), Wright, and Ramirez have been quite good. Veras and Villanueva have been ass in general.
The problem is that they are often ending up in close games where some of their better high leverage pitchers may not be available. And that in turn is really more an issue with the offense. We aren't seeing enough games where they have enough of a comfortable lead to throw out Grimm or Villanueva for 2-3 innings to save the other guys. Additionally, with Arrieta and Jackson averaging short starts that's another area that cuts into the bullpen. This is especially true when you consider how young a lot of the guys are. It's really not that surprising some have struggled in high leverage situations.
