NEWSLETTER
I won’t hang this one entirely on the fickle BABIP gods, but you can’t argue that the Pirates got some dinks and dunks to fall, while the Cubs were rocking some balls that didn’t. Jason Hammel did give up a shot to Gregory Polanco, but, on the balance, he really wasn’t bad tonight.
Gonzalez Germen took over for Hammel, and looked pretty darn good in his two innings of work. I’m not saying it means anything just yet, but keep in mind: there’s a reason so many teams wanted him this offseason. Were he a surefire big league reliever, he wouldn’t have been bounced around. But if there wasn’t really interesting talent there, he wouldn’t have been gobbled up so many times, either.
So, yeah, all in all, the pitching was very good tonight. And, if you look at the peripherals from the game, the Cubs outplayed the Pirates. But sometimes you don’t win those games.
The Cubs missed plenty of scoring changes early in this one (and Addison Russell had his first big league hit). By the 7th inning, a full on snow/rain storm had broken out, looking something like this:
Oh the weather outside is weather. pic.twitter.com/wMfnPe6Zpp
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) April 23, 2015
But the Cubs battled, as they keep doing, and managed to plate two in the 8th. The tying run reached in the 9th in the form of Anthony Rizzo (then Travis Wood, pinch-running – who was going to play where after that, we’ll never know), but Bryant struck out to end the game. It’s ok. I still think he’s swell.
Also, this …
