Baseball

Darkness Imprisoning Me – Cubs/Brewers Series Review: Cubs Get Absolutely Shellacked 4-14/1-2/7-15

By Summer Corson 885

The season really can’t be more kaput now. Anyone with half a brain knows exactly what the Cubs front office is thinking after the team put on this exhibition this week: three must-win games against the Brewers, and not one game was won. If the front office ships out everyone at the trade deadline, I will not bat an eye or be surprised, and I assume you won’t either.

To make matters worse, the team is significantly more injured where we stand today than where we started at the beginning of this series. When the Cubs media is writing articles about how much you miss Matt Duffy on your offense, something is wrong. Anthony Rizzo missed all three games in this series, and he’s currently second on the team in batting average and OPS and third on the team in slugging. Kris Bryant, first on the team in all of those categories, missed the last two games. Patrick Wisdom got rocked replacing them at first base, and did I mention our catching pipeline behind Willson Contreras is two guys on the 60-day IL and A Guy from Iowa?

There’s a lot more to be angry about here, so let’s break it down.

June 28, 2021
Cubs 4, Brewers 14
WP: Williams (5-1) LP: Tepera (0-2)
Box Score

I must admit, this was the kind of season-on-the-line fun I was hoping for this series — for the first seven innings, at least — with lots of back and forth between both teams in a close competition. Both starting pitchers left the game in a no decision, throwing 6 innings each. It wasn’t an immaculate night by Hendricks by any means, as he gave up seven hits and four runs and struck out only four people, but thanks to an absolute two-run BOMB by Patrick Wisdom, he was able to get off the hook for a loss of any kind.

The Cubs and Brewers both scored two runs in the 1st inning, respectively. After Joc Pederson walked, Ian Happ homered to score both of them. For the Brewers, a single, a double, a walk and another single tied the game, where it would stay until the bottom of the 3rd inning when a solo homer was hit against Hendricks. A single, a stolen base and another single allowed the Brewers to go up 4-2 in the 6th inning, but the aforementioned Wisdom home run tied it for the Cubs.

Pederson walked again directly after the home run, and Ian Happ singled after him. Unfortunately, Pederson was tagged out at third after a pretty miraculous play by the Brewers defense, and Javy Baez characteristically struck out swinging in a meaningful at-bat situation.

In the 8th inning, the Cubs were able to load the bases thanks to a double and a walk-a-palooza. Rafael Ortega, who has had a good record lately in the pinch-hitting position, was asked to RBI in someone, anyone, to put the Cubs ahead. In a full-count situation, however, he ended up grounding out on an easy routine play to first base.

The Brewers, meanwhile, wrapped everything up in the bottom of the 8th, after Ryan Tepera allowed two walks and a double to make it 5-4 Brewers. Then a sacrifice fly scored another Brewer to make it 6-4, and a double made it 7-4 Brewers. Tepera has been phenomenal for the Cubs all season, being one of the three Cubs relievers (beside Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel) who have nearly always locked down any games they threw if the Cubs were on top. He was put on the 10-day IL after this game, giving him some much-needed rest. Hopefully that will help him get back to the pitcher he’s been all season.

His replacement was Trevor Megill, who immediately intentionally walked Christian Yelich and allowed Willy Adames to hit a 3-run homer to blow the game wide open, 10-4. A walk, a single, a double and another home run later and your eyes were just glazing over. No surprise he was shipped back down to Iowa after this performance. No more Trevor Megill please.

June 30, 2021
Cubs 1, Brewers 2
WP: Woodruff (7-3) LP: Davies (5-5)
Box Score

At least this one wasn’t a total blowout. Brandon Woodruff is one of the better pitchers in the league, so I guess there’s nothing much to say offensively about his performance; both teams were outpitched generally by the starters.

Zach Davies gave up a run in the 1st inning, but other than that he kept things close between the teams; the offense just had a lot of trouble hitting the ball, as usual. The Cubs had only six hits, two coming from Joc Pederson. They also got walked seven times, and there were multiple RISP situations and one bases-loaded situation that they just couldn’t convert on. Ian Happ especially struck out swinging in that bases-loaded situation, ending the inning without being able to score a desperately needed run for the Cubs. What else is new with this team?

