It’s not often a batter has to break down his at-bat on a sacrifice fly. But the way the Cubs are going, even little things are big.
Newcomer Mike Tauchman gave right-hander Marcus Stroman the only run he needed in a 1-0 victory Monday against the Rays when his fly to right field in the fourth inning against right-hander Taj Bradley scored Seiya Suzuki for the only run of the game.
Suzuki led off the inning with an infield hit and advanced to second when third baseman Taylor Walls threw wildly to first. Dansby Swanson battled Bradley through an eight-pitch at-bat and flied out to deep center to advance Suzuki to third.
‘‘It was an opportunity to get a run,’’ Tauchman said. ‘‘He’s been throwing pretty well. Good job by Seiya and a great at-bat by Dansby to get him to third with less than two outs.’’
The left-handed-hitting Tauchman had struck out against Bradley in the first.
‘‘In that situation, you try to not do too much,’’ Tauchman said. ‘‘Get something up in the zone. [He] got spin up in the zone, and I just tried to not do too much with it. Got enough of it to drive him in with a sacrifice fly.’’
Tauchman, who went 3-for-4 against the Reds on Sunday, went 0-for-2 on Monday and is hitting .308 (8-for-26) in 10 games.
‘‘It’s great,’’ said Tauchman, a Palatine native who played at Fremd. ‘‘I’m trying to help the team win games. I live here, so I’m comfortable. It’s been great.’’
Near-miss
Stroman was bidding to become the first Cubs pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Wrigley Field since Milt Pappas on Sept. 2 1972.
The only no-hitter at Wrigley in the 50-plus years since then was thrown by Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels in a 5-0 victory on July 25, 2015.
Go all the way
Stroman’s complete game was only his fourth in 210 major-league starts — a big reason why he raised both arms in exultation upon completing his one-hitter.
‘‘Just elation. Just happy, excited,’’ Stroman said. ‘‘That’s something I strive to do. I talk about it all the time: Take the ball and go seven, eight, nine innings. That’s what starters were expected to do. Anything short of seven innings was seen as a detriment to being a starter when I came up.
‘‘That does a huge job for the bullpen. That has a whole trickle-down effect that has a positive [effect] on a team.’’
Lineup changes
Manager David Ross loaded up his lineup with five left-handed hitters, plus switch-hitting Ian Happ, against Bradley, who came in with reverse splits in his five big-league starts. Righties were hitting .304 against him; lefties were hitting .180.
‘‘My guys would scream small-sample police; the sirens would go off,’’ Ross said. ‘‘Just getting some more power in there. We seem to thrive with the homer, and the guys that are slugging were not really coming through with the base-hit stuff.’’
As it turned out, the right-handed hitters went 3-for-7 against Bradley; the lefties went 0-for-12 with a walk.
Ross moved Swanson from second to fifth — ‘‘Just trying to get somebody in that 5-hole to come through with some clutch hits there’’ — and left Patrick Wisdom on the bench, even though he hit two home runs Sunday.
