Cubs blow eight-run lead in loss to Padres to open series in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — The Cubs almost had the ideal beginning to a long West Coast road trip. But when the tide turned, it did so swiftly.

As the late innings spiraled for the bullpen Monday night, in a 9-8 loss to the Padres, the Cubs almost guaranteed that they’d have to use relievers on back-to-back days.

The team left its pitching plan flexible for Tuesday, only announcing after the game Monday that Ben Brown would start. Last turn in the rotation, the Cubs used left-hander Luke Little as an opener against the Rockies, before Brown threw four-plus innings and was charged with only one earned run.

“The unfortunate thing is we just haven’t gotten him stretched out yet,” manager Craig Counsell said before the game Tuesday. “Just because of the nature of [Justin Steele’s] injury and when we called [Brown] up, we missed that start that would have gotten him to that place. So we’ve got to be a little careful in terms of pitch count.”

Judging by pitcher usage, the Cubs likely wouldn’t have been able to deploy an opener Tuesday, regardless of how the first game of the series played out. A long rain delay Sunday at Wrigley Field, which forced the bullpen into early action, certainly didn’t help.

The Cubs’ 8-0 lead into the sixth inning Monday, however, looked like it was going to give the group a break. Then it all unraveled in the bottom half of the inning, and for the first time since 2002, the Cubs lost a game that they had once led by eight.

“We just couldn’t stop it anywhere, really,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s just one of those nights where they had some good at-bats, and we couldn’t make the next pitch and get the next out, and they made us pay for it.”

Starter Javier Assad was back out in the sixth with a comfortable lead, after limiting the Padres to two hits in the previous five innings.

“He did a heck of a job,” Counsell said, “and definitely, definitely worthy of a win.”

Assad walking Fernando Tatis Jr. and giving up a two-run home run to Jake Cronenworth to begin the sixth didn’t change that sentiment.

Reliever José Cuas took over for him as Manny Machado’s turn in the batting order came up. Machado hit a first-pitch sinker on the ground, but shortstop Dansby Swanson failed to come up with the backhanded play, and Machado reached on the error.

“I just didn’t make it,” Swanson said after the game. “One that you wish you had back, you wish you could obviously take away that opportunity. And it helped them gain a little bit more momentum. But next time I will.”

Up next, Jurickson Profar jumped on the first pitch he saw for a single into right field. Ha-Seong Kim followed suit, and his first-pitch base hit got past right fielder Mike Tauchman and was ruled a two-run triple.

Cuas got Luis Campusano to ground out for the first out of the inning. But then Jackson Merrill dropped a single into shallow center field, just out of reach of a sliding Cody Bellinger. Cuas had only thrown 13 pitches when left-hander Luke Little replaced him.

Little got out of the inning, but not before surrendering a two-run homer to Xander Bogaerts. In one inning, the Padres had cut the Cubs’ lead down to one run.

In the eighth inning, Tatis erased it with a two-run homer off closer Adbert Alzolay. The Cubs ended up using four different relievers, including two back-end relievers, in the loss.

“It’s important for us to bounce back,” Cuas said, “come back tomorrow, forget about this and move on.”