Baez struck out twice, but he also got a hit—a triple—and scored the Cubs’ only run. He also walked to load the bases, which is a true marvel for him in that situation. The team just seemed to sorely miss the bats of Bryant and Rizzo. The half-inning after the Cubs scored and tied it, the Brewers came back with a run of their own, a line drive that scored someone Davies had walked earlier. Despite nails bullpen appearances by Brad Wieck, Keegan Thompson, Dan Winkler and 31-year-old Adam Morgan, the Cubs couldn’t find enough runs to eke out a win.

June 30, 2021
Cubs 7, Brewers 5
WP: Richards (3-0) LP: Brothers (2-1)
Box Score

If you didn’t have enough of a reason to hate the Brewers, even after this week, then this game will make you hate them even more. Or maybe I should be directing my anger inward, toward the Cubs, who gave up a 7-0 1st-inning lead like it meant absolutely nothing to anyone.

We were watching a sorely needed burst of offense at first, after a myriad of singles, walks, fielder’s choices, steals, and wild pitches that saw the whole lineup go once through the order, with only Happ not reaching base. It feels like for any other team this would be an automatic win, but not here. Jake Arrieta, relic of a bygone era, put up a really difficult performance, surviving only 1.2 innings. He allowed a single and walked three guys in the 1st to make it 7-1 — no big deal yet because we have plenty of insurance runs, am I right? Horribly wrong. A single and a home run against Arrieta made it 7-3 in the 2nd inning. Then there was the walk, three singles, and fielding error that led (though not Arrieta’s fault) to Patrick Wisdom leaving the game at first base with an injury after colliding with a Brewers batter. Rossy yanked him after that one.

Wisdom was replaced at first by Taylor Gushue, playing in his first MLB game at 27. Gushue will also be playing the role of backup catcher now, as he fills in for Jose Lobaton, now on the 60-day IL, where he joins with the guy HE was filling in for, Austin Romine. Time to pray Contreras won’t get injured.

As for the entire lineup getting that burst of offense early? It lasted only that one inning, as the Cubs wouldn’t be able to score a single run for the rest of the game. Instead, the Brewers ran rampant on poor Rex Brothers and Tommy Nance. Brothers gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 4th after allowing a walk, a double and a single. He was then replaced by Nance, who was even worse, hitting two guys, walking another, and letting another one single. It was 10-7 Brewers before Willy Adames hit a grand slam to make it 14-7.

Adam Morgan was given another look tonight, because at this point everyone recognized the game and likely the season was now lost. He gave up a solo homer to give us the final score of 15-7. Then Eric Sogard got to pitch to end the game, as nothing pleases the masses more than when that happens. Just awful.

—

The Cubs are now 6 games back of the Brewers and don’t have a prayer of catching up at the rate these guys are playing and getting injured. So why not duke it out against the Reds for second place this weekend? The Reds are one and a half games back of us at exactly .500. More losses here would just be the icing on the Cubs cake — becoming loveable losers once again. See you then, as always. Go Cubs go!

Baseball

Where Do We Go From Here? – Cubs/Marlins Series Review: Cubs Get Gut-Punched 2-10, 1-11, 2-0

By Summer Corson 753

“I don’t think a winning weekend series against this team is a lot for me to ask for.”

Well, do I look like an idiot now.

For the first time since we got similarly gut-punched in the playoffs last season, the Marlins came back to give us more of what we didn’t ask for. It was an offensive onslaught by Miami that the Cubs just couldn’t match, again. Our starting pitching let us down and even the defense you can usually lean on was spotty. The bullpen was trying its best to get everyone through it, but with no help offensively and a 3-inning start by Jake Arrieta one of these games they weren’t getting a lot of help from any other aspect of the team.

Time to wrap up these horrific games and get on with it. Don’t blame me if this is a short wrap, there was only so much of this baseball I could stomach and I’m sure it was the same for you too.

June 18, 2021
Cubs 2, Marlins 10
WP: Curtiss (3-1) LP: Davies (4-4)
Box Score

You absolutely could’ve justified taking Zach Davies out of this game when the Marlins scored five runs in the 3rd inning, but Rossy was once again trying to keep from overworking the bullpen. Davies was fine leading up to the 3rd inning, and pitched two more scoreless innings in the 4th and 5th after that. It was the 6th inning where he gave up two singles, a walk, and a home run that scored three more runners. It was more than enough to get the Marlins out of the game with a win.

The Cubs’ offense all came within the first third of the game. Joc Pederson solo homered in the 1st and 3rd innings to get the only Cubs runs. Meanwhile, the only other players who hit at all were Baez and Rizzo. Dan Winkler gave up two more runs in the bullpen and by that time if you were still watching the game you were subjecting yourself to psychological torture.

