Column: In the Showdown in Motown finale, the Chicago Cubs lose 4-0 to the Detroit Tigers
DETROIT — Some good-natured bantering occurred over the weekend between Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer and Detroit Tigers president Scott Harris, who worked his way up the ladder after joining the Cubs as director of baseball operations in 2012 under Hoyer and former president Theo Epstein.
They helped the Cubs build a championship team together before Harris moved on to become the general manager of the San Francisco Giants and then president of the Tigers in September 2022.
Harris was informed Sunday that the winner of the rubber game between the Cubs and Tigers would be awarded the 'Theo Cup,' a trophy that only exists in the imagination of a few media members looking to replicate the Vedder Cup, a newly recognized award named for Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder that goes to the winner of the San Diego Padres-Seattle Mariners series.
'The decisive game of the Theo Cup?' Harris said when apprised of what was at stake. 'Jed and I have talked, yes, but nothing worth sharing.'
Cup or no cup, the Tigers wound up with a 4-0 win in the Showdown in Motown to take the interleague series.
There was no champagne celebration afterward, but at least fans were treated to an interesting series between two of baseball's best teams, and some impromptu fireworks Sunday when Nico Hoerner was ejected by plate umpire Derek Thomas in the fifth inning for arguing a called third strike, followed by manager Craig Counsell's ejection after backing Hoerner.
While the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry took center stage on the baseball calendar, Detroit was the place to be this weekend.
The Cubs move on to Philadelphia to complete their three-city road trip, facing another top team, albeit one that lost eight of nine heading into Sunday. The Phillies took two of three from the Cubs in late April at Wrigley Field. Matthew Boyd will start in the opener, followed by Colin Rea and Ben Brown.
Sunday's finale featured an intriguing matchup between Cubs rookie Cade Horton and Jack Flaherty, who returned to the Tigers after being dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline and winning a ring.
Flaherty threw six shutout innings, allowing two hits, while Horton suffered his first career loss in his sixth appearance.
Horton struggled in the first inning, putting the first two men on before giving up a two-out, two-run double to Spencer Torkelson. Flaherty didn't give up a hit until Pete Crow-Armstrong singled with two on and one out in the fourth, but Ian Happ was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Kerry Washington, and the Cubs failed to score when Michael Busch lined out to center with the bases loaded, ending the threat.
The Tigers padded the lead on Riley Greene's two-run single off Horton in the fifth, while the Cubs couldn't muster up any offense against Flaherty.
Expectations have grown considerably for the Cubs over the last several weeks, with the team off to its best start since 2016. The Cubs were considered a favorite for a division title all along, but few thought they could hang in the same area code as the megabucks Dodgers or New York Mets.
The offensive explosion and improvement of the bullpen now has many Cubs fans thinking bigger things, which brings more attention to the team.
'I don't know that anything has changed from that perspective,' Counsell said in a conversation before Sunday's game.
Expectations haven't changed despite having the league's best record?
'The expectations are just playing good baseball, doing our jobs the right way and continuing to do that on a daily basis,' he said. 'Those are the expectations.'
That may be true, but certainly Cubs fans' expectations have risen, right?
'I'm telling you what we worry about,' Counsell replied. 'We just worry about the stuff we control every day and I think those standards in itself are something that's difficult to achieve every day. But it's what we've been working at since the beginning.'
Counsell has downplayed the Tigers series because it's still June, and it may have meant more to Harris and Hoyer, two old friends with bragging rights at stake.
Even before Sunday, there was a lot for Hoyer and Harris to talk about, from Tarik Skubal's dominance in the Tigers' 3-1 win on Friday, to five Cubs home runs Saturday in their 6-1 victory. Harris denied there was any trash-texting between him and Hoyer after their team's respective wins, and said the competition is friendly.
'I would characterize it as we're both very competitive, and we both want to win today,' Harris said. 'But after today, I really pull for those guys. There are just a lot of really good people over there and I want them to be successful. I know they will be successful because they're really talented and they built a really, really good baseball team.
'We share observations about each other's teams, because a lot of times those conversations are really constructive, and it's useful for someone like me to see the Tigers through an outsider's lens. And he's an outsider, and I imagine that's useful for him to understand the perspective of an outsider watching his team. So we often share observations. I find them useful. I don't know if he finds them useful.'
Hoyer did not make the trip to Detroit, which Harris speculated was because Hoyer wanted to spend time with his family, not because he didn't buy into the importance of the Cubs-Tigers series.
'You're more bought into the Theo Cup than Jed is,' Harris said.
Guilty as charged.
Either way, the rematch of the Theo Cup would have to wait until October, and that's only if the two teams meet in the World Series.
That's a long way off, and obviously a lot has to happen for both teams just to get there.
But the way things have been going for the Cubs and Tigers the first two-plus months, it's no longer just a pipe dream.
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