Chicago Cubs, Game 10: Cubs Win Home Opener
Baseball is back at Wrigley Field! The Chicago Cubs treated the home faithful to a great all-around performance in this game, as they won by a final score of 10–0.
This game had it all for the Cubs. Great offense from most of the lineup, strong pitching performances from everyone that came into the game, and solid defense that resulted in a rout.
Here is how it all went down:
The Offense
The Cubs were given a gift in the second inning when Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman committed a throwing error on Daniel Descalso’s two-out ground ball, and they made him and the Pirates pay for it dearly.
Following Descalso’s reach and advancement to second base (since the throw went out of play into the camera well), the Pirates decided to intentionally walk Jason Heyward to get to the pitcher’s spot in the order. Then the flood gates started to open as Jon Lester drew blood first with an RBI double into the left-center field gap. That was immediately followed by a 2-RBI single by Ben Zobrist, Kris Bryant reaching on a hit by pitch, an RBI single by Anthony Rizzo, and another RBI single by Javier Baez.
The second inning’s final run came on a play that featured two more errors by Newman; one on a fielding error that allowed Kyle Schwarber to reach base, and another on a second throwing error that allowed Rizzo to come around and score.
They kept the offense rolling by picking up a pair of runs in each of the next two innings. In the third inning they scored one run on a double play by Zobrist and another on an RBI double by Bryant, and their two fourth inning runs came on an opposite-field, two-run bomb by Schwarber.
That Schwar-bomb put the Cubs into double-digits for the fifth time already this season (and they have played just ten games). The team entered play with an average of 6.89 runs scored per game (which was the third best total in all of baseball), and with today’s output they raised that total to be 7.20 RPG. This is clearly one of the best offensive teams in the game right now, and if they had gotten some better pitching performances in the first few series they could be running this division instead of looking up at the leaders.
The Pitching
The were two big stories of this game for the pitching staff. The first one (which I will get into more below) was the fact that starting pitcher Jon Lester was pulled from the game in the top of the third inning with an injury. The second was that the Cubs’ pitchers recorded a shutout for the first time this season!
It really was too bad that Lester got hurt and had to leave the game, because everything was going his way early on. In the first two innings he allowed one hit, one walk, and struck out four while driving in more runs (1 RBI) than he allowed (0 R). He did allow a pair of hits in the top of the third inning when manager Joe Maddon noticed that something was not right with his starter. Of course, Lester tried to state his case and stay in the game, but Maddon chose to not take any chances and play it safe.
The bullpen was able to pick up the slack for Lester, as they combined to post a stat line of 4 H, 2 BB, 8 K, and the aforementioned big note that they did not allow a single run to score. When Lester came out I personally thought they might turn to Tyler Chatwood to eat a few innings, but with tomorrow’s off day Maddon felt comfortable stretching several guys out over multiple innings, and his plan came to full fruition. Brad Brach, Brandon Kintzler (who has not allowed a run all year), and Randy Rosario each provided two innings of relief work, and Pedro Strop finished it off in the ninth.
Despite their atrocious start overall, the Cubs bullpen has actually been very good over the last few days as they have not allowed a run in twelve straight innings. Hopefully they will be able to build on this recent success and become more reliable as the season goes on.
Injury Note
The cheers of Cubs fans quickly turned into murmurs of concern when manager Joe Maddon took Jon Lester out of the game in the top of the third inning with what is being reported as left hamstring tightness.
It looked like he may have aggravated his hamstring while running the bases in the bottom of the second inning. On his RBI double he slid into second base, but looked alright as he got back up. It was when he slid into home on Ben Zobrist’s single when something looked wrong, as he appeared to get up a little gingerly after sliding into the plate.
Hopefully this is something that will not require him to miss a start or be placed on the injured list, but hamstrings can get touchy and it doesn’t help that it is on the leg he uses to push off of the rubber. Stay tuned here and on our Twitter page for more updates as they become available.
Coming Up
The Cubs will have an off day on Tuesday, and then pick things back up with the Pirates on Wednesday. That game will feature a matchup between Yu Darvish (8.10 ERA, 2.70 WHIP in two starts) and Jordan Lyles (0.00 ERA, 1.20 WHIP in one start), and Thursday’s series finale will see Jose Quintana (10.29 ERA, 2.71 WHIP in two appearances) and Joe Musgrove (0.00 ERA, 0.44 WHIP in two appearances) toe the rubber.