June 19, 2021
Cubs 1, Marlins 11
WP: Lopez (3-4) LP: Arrieta (5-8)
Box Score

Good thing there’s more of this dreck where that came from. Once again I must preface this by saying Jake Arrieta is cemented in Cubs legacy for his first tenure here in which he helped us win a World Series. But this is his second start where he’s been able to throw only three innings before completely collapsing, and this time he didn’t have the food poisoning excuse to help him out.

The Marlins took control of this game early and quickly, as Arrieta allowed six runs in the first three innings of the game, including a pair of two-run homers and two RBIs. After this game got safely blown open, Rossy gave Cory Abbott another try as a relief pitcher. He did well in his first inning in relief, but allowing a walk to Jesus Aguilar to start off the 5th inning would be his downfall. One fly ball and one single later and he allowed yet another Marlins run. In the 6th inning he allowed a double and two walks to make the game 8-0 Marlins before allowing a flyout and strikeout to end the inning. (He has since been optioned again.) He was replaced by Rex Brothers, who allowed a run of his own, Tommy Nance, who allowed two runs, and Eric Sogard throwing in the 9th inning, which pleased nobody.

The Cubs had hits this game from Sogard, Heyward, and Rafael Ortega while pinch hitting. Nothing to write home about by any means.

June 20, 2021
Cubs 2, Marlins 0
WP: Mills (3-1) LP: Thompson (1-2)
Box Score

This game at least had some — literally any — positives that came from it. The Cubs needed to bring in some bench guys to pinch hit to get the team going offensively, but hey, whatever works, right?

Patrick Wisdom was the one who started it off, and he’s honestly been someone I’ve really been liking. He had a super-hot first few weeks when he first came up for us, but even today his single started a spring of hits that gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead to win the game. Jake Marisnick, also pinch hitting, singled, along with Pederson singling to score Wisdom. (Pederson has been the only Cub this series with anything remotely representing consistent offense.)

The other Cubs run that happened earlier in the game was able to be scored without any hits at all. Heyward was able to walk, and after two strikeouts Pederson was able to reach on a fielder’s choice/throwing error. It only took a passed ball to score Heyward.

This was the defense’s best game, obviously, with Alec Mills allowing no runs on six hits and the bullpen not letting anybody score. It was all accented by a few Javy Baez highlight reel defensive plays, which are always fun to see. Craig Kimbrel closed it out on another solid, two-strikeout performance. For the second series in a row, a losing series ended on a high note.

—

This team is a streaky rollercoaster, but despite the win to cap off the weekend I am by no means feeling like this team is in a good place at all. They need more help than some Ricketts-approved trade deadline moves can make in the playoffs (which the team was fully hoping they weren’t gonna have to make come July anyway). The offense is still showing really bad cold streaks that we have seen year and year again. They will try to add at the trade deadline, and all we can do as fans is just pray that the offense clicks again like they were just a few weeks ago.

Despite the bad series, baseball goes on, as does life. The Cubs have a pair of games against Cleveland tomorrow and Tuesday to focus on now. Cleveland is behind only the White Sox in their division, as our friends from across town continue to cling to the first-place spot. Cleveland just lost a series against the Pirates this weekend but swept a series against the Orioles before that. Despite the losing series, Cleveland has scored 25 runs in their last four games, whereas it’s taken ten games for the Cubs to rack up that many. So if the Cubs want to win either of these next two games, the offense had better turn it on quick. Go Cubs go!

Baseball

Is Anyone Really Surprised? Cubs/Mets Series Review: Cubs Lose Series 2-5/2-3/3-6/2-0

By Summer Corson 832

Seriously though, I assume you all saw this with your psychic vision: the Mets have acceptable starting pitching, whereas the Cubs do not. It’s a 3.12 vs. a 3.72 ERA. Jacob deGrom played against Robert Stock of Literally Who status. deGrom was hurt, for God’s sake, and only pitched three innings, but it was enough to beat out the Cubs for the day. deGrom was also the only Mets starter to pitch less than 6 innings, which is how you can save your bullpen from getting overworked.

Seeing a team with good starting pitching makes me hope we’ll get some by the trade deadline, and hopefully the Cubs will produce more offensively on a regular basis to make a playoff push. Let’s break this series down and move on, shall we?

June 14, 2021
Cubs 2, Mets 5
WP: Peterson (2-5) LP: Arrieta (5-7)
Box Score

If you had any hope after last series that the starting pitching would continue to pleasantly surprise you, it’s probably time to take a step back. Jake Arrieta, loved by this city thanks to his contributions to the team from 2013-2017, is not who he used to be. As the season wears on, Arrieta’s ability to get to 6 innings pitched seems to dwindle, as three of his four six-inning games came in April and the last one he threw was on May 14.

Though it was a pitching duel for the first three innings, Arrieta broke down in the 4th inning when he gave up three runs against the Mets, allowing three hits and two walks, one intentional. Dominic Smith hit a solo home run off of him in the 5th inning before he got pulled between innings. Tommy Nance took over and allowed his first run of the season in his 13th appearance, after throwing two walks and allowing a single to score a runner to make it 5-0 Mets.

On the other side of the coin, the Cubs offense was nothing to speak of. A small rally was drummed up in the 7th inning after Anthony Rizzo and Patrick Wisdom hit back-to-back solo homers, but the pitching had already dug the Cubs in a hole that couldn’t be dug out of. The winning streak always has to end sometime.

June 15, 2021
Cubs 2, Mets 3
WP: Walker (6-2) LP: Mills (2-1)
Box Score

The Cubs didn’t look very good for this game either, not even leading for half an inning before the Mets were able to tie it up and then eventually take the lead entirely. Alec Mills started this game, his first appearance since May 15, and allowed five hits and all three runs on his time out, only lasting for 4.1 innings. He did, however, strike out six batters, so it certainly seems like he’s doing something…sort of right? If he can limit throwing pitches that players can crush and try to focus more on soft contact, perhaps the defense behind him can help him out in the future. He hasn’t pitched in a month, so I want to be sympathetic, but we also need quality outings from our starters and stat.

The rest of our bullpen once again gave us nothing to worry about — unless, of course, you’d like to worry about all the innings they’re being asked to throw. However, Rex Brothers, Keegan Thompson and Dan Winkler allowed no runs in their 0.2, 2.0 and 1.0 innings, respectively. They walked four batters altogether, though, which could probably be limited as well.

The most horrifying news of the day, however, was when Kris Bryant got hit by a pitch in the 1st inning and was almost immediately taken out of the game, replaced by Wisdom. Ironically, it was one of Bryant’s rare starts at third base, his “usual” position, as he’s been asked to pick up the slack for other injured players over most of the past month or so. Luckily, his x-rays seemed to come out negative, but the possibility of him sitting a game was likely.

The Cubs’ two runs came from Wisdom trading in his routine dingers for a single in the 3rd inning. Javier Baez took matters into his own hands the very next at-bat, hitting a home run to score them both. However, a walk, double and single at the bottom of the 3rd inning allowed the Mets to tie it, and a sac fly in the 5th inning gave them the lead they’d never give back.

June 16, 2021
Cubs 3, Mets 6
WP: Reid-Foley (2-0) LP: Stock (0-1)
Box Score

As soon as the lineups came out you knew what was coming with this one. The Cubs decided to start a 31-year-old pitcher named Robert Stock in his Cubs debut after only 51 major league appearances. And they had him pitch against Jacob deGrom, one of the best starters in baseball. deGrom, granted, was just coming off a start he left due to injury, but it only really took his three innings pitched for the Mets to establish themselves as the dominant team.

Stock was pulled up apparently because he was throwing 4 innings consistently in the minor leagues and was also hitting upwards of 100 mph. He was only able to throw his fastest pitch at 99 mph on his fastball in today’s outing, but that still might be something interesting to mix in with the Cubs’ entirely soft tossing rotation? However, he gave up four hits and five runs in his, again, 4-inning outing, and walked 6 players for an 11.25 ERA this season.

Anthony Rizzo hit a solo homer in the 4th, but other than that the Cubs weren’t able to figure out the Mets’ pitching, often leaving runners stranded on base if not getting struck out three times in a row like in the 2nd, 3rd AND 8th innings.

The Mets finished up their scoring by the 5th inning, where a solo homer made it 6-1 Mets. The Cubs ended up scoring two runs in the 9th inning after Wisdom walked and Rafael Ortega homered to drive them both home, but it wasn’t enough to overcome New York.

June 17, 2021
Cubs 2, Mets 0
WP: Hendricks (9-4) LP: Stroman (6-5)
Box Score

For the seventh start in a row, Kyle Hendricks was able to throw at least 6 innings, helping the Cubs get tonight’s win. When the Cubs have good starting pitching, they can almost always outhit their other problems, if they even have any. Although the Cubs’ bats weren’t super good this game, they once again faced a hot starter having a career year who struck out eight batters, walked only one and allowed four hits over 7 innings. Javier Baez produced the only runs of the game at the top of the 1st inning: with Kris Bryant (who luckily returned) singling before him, he was able to hit a dinger to center field to score them both. It would end up being all the Cubs needed — the other two hits for the Cubs all game long came from Joc Pederson and Jason Heyward, respectively.

The Mets were, for once, confounded by tonight’s pitching staff, only getting two hits the entire game, both off of Hendricks. The bullpen pitchers kept the Cubs in it as per usual around here, with Andrew Chafin allowing no hits and throwing a pretty nifty strikeout. Tepera had a strikeout, too, and Craig Kimbrel was able to come in and save the game, despite getting to a three-ball count a few times. Hopefully the Cubs can use this win, however meager it may seem, to help propel them back into a winning streak and help get some offense back.

—

The Cubs are finally getting an easy matchup this weekend against the Miami Marlins, down in the dumps of the NL East with a meager 29-39 record. The Marlins have won two of their last three series, but the series they won were against similarly garbage teams like the Braves and the Rockies. If there was ever a time to get out of an offensive funk, it’s now. Now that I’ve said that, the opposite will likely happen, but I don’t think a winning weekend series against this team is a lot for me to ask for. See you on the other side of it. Go Cubs go!

Baseball

Falling Back to Planet Earth – Cubs/Giants Series Review: Cubs Lose Series 2-7/5-8/3-4/4-3

By Summer Corson 656

The good times can never last long for this Cubs team, and after watching this series against the Giants, who are as of today the best team in the MLB, one thing is for certain: we need a starting pitcher to make that jump up to be in the elite group of the best teams in the league. And if I recall correctly WE HAD ONE. So thanks, Ricketts family.

Another series starts tonight so let’s get this review of mostly terrible games over with.

June 3, 2021
Cubs 2, Giants 7
WP: DeSciafani (5-2) LP: Davies (2-3)
Box Score

The win streak can’t go on forever, and the Cubs reminded us of that. Our bats got stymied, only getting five hits all game. The two runs we garnered were in the 3rd inning to take the lead and it was on a 2-run homer by Joc Pederson.

Just an inning later in the 4th, the Giants tied it up, and the inning after that consisted of Zach Davies getting pulled after allowing two singles and a walk in a one out situation. The highlight of my boyfriend’s night was listening to me say “he’d have to hit a 3-run homer here to blow the game open and he won’t” while listening to the game on the radio and then five seconds later Brandon Crawford hitting a 3-run homer there to blow the game open.

The Cubs wouldn’t come back, and there were plenty of fielding errors and poor pitching for everyone involved that the game was over by the end of the 5th inning. Zach Davies still sucks, if you’re wondering, playing only 4.1 innings and allowing 8 hits and 4 runs. The bullpen was also uncharacteristically bad, allowing three runs and two walks. Brad Wieck pitched the 8th, however, and allowed no hits and had a strikeout.

June 4, 2021
Cubs 5, Giants 8
WP: Menez (1-0) LP: Arrieta (5-6)
Box Score

At first it seemed like things would be better this game, especially when you start things off with a two-run homer by Kris Bryant. However, Jake Arrieta did the equivalent of spitting up all over himself in the 2nd inning, allowing—count ‘em—6 total runs in those two innings. He ended his outing at the end of the 2nd inning after throwing 58 pitches. It was obvious Rossy really didn’t want to pull him early; multiple mound visits were made to try to slow things down, but it didn’t matter because he just kept getting hit off of. After a 2-out, full-count situation, the Giants put the nails in our metaphorical coffin with a three-run home run to make it 6-2 San Francisco. The Cubs would never get the lead back. It came out after the game that Arrieta had food poisoning before his start and that’s why he did so poorly. Again, if we had a solid starting pitcher, this wouldn’t have been as big a problem as it was.

Then it was Keegan Thompson’s time to shine. Things couldn’t get any worse, right? He allowed two hits and two runs in his two innings out. He walked two batters, but he also struck out five. During this time, the Cubs tried to make it close by scoring two runs in the top of the 4th, thanks to a walk by Patrick Wisdom who was batted in by a Joc Pederson home run. However, in the bottom of the inning, Thompson gave up back-to-back home runs and a walk before he was able to strike out three batters in a row to end the inning.

The Cubs were able to score one more run in the game in the 5th inning, after a Giants throwing error allowed Willson Contreras to advance to 3rd base and Javier Baez batted him in while grounding out himself. Winkler, Wieck, Nance and Maples all pitched one respective inning out of the bullpen, and they allowed two total hits between them, two walks, and three strikeouts.

Because the fun can never end, there was also an argument caught on camera between Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras in the dugout of this game. I feel like everyone has talked this story to death, so I’ll skip over it for the most part. I’d be pissed off too if I was losing big games like this in this capacity.

June 5, 2021
Cubs 3, Giants 4
WP: Gausman (7-0) LP: Stewart (1-1)
Box Score

Things continued to be more of the same for the Cubs again this series, as they were the ones to go ahead early in the game, this time through a home run by Patrick Wisdom, before pretty promptly coughing it up thanks to the starting pitching. This time it was Kohl Stewart starting because why not at this point? How much worse could he be than the rest of the rotation? He only went 3.2 innings while giving up 7 hits and 3 runs. After allowing a solo home run in the 3rd, he allowed a walk, two singles, a sacrifice bunt and another single in the 4th inning to let the Giants take the lead 3-2, which they once again would never surrender to the Cubs. He was replaced by Tommy Nance in that inning, who was able to get out of it without another Giants hit.

The rest of the bullpen did well, with Winkler allowing the only other run of the game; it was a double that scored a batter who walked earlier in the inning. The fun news out of the bullpen today was that we saw a NEW PITCHER CALLUP in Cory Abbott, who pitched two innings and didn’t look half bad. He only allowed one hit and one walk in his time up, and he even struck out a batter. Tepera closed things out, allowing no hits.

Obviously, the damage had already been done. The Cubs tried their best to rally in the 9th inning, where Rizzo was able to capitalize on a Giants fielding error to allow Bryant, who was able to stay on base after a challenge, to score. Baez had also singled, and with two outs Baez and Rizzo both stole bases to get into scoring position. But Jason Heyward, finally activated after his injury and playing today, unfortunately grounded out to end the game.

June 6, 2021
Cubs 4, Giants 3
WP: Hendricks (7-4) LP: Cueto (4-2)
Box Score

The Cubs at least were able to win one, coming from behind to win a close game, but it looked a bit dicey at first. Kyle Hendricks gave up a solo homer in the 1st inning, and then allowed a single, a walk, and another single to allow the Giants to go up 2-0.

Patrick Wisdom was the offensive hero tonight, as he launched yet another homer in the 2nd inning to put the Cubs within one. However, the bottom of the inning saw Hendricks give up two doubles to give the Giants a 3-1 lead. Ian Happ and catcher PJ Higgins were able to make a huge throw to home plate afterward, however, to get the tag at home and end the inning with minimal offensive damage.

Patrick Wisdom homered, again, in the 4th inning and scored Happ, who doubled earlier. But the 5th inning was when the Cubs really became the Cubs. Kyle Hendricks hit a double, which was truly astonishing, and then Rizzo singled and Baez reached first base on a fielder’s choice, scoring Hendricks to make it 4-3 Cubs.

Additionally, Hendricks lasted 6.1 innings on the mound, allowing 7 hits and 5 strikeouts. 6.1 innings out of a Cubs starter is rare these days, and the defense was obviously solid behind him. The bullpen was back to being nails, allowing only 2 hits in 2.2 innings. Kimbrel came in to get the save — with two strikeouts, of course.

—

The Cubs certainly didn’t look as sharp for this series as they had in series past, but hopefully today’s win will allow them to turn things around as they go back to face the Padres again this week, this time in San Diego. The Padres just split a series with the Mets but got walloped yesterday 6-2. They are also still sporting a 14-player injured list, making their lineup about as easy as it gets for the Cubs to play against.

It should be noted the Cubs are a bit injured too, as Joc Pederson got hurt again this series, Baez exited last night’s game with thumb soreness and may or may not be in the game, Marisnick and Hoerner are still out with hamstring injuries, David Bote’s still out, and Trevor Williams is still recovering from his appendectomy, although the rotation wouldn’t be much better if he was still on it. The Padres, however, don’t have SECRET WEAPON NL PLAYER OF THE WEEK Patrick Wisdom, so they should fear us. All jokes aside, we should absolutely be riding Wisdom as the hot hand until his numbers come back to earth along with the rest of this team. Go Cubs go!